Pumpkin Pancakes for Dinner

Even as an adult, breakfast for dinner has not lost its charm. It's a deviation from the norm and it pleases everybody; no food battles here. Waffles, pancakes, french toast (stuffed and baked OH! the joy!) scones, puffed apple bakes along with eggs, bacon and either barnyard cocktail or a little Sun Warrior protein shake to balance things out. One of my favorites is a fabulous pumpkin pancake recipe found on allrecipes.com, that is not only healthy but delicious. I've also put a spin on the toppings, removing that oh-so-naughty 'not maple syrup' (unless you buy pure maple syrup, what you are getting in the cereal aisle at the grocery store ain't syrup. I don't know what that stuff is other than scary!) and using either Xagave* or a combination of pure apple sauce and plain yogurt dusted with cinnamon. Here's the other plus, I double the recipe and put six pancakes in a ziploc bag and store in the freezer as our own homemade 'toaster panacakes.' We get out a bag the night before and heat them up a little the next morning for quick and tasty breakfasts.

Pumpkin Pancake Recipe

1 1/2 cups milk

1 cup pumpkin puree

1 egg

2 T vegetable oil (I use pure coconut oil)

2 T vinegar

2 cups flour (well, you can use unbleached white or any mixture of wheat, brown rice, spelt, almond, coconut flours)

3 T brown sugar (I use sucanat or natural evaporated cane sugar)

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp ground allspice

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp salt

*I add chocolate chips and ground flax seed to the mix. Last night I threw in some unsweetened coconut.

Directions: Mix together wet ingredients in a separate bowl from combined and mixed dry ingredients. Stir wet ingredients into dry just enough to combine. Pour or scoop batter onto griddle using approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake.

Topping

Pure Unsweetened Apple Sauce
Fage or Greek Yogurt, plain
Vanilla Creme Stevia
Cinnamon
Or of course an assortment of fresh fruit (with the yogurt is very tasty)

Directions: Mix desired amount of yogurt with 5-8 drops of liquid stevia; theVanilla Creme is awesome. Top with some applesauce and dust with cinnamon. Otherwise, for the kids mostly, butter those babies up and pour some Xagave. *Remember, butter (natural, un-salted) is a good fat (but yes, do be careful because calories still count) for slowing down the absorption of the carbohydrates from the pancakes and preventing blood-sugar levels from spiking and leading to fat storage. Also, as this is a carbohydrate-rich meal, I'd recommend eating this earlier in the evening than later. 

By the way, I'm not a photographer. I don't pretend to be one in real life nor have I played one on TV. I bake, point and shoot. I'm just anxious to eat it and enjoy it.

*Xagave is a particular brand of agave that I have researched a little and feel okay about their extraction process and overall trust their product as a sugar replacement/substitute. I do know that most agave is highly processed and not a great deal better than most sugars.

Oh the happy baby with pancakes - yes, the chocolate chips make it messy. But cute!

Barnyard Cocktail Drink
Desired amount of orange juice
Probably about 1 tablespoon of dry milk
A dash of vanilla extract
A few ice cubes

Pour all ingredients in a blender and blend until ice is nice and crushed and there is a tempting foamy top. Just like an orange julius. So tasty!