Sunday Morning Pancakes

My sweet monkey, Jilian asked me to make her pancakes this morning. It didn't matter that everyone except her and Jason and eaten already, she wanted pancakes. So, being the good mother that I am said NO. Go away little monkey. It's Sunday and I don't want to make pancakes. I want to finish reading my book and then lay on the couch and do nothing all day. Has anyone out there ever been "mommed" to death? You know what I mean, don't you? Mom, please. Please Mom. Mom, Mom, Mom until you think you are going to go crazy! Well, she Mommed me until I gave in and made her pancakes. Look how happy I made her...

Of course, I didn't let her eat all of those pancakes by herself, this picture was for demonstrative purposes only :) I was however, concerned about making pancakes and then having to nag at Jason not to eat them because they would be full of sodium (and who knows what else Bisquick puts in their mix) so I set out to find a healthy pancake recipe. The trick is not to make something healthy, any old Joe can do that. The trick is to make something healthy that the monkeys will eat. I have to admit that as far as monkeys go, mine are not all that picky. They definitely prefer to eat junk food because it tastes so good but if they are presented with supper (for example) on a take or leave it basis, they generally take it :)

Anyway, my recipe (which I found on the Internet and cannot take credit for):

100% Whole Grain Pancakes

Combine in a small bowl:

1/2 cup Oatmeal, 1 cup Skim Milk, and 2 tsp. lemon juice. Let this set for while mixing the dry ingredients.

In a different bowl, combine:

3/4 cup Whole Wheat Flour, 1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon, 1/2 tsp. baking soda and 1/2 tsp. baking soda. Set aside.

Whisk into oatmeal mixture the following:

1 egg, 1 tsp. vanilla, 1 TBS. Unsweetened Applesauce, 1 TBS. Honey.

Add the oatmeal mixture to the dry ingredients and mix with a spoon until just combined.

I know I took a picture of the batter but when I went to download it, it wasn't there. Hmm.. picture trolls again! So use your imagination. It is light brown with little flecks of oatmeal in it :)

I cooked my pancakes in a nonstick skillet sprayed very lightly with cooking spray. I scooped 1/4 cup of batter into the pan..

I waited until the batter set up a bit and then added some chocolate chips...Monkeys like chocolate chips (so do zookeepers for that matter!)

As you can see, I didn't use a lot of chocolate chips, just enough to give the impression of chocolate. The thing with these pancakes is that they don't do the bubble thing like regular pancakes. You just have to kind of eyeball them and peak on the underneath side to see if they are brown before you flip them. Don't worry I am sure you can tell when they are ready to flip. I have faith in your flipping ability! Just use the force, you'll be fine young Skywalker.

This is the finished product. Don't they look yummy? Jason and Jilian loved them. The other two monkeys and myself had already eaten, so we did not try them. I actually made two batches of these (6 per batch) so I have some to send to Indianapolis with Jason and a few to eat for breakfast tomorrow. Oh yeah, I served them with sugar-free syrup ( I didn't tell them they were eating sugar-free and I don't think they noticed - I am so sneaky).

If you get a hankering for pancakes, give these a try. The monkeys liked them!