Oh, dear sweet oatmeal chocolate chip pancake...come to MAMA!

Today will not go down in history as one of those days you could consider more fun than a barrel of monkeys.

Nothing monumentally bad happened. In fact, by most standards, it really wasn't a bad day at all.

But, I'm on call this week again, and as luck would have it, my sleeping butt got woken up at 2 a.m. with the buzzing of my pager, beckoning me to come to work. I had so much fun. It was a blast. Not really.

Anyway, I got home at 4:30 a.m. and finally fell asleep. About 15 minutes before the alarm went off, beckoning me BACK to work for my regular shift. Do I really need to explain that I was Miss Pissy Pants all day long, or did you just assume that before I even explained it? Because I WAS a stick in the mud all day. It was one of those one friggin' thing after another days.

And, believe me - I'm thankful to have a job, so I'll take some bad days here and there. But, let's just say my coping mechanisms were malfunctioning.

I ate almost a whole Dove chocolate bar (which, by the way, I do not regret - I fully believe it helped me from going completely mad at times) and I got a mini pizza for lunch, which I haven't done in WEEKS. Didn't feel so hot about those choices, but it was all about the comfort food.

So, I came home and changed into my comfy clothes and got to relax a bit. And even though the plan was to eat some chicken that I cooked up in the crock pot yesterday, it just wasn't going to do the trick for me.

It was definitely a breakfast for dinner kind of night.

Quickly, I cracked open the pages of my Hungry Girl cookbook and got out a mixing bowl and the ingredients for my current Hungry Girl obsession - "Oat-Rageous Chocolate Chip Pancake Minis."

Now, the recipe makes 5 mini pancakes, but I get all crazy with my bad self and just make one huge honkin' pancake. And it is so. GOOD. I'm telling you!

It was total comfort food, and just 3 of my daily 18 Weight Watchers food points. I could indulge and not feel one bit guilty.

I'm sure I'm breaking some sort of law by sharing this with you, but I'm feeling fiesty, so I'm going to tell you how to cook up some of these bad boys for yourself...

Oat-Rageous Chocolate Chip Pancake Minis

Ingredients

3 Tbsp. regular oats (not instant)
3 Tbsp. fat-free liquid egg substitute
2 Tbsp. whole-wheat flour
1 Tbsp. light vanilla soymilk
1/2 Tbsp. mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp. vanilla extract
1 no-calorie sweetener packet
(I also like to add some cinnamon)
Dash salt

Directions

Place all ingredients in a small bowl, except for chocolate chips. Add 1 Tbsp water and stir until thoroughly mixed. Fold in chocolate chips.

Bring a large pan sprayed with nonstick spray to medium heat. Pour batter in the pan to form 5 mini pancakes (or one ginormous pancake, like I do). Once pancake(s) begin to look solid, after about 1 minute, gently (or ferociously) flip.

Cook for an additional minute, or until both sides are lightly browned and insides are cooked through.

My favorite toppings? I Can't Believe It's Not Butter Spray, sugar-free (or sugar-filled) syrup, and/or fat-free Reddi Whip.

Makes 1 serving

Source: Hungry Girl 200 Under 200 recipe book, page 30 - with a few of my own words and variations thrown in here and there.