Thursday, July 14, 2011

Yay Pancakes ! ! !

         So I am perhaps a little simple minded when it comes to some things and it doesn't take much at all to get me REALLY excited. Yesterday evening pancakes got me so excited I was practically bouncing up and down in the kitchen. I have never, ever made pancakes successfully before. I have most certainly never made them from scratch with just a recipe. Any time I've ever attempted to make a pancake it is always with good old bisquick mix where ya just add milk or water or whatever (see I don't even know what you are supposed to add to it now lol!) and shake it up and pour. It usually ends in disaster. Smoke, sometimes a little fire, batter forever stuck to the pan, and a burnt substance that vaguely resembles a pancake in shape. Yeah, I am THAT cook lol.

        So anyway I was clipping coupons a week or so ago and had several for pancake mix and it got me thinking about breakfast for dinner. I have friends who eat such a meal once a week or so and it recently came up on a green parenting forum as a great money saving type meal idea as well. I've never been a real "Brinner" fan but hey I am a real fan of cheap (healthy) meals and a "brinner" meal is an excellent use for the gazillion eggs that the chicken project is producing. So saving money and using what we have on hand, always a WIN. Plus it's really easy to make breakfast vegetarian so I was super excited just thinking about it lol. Unfortunately this week isn't payday and so the pancake mix coupons have to sit in the folder un-used. No breakfast for dinner for us. Unless....... HEY! I can make pancake batter all on my own right? Now wait a second, stop laughing!!! >:( I could do it.  Probably.... Right???
I started searching the Internet for a wheat flour pancake recipe since wheat was all I had on hand.  I found a very simple batter recipe that didn't also require all purpose flour and that I had all the ingredients for right here in the pantry. I gathered everything together and dumped it all into my blender (which was what the recipe said to do). I am proud to report that I remembered to put the top on the blender before I turned it on and successfully whipped up what appeared to be a usable pancake batter. Not that I really know what pancake batter is supposed to look like but whatever. lol. I heated up a pan, sprayed it with Pam and viola I was ready to rock. After taking a deep calming breath I poured the batter into my skillet straight from the blender and then stood back sure it would explode or burst into flame or open a portal to hell or something. Nothing happened. Well nothing other than a little bubbling and some cooking. OMG, is this pancake going to actually turn into a pancake???!!!! Holy cow! Seeing that my pancake was cooking and obviously not about to burn the house down sent me scrambling around the kitchen to try and find a spatula to flip said pancake with. I guess I never expected it to be a success so I sort of forgot I would need a way to flip it lol. Spatula in hand I prepared to flip, certain that THIS would be the point of doom. Nope, flipped perfectly and began to cook on the other side. What???? Have we entered the twilight zone of something? :p Another minute or two passes and I am able to call the pancake finished and YAY!!!! I DID IT!!!! WHOOOO! I did a little happy dance around the kitchen with the hungry toddler watching and laughing. Thank God the husband was in the shower and couldn't see me, he doesn't get as excited as I do over little triumphs like pancakes lol.

I was able to cook up a whole batch of pancakes with little to no smoke filling the kitchen. I did make the pan to hot at one point and then sprayed it with more non stick...... yeah don't do that. Haha. It instantly turns black and starts to smoke. (we gave that pancake to the dog). I sampled my work and it tasted OK. Maybe not the most awesome life altering pancake I have ever had but I have never had a whole wheat pancake either so I didn't have much to compare it to. It wasn't toxic so I let Nicholas have at it and he tore it up!!! He LOVED them. I served with banana, eggs, and a glass of milk and he was in toddler heaven! My husband sampled a bit and he wouldn't eat them, I don't guess he's ever had a wheat pancake either but whatever - what does he know :P Maybe he'll get used to them, or maybe I will break down and buy different flour. I am almost out anyway and probably need more.  Anyway pancake success, toddler meal success, happy dance success! All in all a great evening AND now I know that I CAN make a pancake (and my toddler will love it if I do) I think I am going to be trying this more often :) The picky husband is just going to have to get over it b/c we WILL be having a vegetarian breakfast for dinner several times a month!! Yum Yum! I can't wait (but that's probably b/c I am a dork and am just happy that I didn't cause any serious damage to the kitchen!).

By the way, I don't want any Vegan's jumping my @$$ so I will point out that we are not a strictly vegetarian household and we're certainly not a Vegan one. We define vegetarian to mean no eating of animal flesh, things like eggs and milk are A-OK in our book. Just to be clear, b/c I know I'm going to get at least one comment or e-mail about how this recipe below isn't totally vegetarian *eye roll*

If you are interested this is the recipe I used;
SUGAR FREE WHOLE WHEAT PANCAKES 

1 c. whole wheat  -
1 c. milk
1/2 c. oil
4 tsp. baking powder
2 eggs
 
Blend whole wheat and milk in blender for 4 minutes and then add all the other ingredients and blend 4 more minutes and then let sit for 2 minutes. Pour on hot griddle and place fruit on each cake as fast as possible. Batter will keep in refrigerator for 1 week. May need to thin with a little milk
 
I assumed that whole wheat meant the wheat flour I had on hand, if not then Oh well, it still made an editable pancake :) I also added a little splenda to sweeten the deal so to speak. About 1/4 of a cup or so. Just made it taste a little yummier. 
 
HOORAY FOR PANCAKES! :D

 

3 comments:

  1. Yum! We love making pancakes every weak its part of our tradition and my son helps out. He is 10 now and still helps out. He loves to add blueberries to his and its easy to do. I poor his batter onto the skillet and then he drops the blueberries into a face right on the pan.
    We are building memories over pancakes :)

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  2. You recipe totally is vegetarian. It is simply not vegan. Big difference. In fact to be annoyingly accurate it is a lacto-ovo vegetarian friendly recipe :P.

    Funny story btw I would so be doing the happy dance too :)

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  3. LoL, I have a couple of Vegan friends Becky who would be quick to tell the world that being Vegan is the only real vegetarian out there lol. We are lacto-ovo veg's :) That has always been me personal definition of what a vegetarian diet would be for me personally. Now of course, we'd be pretty dumb to not eat eggs considering all the chickens :P

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