Drooling yet? I made this naturally sweet, healthy recipe for pancakes the other weekend. I used local wild blueberries and fresh peaches I purchased at see a previous post about what I bought and tips for shopping.
You've heard many times that eating breakfast is a simple step to joyous health right? Here's a friendly reminder why.
Balances your blood sugar. Especially important for Diabetics, but why not start now so you don't get to the point of having blood sugar imbalance?
Balances your mood, prevents anxiety due to it's blood sugar balancing effect, promotes feelings of "well-being"
Fires up your metabolism (your calorie burning potential!). If you don't eat something, your metabolism goes into energy-saving slow-mode. Translation? You burn fewer calories.
Gets your bowels moving. Morning bowel movements are key for detoxifying the body. If you don't get something in your belly, you slow down the bus. Interestingly, many clients I consult think they have regular BMs - take away the coffee and they don't have a BM for days! Meaning, you can't rely on coffee to have a morning BM.
Skipping breakfast is going to promote 2 things: 1. Sluggish and sleepy between 2 and 4pm. 2. Out-of-control appetite in the eve.
So here's my recipe - you're going to love it! Remember you can easily make substitutions, which I will make note of as we go along. If you have a gluten intolerance, then you just swap it for a different flour. Making pancakes isn't like baking a cake. It's not an exact science and you can mix and match a bit.
Ingredients:
1 cup spelt flour (or brown rice flour for a gluten-free option)
Half cup oat bran
1 tsp gluten-free baking powder (aluminum-free)
2 cups of almond milk
2 happy eggs (from organic chickens of course)
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup wild blueberries
Method:
Combine the dry ingredients and then add the almond milk, whisked eggs, vanilla extract and lastly, fold in the blueberries.
A few things: You may wish to have your pancake batter runnier, so just add a touch of water to thin it out if you like. As well, if you don't like blueberries, just swap for chopped peaches in the batter. Don't over mix! Heat your pan to a medium temp and use organic coconut oil so the pancakes don't stick. Please, don't use polyunsaturated fat ie sunflower, canola, safflower for heating! Heat makes those unstable oils even more unstable ie. rancid and a danger to your health.
Flip when the sides of the pancakes start to get slightly firm. Due to the fact the batter is thick, the bubbling on top probably won't happen and is not an indicator to flip, in this case - that only works with Aunt Jemina pancake mix (gross!).
See how fast they cook?? Meanwhile, here are the ingredients for your peach sautee. Also, you will need cinnamon, butter (or coco oil) and some sucanat sugar if you like. Don't worry about measuring this stuff.
Slice up the peaches like so and avoid ones that are bruised or really soft. I used 4 or 5 small peaches.
Melt some butter (or coco oil) to lightly coat your pan. Toss the peaches with walnuts and sprinkle with cinnamon and a touch of sugar. Cook on medium until tender. This smells soooooo good!
This is what it looks like when done.
My plate - admittedly a little overexposed, but I'm not a food photog, I'm a healthy foodie - so please forgive! Everyone LOVED these pancakes. They were so naturally sweet you didn't even need syrup - but the taste of Ontario real maple syrup is amazing. If you've never tried it, then you are in for a real treat.
This was the same morning. I'm just getting in a photo opp here with my peaches. Why not? I love real food!
I didn't know that coffee makes you poo. News to me.
ReplyYes, it stimulates premature evacuation. Many ppl use it for this reason, without realizing it.
Thanks for this. It's a struggle to get my husband to have breakfast in the morning. He says he just can't stomach anything at all at 5am and won't eat until around 730ish. Is there a time limit on when you need to get something in your belly? My unrelated question: how do you get your hair to stay so gorgeously smooth in this humidity! :)
Reply5am is a pretty tough time for anyone to eat. Suggest he drink lemon and water (http://joyoushealth.wordpress.com/2010/04/23/an-alternative-to-lemon-water-and-a-new-green-goddess-juice/) or a green juice and then eat a little later - 730am is fine. Here are some breakie ideas: http://joyoushealth.wordpress.com/2010/04/28/not-sure-what-to-eat-for-breakfast-4-joyous-ideas/ Thanks for the compliment on my hair. I use shea butter on the ends... it's like butter - so it keeps things tame. However, you haven't seen my hair when it's super humid - I have a serious afro!
Looks great Joy, but Teflon pan? For shame!
ReplyAh well I was up North at my parents, one can only do so much when you are cooking at someone's house. One baby step at a time - they eat pretty much all "real food". Perhaps a Christmas present. They were using an iron pan, but then my dad's iron levels were high so they had to stop using it.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Joy McCarthy, Joy McCarthy. Joy McCarthy said: Wild blueberry local peach pancakes & benefits of breakie: http://ow.ly/2pkC4 [...]
ReplyMy oh my, do those pancakes look and sound like a scrumptious way to start the day! :)
ReplyGreat post thanks.
Replyhi joy don't know if you got the question i sent from my blackberry, so i ask again. what can one sub for eggs because i am a vegan?
ReplyHi Lynne, sorry I don't recall your message. Are you asking for as substitution for eggs in baking? If so, psyllium fibre works like a charm!
I made these this morning and they were SOOO yummy! I halved the recipe and ate all EIGHT pancakes by myself! I had a little trouble getting the batter to thicken up though. I'm not allowed to eat eggs right now so I used a flax egg in place of a regular, but I don't think that should make that big of a difference. Also not allowed oat bran, would that help in thickening it up? I'm thinking I'll just add less milk next time, because their definitely will be a next time!
ReplyYou could use quinoa flakes instead of oat bran. Hang on... you didn't eat all 8 in one sitting I hope? :) that would be VERY filling!!
OMG JOY!!! You are sooooo creative! I love this :)
Reply[...] Tis the season for blueberries and peaches, so here’s another delicious and nutritionist-approved recipe: Blueberry Spelt Pancakes with Peaches and Walnuts! [...]
ReplyOh... tried these with regular blueberries and could not get them to cook at all. I had to add more flour to the batter as it was too thin. Threw out most of the batter. I finally scooped out the berries and cooked up the rest of the batter but they didn't rise very well. :(
ReplyDid you use spelt flour?
[...] you know me from my days developing and writing recipes for Aol then you know I’m a certified pancake monster from the Institute of Pancake Lovers. But, I also LOVE eggs (which I often add to my pancakes) [...]
ReplyThank you for this awesome recipe! Just made these pancakes (but with bananas instead of blueberries). Really lovely! A hit with the whole family.
ReplyI’m trying to cook these as I write and the batter is not thick at all. Quite the opposite. It’s SUPER runny. I followed the recipe exactly as written.
ReplyHi Marlene, just add a tablespoon more batter and keep adding till you have the thickness you're looking for. Does it look like the photos in my recipe?
Unfortunately not. It’s super watery. I tried cooking up 3 pancakes and they were almost as thin as crepes. I ended up throwing out the batter :( Is 1 cup of flour enough for so much liquid (2 cups of milk and 2 eggs)???
ReplyDid you try adding more flour before tossing it out? Did you add oat bran? That would have lessened the amount of moisture. Oh bummer, sorry to hear it did not work out for you! I haven't made this exact recipe in several years, it's an old one. But next time try a more recent recipe: https://www.joyoushealth.com/search.php?s=pancakes these have all been tested many times.