Pancakes

"Start your day off with a healthy breakfast"

Since my kids are on summer break from school, most mornings we enjoy a nice breakfast. Their favorite is chocolate chip pancakes which doesn't sounds very healthy but I always try to pair it with a fruit smoothy. I would like to share my recipe for pancakes and the many ways we have "doctored" them up. This morning we had stuffed pancakes with a cream cheese filling topped with strawberry sauce.

Basic Pancake Recipe

2 1/4 C. flour
3 Tbsp. sugar
3 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
2 eggs
2 Tbsp. oil
1 tsp. vanilla
1 3/4 C. milk

Whisk dry ingredients together. Add wet ingredients and stir just until combined. Cook on a griddle over low/medium heat.

Variations include: Top with mini chocolate chips or blueberries after spooning batter onto griddle. You can also add smashed banana to the batter and chopped walnuts.

Cream cheese filling: Whip 1 block of softened cream cheese with 1/3 C. powdered sugar and 1/2 C. whipping cream. Beat until light and fluffy. Add more sugar if it is not sweet enough.

Strawberry sauce: Slice 1 pint of fresh strawberries or use frozen into a saucepan. Add 1/2 C. sugar and 1 tsp. lemon juice. Cook over medium heat until strawberries are soft and sauce begins to thicken. You can use a slurry of 1 Tbsp. cornstarch and 2 Tbsp. water. Cool and then puree in a blender.