Pancakes, Flapjacks, & Hot Cakes, Oh my!

Just so you know, I do realize that it has been more than 1 week since I posted last, thus not adhering to my previously stated goal of making at least 1 change per week. Guilty as charged. Honestly, I was less than motivated and other (dare I say more important?!) things than unprocessed foods required my attention these past few days. But, you needn't worry...I'm back...and I come bearing pancakes.

For the past couple months or so, my family has gotten into a little routine/tradition of making and eating homemade crepes filled with Nutella on Saturday mornings. Love it! They're so easy to make and they're soooo yummy! This morning when I asked my husband whether he wanted me to make crepes or pancakes for breakfast, though, I was admittedly pretty excited (and a little surprised) when he requested pancakes instead of our usual Saturday morning crepe fest. The strange thing, though, is that I hate pancakes. I find them the least bit exciting and not nearly as fun to make as crepes. The only thing that had me excited about making pancakes this morning was a new recipe that I found in the May issue of Parents magazine for Whole Wheat Buttermilk Pancakes. It was a perfect recipe for this blog, calling for whole wheat flour and honey as a sweetener. "Score!", I thought. So, I made them. Seeing as though I'm not a big pancake lover from the start, it's hard for me to give this recipe a raving review. However, they weren't NOT good, so that's a plus. The whole wheat flour definitely gave them an I'm-definitely-eating-healthy-whole-wheat-pancakes kind of a vibe, but put enough syrup (or peanut butter & syrup, as my husband does) on them and you just may find them delicious and nutritious. For the record, I just asked my husband for his review of the pancakes from this morning. His direct quote is this: "They were kind of whole-wheaty, but just about as good as a pancake can get." And there you have it, folks; straight from the mouth of a (self-proclaimed) pancake conoisseur himself. Try 'em...you might even like 'em!

Here is the recipe from the May 2010 issue of Parents Magazine
Mix 1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour (not sure why they call for "white" whole wheat...I used the non-bleached kind, which is less processed than the white), 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder, 1/4 tsp. baking soda, and 1/4 tsp. salt; set aside. In another bowl, blend 1 egg, 1 1/2 cups buttermilk, and 1 Tbs. each honey and canola oil (I substituted coconut oil). Stir into the dry ingredients. (Makes about 12 1/4 cup pancakes)

Like I wrote within the recipe above, I used regular whole wheat flour instead of the "white" kind that they call for. Also, I added about 1/4 cup of whole milk to the mix at the end, because it was way too thick for my liking without it. I ran out of buttermilk, so whole milk is what I decided to add to thin it out. And, I substituted coconut oil for the canola oil.

Side note: No, I did not use real maple syrup on top of my pancakes drawn straight from the maple tree in our backyard. We don't even have a maple tree in our backyard. Actually, I'm not even sure if I could pick out a maple tree in a lineup of trees. I did use maple syrup straight from our grocery store, though, and the first two ingredients of it are water and high fructose corn syrup...obviously not so unprocessed. However, I have great aspirations to make homemade fruit syrup this summer. I have a friend (we'll call her my 90/10 Friend...she says she strives to make about 90% of her diet unprocessed and about 10% is made up of processed foods...so she will be known here as 90/10 Friend...it has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?) who is a great inspiration for eating unprocessed foods (and a great resource too!) who assures me that making my own syrup is easy and fun, so I shall attempt it...at some point...hopefully this summer.

And this was one more step in my process of going unprocessed.