Chia Seed Pancakes

For those of you that don't know, I have a slight addiction to Chia Seeds. They have high nutrient value and they make food just look pretty...
I purchased 50 lbs of them about a year ago and have been using them like crazy and have barely put a dent in the container. Today I asked my 3 year old what she wanted for breakfast. Preparing myself for the standard answer of macaroni and cheese, I was surprised to hear her say "pancakes." I'm happy to usually make what my kids request in hopes of getting them to actually eat.

I surfed the pins on pinterest I had already pinned, and found a lemon poppy seed pancake recipe from PICKYCOOK.COM. I didn't love the ingredients, so because I can't leave something alone, I changed a lot of the ingredients...so much, so, that I'm sure if I published this, I wouldn't have a problem...haha.

Here is my attempt on chia seed pancakes....this family thought they were DELICIOUS.
*On a side note, I usually like to eat my meals with no white flour, and on a more clean pallet, however, since it was a new recipe, I just did half white, half wheat flour. Next time I will use all wheat.

1 Cup white unbleached flour
1 Cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 Cup of brown sugar
pinch of salt
2 Cups milk (I used 2% for fattening my kids up...well and this baby getting large in my gut....)
(almond milk or a milk substitute would also work in this as well)
2 eggs, beaten lightly
2 T melted butter
3 tsp lemon juice
2 Tbs honey
1/3 cup chia seeds

Combine flours, baking powder, baking soda, brown sugar, and salt in a large bowl. Stir to combine ingredients and break up any brown sugar clumps you might have. In another bowl, combine milk, eggs, butter, lemon juice, honey and chia seeds. Stir to combine ingredients. Combine wet ingredients into dry ingredients and stir till just combined. Try to not over mix or you will have flat pancakes.

Heat skillet or pan with olive oil and add pancake mix. Flip when bubbles that will form on top of the pancakes are popping, then cook on the other side till there is a nice golden brown color on both sides.

This made plenty of pancakes for my family of 4.5, and I will have enough for freezer pancakes for a quick breakfast another day. I served these with an assortment of jams and syrups, but my little guy wanted them with just butter, and my little lady wanted them with butter and homemade strawberry jam. I followed suit and had strawberry jam. I didn't even eat these with a fork, I just picked them up like slice of pizza and consumed. In the words of Rachael Ray-- "YUMMO!"

much love,

Annisa

Pumpkin Waffles and a Freezer Tip

Good Morning everyone! (ok, that's not how I feel until about 30 min after I officially open my eyes.) I'm a slow waker uper and as much as I love my husband helping out, helping out doesn't usually, in this case, include bringing the kids into me BEFORE I've had a good 30 min of wake up time....love you babe! But we are moms, and dads, and our jobs never end. So for our troubles, let's treat ourselves to some clean pumpkin waffles.

enter pumpkin waffles

I initially got the recipe from HERE but since it has 2 cups of white flour, I had to revise. If you don't want them clean, feel free to use the above recipe....I'm sure with the white flour its not a miss. If you want to clean it up, exchange the two cups of white flour her recipe calls for and change it to 2 cups of Whole Wheat flour...thats what I did.

Here is what I learned:

because the wheat flour is more dense, you tend to taste it more than you would white flour. So the next time I make this, I will put in 1 1/4 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice.

So, follow the recipe above, and change out the flour and add a bit more pumpkin pie spice.

We really enjoyed this recipe today and ate it with a small amount of butter and pure maple syrup. They syrup sweetened it up and gave it the edge it needed!

Now, for the freezer tip:

I'm a big freezer fan. I like to over-make the breakfasts I can so that when I AM in a daze, breakfast can be healthy and easy. Whenever I make waffles or pancakes, I make them as directed then place them on a plate so they can cool. Once they are cooled, I use wax paper and put the wax paper in between layers of waffles/pancakes. Then I put them in a ziploc baggie and get as much air out as possible. I put them in the freezer in a section I have dubbed breakfast (this section also has all my smoothie makings (bananas, spinach, fruit etc)). When I have mornings that I cannot make breakfast from scratch, I usually have something healthy in the freezer that just needs to be popped in the toaster and we are eating in less than 5 min. Perfect if you are Brian Reagan and need to be up and eating and out the door in less than 3 seconds.......and perfect if you don't want pop tarts.

Brian Reagan pop tarts

Enjoy the comedy, I need it this morning!!

Annisa