Pancake Thursdays

I love pancakes. And I love to experiment in the kitchen. So a few weeks ago I fused the two together. The result was…

funky, weird, culinary curiosity, I’m glad I made it once but won’t make it again…

I signed up for a farm fresh food and vegetable home delivery service and they’ve been sending beets. In general, I like beets. In salads. But like I said, I like to experiment with food and I decided to make beet pancakes. The recipe is not mine, I found it at this link: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/10/health/beet-and-chia-pancakes.html?_r=0 so I don’t want to take credit for the recipe but I definitely want to take credit for making it and eating it. Interestingly enough, Sophie liked it. Well, when it was fresh. An hour later, it wasn’t great. I served it with my usual Stevia flavored Greek yogurt dressing.

Ingredients

– 2 medium beets
– 1 1/2 whole wheat pastry flour
– 1 cup all purpose flour
– 2 teaspoons baking powder
– 1 teaspoon baking soda
– 1 tablespoon sugar
– 2 eggs
– 1 teaspoon vanilla
– 1 1/2 cup buttermilk
– 3 tablespoon chia seed

Procedure

Cut away the green stems from the beets, scrub and place in the oven at 425 degrees Fahrenheit in a baking dish with about an inch water for about an hour. Once cooled down, puree half a cup worth.
Sift together the dry ingredients.In a separate bowl, mix wet ingredients and beets.
Mix all together.
Heat pancake pan, spray with a little bit of oil, and make pancakes the same way you usually do.

Enjoy 🙂

And let me know what you thought. No really. Make it and let me know.

Make Breakfast Fun

Breakfast is undoubtedly my favorite meal. It’s the easiest too with Sophie. And while she probably doesn’t appreciate all the fuss about my pancake fun yet, I love both the process and the outcome. So here’s just a quick recipe for fun blueberry pancakes.

 

2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup buttermilk
1/4 c soft coconut oil

Mix the wet ingredients

1/4 c coconut flour
3/4 c whole wheat pastry flour
1 tsp baking soda
1.5 tbsp packed brown sugar
pinch of salt

Mix dry ingredients with a fork, then add to wet ingredients, mix together

Add in 1.5 c blueberries

Have fun 😉

 

Ten Days of Healthy Swaps – Day 1

Who doesn’t love pancakes for breakfast? Sophie and I have pancakes at least once a week. It’s good for her, it’s good for me. Or is it? A lot depends on the topping. We recently have decided to try layering our pancakes with fruit and yogurt topping, instead of maple syrup. It tastes amazing, and here are some additional benefits:

Four tbsp of a typical maple syrup is 200 calories. You know what makes up those 200 calories? Pure sugar. 53g of pure sugar. (The multiplier is 4 in case of carbs).
Breakfast should be about empowering you. It should give you a boost in the morning. With so much sugar, the only thing you get is a quick boost followed by a crash soon after. You know what stays though? Fat does. Excess glucose (a simple carb, one form of sugar) is stored as body fat. And that’s something most of us are trying to minimize. So drop that maple syrup.

Instead, try plain Greek yogurt flavored with liquid stevia (any flavor, I like vanilla, and you need a surprisingly small amount).
Four tbsp of a typical Greek yogurt is 47 calories, over half (~25) of those calories comes from protein (10 from carbs, 9 from fat). Much better composition, isn’t it? Protein repairs and replaces bones & muscles and can help burn excess calories. Now we’re talking.(In case you’ve opted out of dairy products, coconut or almond milk yogurt are way better options than maple syrup as well. While these barely contain protein, if any, both are considered healthy fat and contain fiber.)

RECIPE

So now the recipe for that yumminess above (gluten free version below).

Ingredients
3/4c all purpose flour
1/2c coconut flour
1.5tbsp packed brown sugar
1tsp baking powder
dash of salt
1/4c natural almond butter (choose one that contains only almonds, no additives)
1 1/2c almond milk

Procedure
Mix dry ingredients with a fork. Mix almond butter and almond milk until smooth. Mix everything together. The trick for these pancakes is to make them smaller than regular ones. I usually use medium heat, drop about 1.5tbsp mixture into pan, cover the pan, after about a minute, I flip the pancakes, cover, about 2 minutes later I flip again, not covering this time, and I let them cook through.
Cooking time depends on your pan.

GLUTEN FREE VERSION:

Ingredients
1/2c gluten free flour
1/2c coconut flour
1.5tbsp packed brown sugar
1tsp baking powder
dash of salt
1/4c natural almond butter (choose one that contains only almonds, no additives)
1 1/2c almond milk

Procedure
Mix dry ingredients with a fork. Mix almond butter and almond milk until smooth. Mix everything together. The trick for these pancakes is to make them smaller than regular ones. I usually use medium heat, drop about 1.5tbsp mixture into pan, cover the pan, after about a minute, I flip the pancakes, cover, about 2 minutes later I flip again, not covering this time, and I let them cook through.
Cooking time depends on your pan.

Enjoy 🙂

Gluten Free Almond Butter Pancakes

I promised recipes, and here’s one. This is what we had for breakfast this and I gotta tell you, it was soooo good. Sophie ate more than usual as well. I’ve made something similar before with regular flour; but, I like the gluten free version so much better. I think it’s because of the texture – it goes a lot better with the almond butter.

Recipe:

– 1/2c gluten free flour (I used King Arthur)
– 1/2c coconut flour
– 1 1/2 tbsp packed brown sugar
– Dash of salt
– 1tsp baking powder
Mix all with a fork
– 1/4c smooth almond butter
– 1 1/2c almond milk
Mix until smooth
Mix all ingredients, prepare pancakes (I greased the pan with a bit of coconut oil).

Any fruit works, I like strawberries the best, but we only had pears, so that’s what I used. I topped each layer with coconut milk yogurt.

Enjoy