Breakfast & Do We Have to Make a Box?

I LOVE breakfast.  Who's with me?  Probably my most vital & favorite meal of the day.  I cook hot breakfast for my family every morning.  Whether they eat it or not...they're alien like that.

What I really love is a carb-loaded breakfast.  No egg-whites & spinach for me, thanks.  I'm starting in on the most active part of my day: getting kids off to school, packing lunches, working out, starting laundry, cleaning house.  And I need yummy, lasting fuel, and I need to feel full.

Pancakes are my favorite.  And variety is my MO (not Missouri, modus operandi): coconut, pumpkin, spice, banana, buttermilk, whole wheat, zucchini, red velvet, lemon poppyseed, cinnamon, and the list goes on.

Whole grain pancakes are what I grew up on. Dad would grind wheat on the back porch and mix up a batch of "Oh Boy Pancakes" or waffles.  I recently found a 10 Grain mix in the bulk-bins at my local Smith's.  It's got oat, corn, rye, whole wheat, millet, barley, rice, soy, triticale, & flaxseed.   Just add your choice of milk, oil, and and egg or two.  It is nutty deliciousness. You could also try Kodiak Cakes boxed mix.

This is how they turned out. Mouth watering.  These I topped with vanilla greek yogurt & bananas with a drizzle of real maple syrup.  It's a point of contention in our house about what goes on pancakes, and there's a lot of topping-discrimination & outright insulting that goes on.  Syrup & butter are respectable, but where's the fun in that?  If you put ketchup on eggs, you have no right to judge.

I grew up in a home with a Type 1 Diabetic father.  He is amazing and inspiring to me by living a full, healthy, active lifestyle while being insulin dependent.  So as a kid my mom got creative.  I love hot homemade sugar-free applesauce & peanut butter, peanut butter & syrup, hot applesauce & sour cream, fruit & powdered sugar & sour cream, berry compote, greek yogurt & berries, any nut butter, and any and all combinations of the above.  I also love a "leaky egg" squished in the midst of my pancake stack.  New ideas?  Send them my way.

As I get older I recognize that my body is behaving differently toward simple carbs.  So some mornings I want a pancake but also recognize that I need a flour break.  So I looked into protein pancakes, and here are my favorites.

This one is the "Dukan Pancake": 2 eggs, 2 Tbsp oat bran, 1 Tbsp greek yogurt, dash cinnamon, 1/4 tsp vanilla, dash salt, because who wants a flavorless sponge?  Mix together and pour onto griddle or frying pan brushed with coconut oil or butter spray.  Top with healthy fruit, yogurt, nut butter, and a splash of real maple syrup.  This way I get my protein and my pancake too.

The other recipe I like is a "Banana Protein Pancake": 2 eggs, 1 whole banana, vanilla, cinnamon, salt, dash of baking powder.  Same process.  This one is tough for me because it gets black fast. I think because I use too ripe a banana, and the natural sugars scorch.  

Don't forget to fuel your morning.  You're more likely to get up and exercise when you feel like you're running on a full tank of high-octane fuel, not sluggish on a bowl of air+sugar.

My last child only has two more school Valentine's Days parties left in her career.  Praise be.  I don't know if it's because she's the youngest & I'm getting soft, but the older girls are going to have a fit when they see what I got for her to pass out.  Valentine's boxes are the bane of my February existence.  I can't talk her into a decorated brown bag.  I see a monster or a space shuttle on the horizon. Or worse, another pink refrigerator.  The things we do for love.

Eat yummy!