A Sweet Start to the New Year

My favorite part about writing down new year's resolutions is looking back on your hopes and wishes from the past year. Sometimes I get lucky and they come true, sometimes they don't, and sometimes the wish is not something I even care about anymore. This past year a few great resolutions came true, like making new friends, doing well in all of my classes, getting a job that I enjoy, and discovering a new passion- baking! 2011 has been an incredibly eventful year. 

Some of my resolutions for this coming year include:
-Cut back time on my laptop (which is a difficult task for a college student these days...)
-Start to do yoga again
-Travel outside of the country
-Update this blog at least twice a week, hopefully more!
-Continue to make new friends and reach out to people
-Always continue to take risks and have adventures

I feel like my resolutions are always a little cheesy, but I'm okay with that. What I've come to learn is that you can never really imagine where you're going to be a year from now. I never guessed that I would have my own vegan baking blog- a year ago, I was still eating meat and cheese!

Anyway, enough holiday rambling. I'll bet you want to get on to the food. Despite being up until about 5am last night, I just had to start the year off right with a delicious breakfast. I still had some coconut milk eggnog leftover from Christmas and I decided to put it to good use and make some perfectly sweet and fluffy pancakes.

Fluffy Eggnog Pancakes (adapted from here)

makes about 16 medium pancakes

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp egg-replacer
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp sugar
3 tsp baking powder 
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tbsp earth balance, melted
1 1/4 cups vegan eggnog (I used So Delicious Coconut Milk Eggnog)
1 1/4 cups rice or almond milk

1. Preheat a griddle to 375º or a non-stick skillet over medium heat.
2. Combine all of the dry ingredients in a large bowl and mix well. Then add in the wet and stir until just combined- it's okay if there are still lumps. For maximum fluffiness, stir as little as possible.
3. Grease the skillet or griddle with a little earth balance and pour the batter out in heaping 1/4 cups. You may have to spread it out into a circle, then cook on each side for about a minute or until the bubbles at the surface begin to pop. 
4. Serve with a sprinkle of cinnamon and maple syrup.

Happy 2012 everyone!!
Here's my favorite pump-up song to celebrate a new beginning :)