Friday, February 12, 2010

Pink Pancakes

Want to fool your family, specifically small children, into eating more veggies? Try this recipe out for Valentines! Not my favorite pancake - but pretty good! Worth eating again for sure!

I made this for my picky husband, Little Miss, and picky husband's semi-picky brother. The trick was not telling them what was in it until after they had tried it and said they liked it. Ha! Sure fooled them.

Pink Pancakes - a full protein meal
  • 3/4 cup water
  • 1/2 cup ricotta cheese
  • 1/4 cup beet puree
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 cup pancake mix
  • 1/4 cup grated apple
  • nonstick cooking spray
  • 1 Tbsp oil
  • maple syrup or fruit, for serving
  1. Make the beet puree - I just bought a can of beets in water (not pickled!) and pureed them in the food processor with a little water. You could also buy fresh beets in the produce section - wrap in tinfoil, roast at 400 degrees for 1 hr, then peel, then puree. I figured I'd take the easy route on this one. This puree can be made ahead of time and stored in the freezer in freezer bags in 1/2 cup servings.
  2. Combine water, ricotta cheese, beet puree, vanilla, and cinnamon until well blended. Add pancake mix and apple, stir. Do not over mix - batter should be a little lumpy.
  3. Coat griddle with cooking spray & set at medium-high heat. When hot, add oil. Use about 1/4 cup batter per pancake. Cook until bubbly on top and flip. Serve warm with syrup or fruit. (I skipped the spray & the oil since I was using a nonstick griddle)
They were so good, you could hardly tell the beets were there at all! I loved the color of them and couldn't resist using my metal heart shaped cookie cutters to make a few.

This recipe is from Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld - love this book! I'll be posting more recipes from it in the future.

*Note: If you're thinking, why go to all the trouble for a measly 1/4 cup puree, how much difference could that make to a diet?! Well, I thought the same thing. But, if you do it consistently, it's great. If you only do it once in awhile, then it's at least better than nothing! A little more veggie in take and extra vitamins can only help, right?

All of the purees are very similar to the way I made Little Miss's baby food when she was little - for more info click here.

2 comments:

  1. Hi! I made these pancakes this morning and found that no matter how long I cooked them they still had an uncooked consistency inside, which is the only thing we didn't like about them. The taste was great, but the texture not so much! I have been trying lots of recipes out of the cookbook and have been impressed, I just was searching online to see if anyone else said this about these pancakes. Just checking if you thought they seemed uncooked inside? Maybe it's the way they are supposed to be, not sure??

    ReplyDelete
  2. I remember we did have to cook them forever, but I don't remember them not being done on the inside. I have noticed a difference when I use fresh veggies compared to canned or frozen. It might have something to do with the amount of liquid added to puree the veggie. I'm not sure.

    ReplyDelete

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