Breakfast for Dinner!

Breakfast is my favorite meal lately, so tonight it's what's for dinner. There is something so comforting about it...maybe it's because it's what my mom used to make when I was sick, or for a special girls-only treat when my dad was out of town (he is not so much a fan of Breakfast Dinner). Either way, it's a treat. White flour pancakes will leave us all hungry by 8 pm, though, so whole wheat it is for us. I've tried quite a few whole-wheat pancake mixes, and they're pretty good, but usually are clearly whole wheat and need lots of syrup to make up for it. And I basically dismissed the idea of pancakes from scratch because it seemed like too much effort. With a toddler who decides that 5:30 a.m. is a reasonable time to start the day, though, I decided to take the effort to try it one morning a couple weeks ago.

I found this recipe for whole wheat banana pancakes after hunting through my cookbooks, and figured I'd give it a shot. W-O-W. Really. Sooo, good. The bananas, which I'm usually not a fan of in my pancakes, add just the right sweetness, and they are light enough to make it easy to forget that they're whole wheat. No more dry, drowned in syrup pancakes in this house!


WHOLE WHEAT BANANA PANCAKES

2 c. milk

3 eggs

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 1/4 c. whole wheat flour

3/4 c. wheat germ

1 1/2 tbsp. brown sugar

2 tsp. vanilla

1/4 tsp. lemon juice

1 c. chopped bananas

Beat milk, eggs, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Add remaining ingredients, mix well. Pour 1/4 c. batter onto greased preheated griddle. Cook until golden brown on both sides.

From: Whole Foods for the Whole Family Cookbook, La Leche League International

The recipe made enough to feed two adults plus Lainey, AND have some extra to keep in the freezer (four to a layer, separated by wax paper, in a ziplock bag--just pull out desired quantity, throw in the toaster oven, and voila!). I also threw some chocolate chips into the last few. Delicious, of course.

To add to our pancake dinner, I served some scrambled eggs with a link of

chopped Smart Sausage Italian style "sausage". I bought the sausage last week because it was on sale, and I was actually pleasantly surprised with how good it tastes! My meat loving Dad even thought it was turkey sausage, so at 7g of total fat, 13 g of protein, and zero cholesterol per link, it's totally worth trying!

Now, go cook some breakfast...or dinner...or both! :)