Cake for Breakfast

Today, I missed my workout. Now normally I am pretty uncompromising about my workout time – I feel guilty about it on a regular basis but a bigger part of me knows that it is a non-negotiable if I am to remain somewhat sane. I always used to watch those oxygen mask demonstrations on airplanes and think that they had it kinda backwards when they said that if you were travelling with a child or dependant, put your own mask on and then look after your littles. Now I get it, but I learned the hard way that I must look after myself first or I am no good to anyone.

Anyway, my younger kid has been sick for the whole week and unable to go to school. Not catastrophically ill, but just enough that it would be irresponsible of us to send her into an environment with a lot of other children and germs and stress. She’s eleven – old enough to be left to her own devices for a little while at a time, and I did leave her home alone so that I could go train on Tuesday and Wednesday…but today I just couldn’t do it again. She was bored and lonely and sick of being sick, so I stuffed down my antsy need-to-go-train feelings and hung out with my kid. And you know what? We had an awesome afternoon. We went for coffee and cookies, took the dog out for a walk, and made dinner together: totally worth sacrificing training time.

…except that dammit, I still have this niggling sense that the day was missing something important.

I think I’d be more okay with missing one workout if I had the rest of life together but lately I kinda don’t. My nutrition has been kind of off as of late (not terrible but undisciplined), I’ve lost some sleep (looking after the sick kid), I’m not recovering well from training, and I just feel…well, a little worn out. But hey, that’s life, right? It won’t last forever and I’m not adding guilt into that mix because it wouldn’t help anything.

You know what would help? CAKE.

Specifically, cake that will get the ball rolling in the right direction again. But where to find such a cake? Fortunately, my friend Terri sent me an Epicure recipe for a breakfast bowl cake earlier this week, which we all tried and enjoyed…and then, since I cannot leave well enough alone and it is one of my missions in life to make sure everyone around me gets more protein and more vegetables, I started tinkering with it. So, without further ado, here is the recipe I’ve come up with!

CHOCOLATE ZUCCHINI BREAKFAST CAKE

*note: yes, I’ve used a lot of Epicure products in here because I love them and I truly believe their products are a cut above what you’d find elsewhere. Do you have to use them? Nope, you totally could make this with grocery store products too, but if you’d like to give the Epicure ones a shot, fire me a message and I’ll send you Terri’s way – she’ll hook you up.

½ banana, mashed

1 egg

2tbsp. Milk

Mix these together in a microwave-safe bowl. Then, add the following:

½ scoop Epicure protein powder (you could use Vega as well but stick with a vegan protein powder; they tend to respond better to cooking)

¼ cup quick-cooking oats

1tbsp. cocoa

½ tsp baking powder

Stir until combined but act fast; once baking powder is in there the clock’s ticking and if you wait too long you will end up with a hockey puck instead of a yummy cake. Then, throw in

½ cup grated zucchini

1 tbsp chocolate chips (optional)

1 tbsp chopped walnuts (optional)

Microwave on high for 2-3 min, then remove from the microwave (careful, it’s hot) and flip your cake out onto a plate. While it’s cooling, mix

½ cup plain Greek yogurt

1 tbsp Epicure Red Velvet dip mix (I don’t know what you’d sub in for this – but seriously try the Epicure stuff especially since what makes it red is beets, not food coloring)

When the cake is relatively cool, cut it in half crosswise and spread your greek yogurt icing in the middle, then put the cake back together and frost it with the rest of the yogurt mix. Enjoy!