I am in my mid-40’s turning 45 this year. My wife will hit the big 4-0. They say 40’s is the new 30’s, but that’s only if you take care of yourself along the way.

I love my wife dearly for many reasons and one in particular is her overwhelmingly attention to health conscious eating. I’m a big guy by nature and I love my food, although I need to learn portion control as I can throw down a pizza pie alone!

As with every new year it brings with it a spirit of anew; a spirit of “starting over” or “changing of the guard” in respect to habits. With this new spirit my wife and I have been getting more and more interested in “clean eating” better known as whole foods and whole food ingredients.

That being said, we’ve been doing very good at planning out a week’s menu and shopping for those ingredients to accommodate several recipes. We tried the ‘Monday is fish,’ ‘Tuesday is Soup & Salad,’ etc. but that doesn’t work all the time. Instead we simply plan out a series of menus that have variety based on our schedule and mood. If we’re too busy or tired, there’s a 30-minute recipe. If we’re in a good mood and want a glass of wine, we have a more “gourmet” style recipe available.

We both work at the same company and we drive together as often as we can. On the way home last night, we were both in a sort of funk. I was simply mentally exhausted from a day of chasing problems and she was experiencing signs of an awful cold coming on. The planned menu was Tilapia and whole grain rice = Boring!

On the ride home we often listen to the local AM news station. On most nights at the top of the hour is a segment called “Food for Thought” which are a few minutes long that offer suggestions and tips in the kitchen. This time they were talking about how to spruce up boring pancakes. When I hear the word “pancake” my ears perk up and I was pleasantly pleased at what I learned.

Did you know you can mix ham & cheese in your pancake batter? If you add an egg or two also, you’ve got one well-rounded breakfast cake! There were several suggestions and I tried three: 1) The previously mentioned ham & cheese. 2) Cinnamon & apple chunks. 3) Sliced bananas that go on after the batter is poured. Dinner last night were these pancakes…I had two of each!

Portion control – Schmortion control…I found a new favorite!