sweet potato pancakes

You guys are going to get really sick of hearing me say this, but I woke up this morning, scrambled off of the treadmill in a delirious daze, and dove directly into my usual routine of business, completely forgetting how very special days like today are.

Being unemployed can have this effect on an individual; time loses all sense of human meaning, becoming simply a span of space to shoe-horn random freelance deadlines into. Fridays are my time to momentarily set aside the petty worries of adult life, to retreat childishly into the wonderful world of vegan make-believe. This refreshes and rejuvenates my drive to succeed and please others, making me more creatively able to slap together the perfect corporate sizzle reel for my clients in an efficient and timely fashion.

Our next topic of intrigue? Sweet potato pancakes, flour-free and sloppy as hell. A fine way to kick off superbowl weekend.

one cup of diced sweet potato, steamed in the microwave

one quarter of a cup of cooked black beans

two tablespoons of peanut butter powder

one teaspoon of cinnamon

one quarter of a teaspoon of nutmeg

one quarter of a teaspoon of allspice

one quarter of a teaspoon of ground cloves

three packets of splenda

two tablespoons of coconut oil

a pinch of salt

lemon rinds

This one was another idea that's been burning a hole in the back of my skull for a while now; orange flapjacks. My belly is ready.

Truthfully, I just wanted another excuse to whip out the blender-cup; I know how it vexes you so. Try to muffle any negative feelings you have about my set-up for the time being, at least until you see the final product with your own two eyes; it's important to know how shitty something is before you judge, otherwise the assessment is simply an assumption that may not be entire faithful to reality. Squeeze the lemon rinds until there is no life left in them; that subtle tang of citrus will jolt your tastebuds out of their sleepy morningtime reverie.

Check this batter out, it's like raw sweet potato pie filling. Try your best to keep your dirty little fingers out of the honey pot. Patience and temperance will serve you well here.

One very exciting development in my own journey that came out of this project was that I figured out how to flip pancakes just by tossing the pan; this was a skill that was learned out of necessity, as the hotcakes never really matured fully over the flame. An unexpected consequence of this healthier take on an all-American classic is the fact that there's not a god damn thing holding these puppies together aside from the peanut butter powder, making them a bit too mushy to deal with using the aid of a spatula. We live; we learn. It seems to be a reoccurring theme here.

I don't mind. It made the activity all the more exciting. Mama doesn't really do chia eggs anymore, not since the big man upstairs stopped sending me those large and in-charge Hollywood checks every week. I am not a starving artist, but I may be slightly deficient in omega-3 fatty acids.

Here are a couple of the more successful attempts, flopped over on top of one another into a small plate; after resting, they do solidify enough to not just dissolve into a flat pile of mush, which was really my only goal when I set out to make them in the first place.

Feel free to doll them up a bit; if you're going to go through all the trouble of making yourself a hot stack of spuds and beans in the morning, you may as well take things all the way. Here I've topped them with some frozen banana coins, a drizzle of tahini, and a sprinkle of toasted almond slices that were generously donated to this cause by my mother.

Of course, there are many ways to make this meal shine - chart your own course, don't just blindly follow the path I've beaten into the ground for you. The possibilities are limitless. Make this Friday morning your very own.