Wanna Shimmy with that Shake?

Well, its another installment of adventure of the month!  I'm going to have 2 this month and very excited about both.  My first one this month I had the opportunity to rope in two of my gal pals to come along with me.  We have been trying to sign up for tribal belly dance for over a year and just couldn't get our schedules to coordinate.  Finally the stars aligned and we were able to get our shimmy on this past Saturday at Florida Tribal Dance.  The studio is owned by Lacey Sanchez and we have been lucky enough to see her and her troupe perform and she is AMAZING!  She shares the studio space with a fantastic art/tattoo gallery and from the minute you walk in, they are warm, helpful, and inviting.

We signed the typical waiver/information sheet and made our way into the dance studio.  We were introduced to Laura our instructor.  We started with a warmup influenced by yoga poses and went into the basic principles of tribal belly dance.  I've taken Cabaret Egyptian classes, but the nuances of tribal are much more subtle.  More fluid, more serpentine, very very sexy when Laura did it.  When I tried to emulate it not so much.  Most important thing was to keep the proper form.  Well I failed at that miserably.  Weight on your heels?  Check! Back straight?  Check!  I'm thinking I got this!  Bended soft knees?  Hells to the no.  Bikram/Hot yoga drives in the point of LOCK YOUR KNEES at least 85 times per class...so to go from that to slight bend to the knee was too much for my little Saturday brain to handle.  Yes, I do indeed turn off my brain to "sleep" mode if you will on Saturdays so it was not on optimal performance.

The fundamental tribal basic class runs on a 6 week schedule, but is designed where new students can drop in at any time.  It was very detailed and very easy to follow the instructions, just getting the body to comply with the instruction for me was a bit harder.  However, it was FANTASTIC!  Lots of fun and definitely recommend giving it a try!

In the meantime, check out Lacey..and yes she makes it look easy.

Speculoos Cookie Butter Whole Wheat Pancakes

My very gracious foodie penpal Gretchen from Real Life Motherhood of 4 sent me what can be honestly described as Cookie Crack in a jar otherwise known as Speculoos Cookie Butter.  My husband dug into her parcel before I even got home and immediately told me that within this innocuous little jar was a magical being called T-R-O-U-B-L-E!  To say that its delicious is definitely not sufficient.  In an attempt to not sit down with just a spoon and eat the whole jar I decided I was going to need recipes for it so the next morning, I got up and made Speculoos Cookie Butter Pancakes.  I topped mine with whipped cream, but in retrospect should have used fresh strawberries and whipped cream.

• 1 cup all purpose whole wheat flour 
• 2 packets of stevia (or 2 tsp of sugar) 
• 1 1/2 tablespoons baking powder
• 1 large egg
• 1/3 cup Speculoos Cookie Butter 
• 1 1/4 cup milk (can use nonfat, almond, soy, etc) 
• No-Stick Cooking Spray

Directions

1. Stir together flour, stevia and baking powder in large bowl.
2. Beat egg with cookie butter in small bowl until blended. Stir in milk. Add all at once to the dry ingredients, beating until blended.
3. Heat skillet over medium-high heat. Spray with no-stick cooking spray. Pour 2 tablespoons batter for each pancake onto skillet. Cook until bubbles break the surface. Turn and brown the other side.
4. Serve with syrup, fresh fruit, powdered sugar, whipped cream, or more cookie butter.  

For "crepes" add in another 1/4 cup of milk and make sure your griddle or skillet is HOT!