Thanksgiving Pancakes

These are super quick and easy, nice for a day when you already have a lot of cooking ahead of you. Great for Thanksgiving day, since they taste like autumn thanks to the sweet potatoes and spices.

I made these pancakes as part of dinner one night last week because I wanted something fast and I had some leftover sweet potatoes that needed to be used. Since I added a little protein powder and the sweet potatoes, I considered the pancakes in and of themselves a complete quick meal. If serving for breakfast or brunch, consider pairing with hash browns, fresh fruit, veggie sausage or tempeh bacon, a veggie or tofu scramble.

(sorry about the low-quality picture, no natural lighting to speak of when you take pictures at 6:30 at night)


Thanksgiving Pancakes

A few notes. I used Eagle Mills All-Purpose Unbleached flour which looks and tastes like white flour but has the same amount of fiber as whole wheat and has more nutrients than white flour.

The kids loved the fact I made faces with chocolate chips (FYI there are lots of non-dairy chocolate chips out there). Blueberries could also work.

I added protein powder to the batter, since the pancakes were the meal (it was one of the "I don't want to put more effort than I have to meals") and I wanted the meal to include a bit more protein for my kids.

Makes 27-28 4 inch (1/3 c. batter) pancakes

• 4 c. whole wheat pastry flour or unbleached all-purpose flour
• 2 1/2 c. vanilla soy milk
• 2 c. apple juice
• 2 c. mashed cooked sweet potato
• 1/3 c. pitted dates (use less for a not-as-sweet pancake)
• 2 TBS. ground golden flaxseed
• 2 tsp. salt
• 2 TBS. baking powder
• 1/4 c. plain soy protein powder (optional)
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• sprinkle of nutmeg

Mix flour, flaxseed, salt, baking & protein powders, cinnamon, & nutmeg in a bowl. In a powerful blender, blend the pitted dates until dates are pureed. If you don't have a powerful blender, boil hot water and pour over dates, allow to sit for 10-20 minutes. This will soften the dates and make them much easier to blend. You can also soak the dates for several hours (if you plan that far ahead), which will also soften the dates. Add milk, sweet potato to the date/apple juice mixture and blend. Combine wet and dry ingredients. Use 1/3 cup batter per pancake and cook on non-stick skillet for 2-3 minutes, flip and cook on other side for 1 minute or until golden brown. Freeze leftovers and reheat in a toaster (I have a defrost button).

Nutrition information, per pancake: 115 calories, 4.5 g protein, 23 g carb, 1 g fat, percentage of calories from carbohydrate--78%, protein--14%, fat--8%, 1 g fiber, 5 g sugar, 220 mg sodium, calcium 53 mg (5% DV), vitamin A 3891 IU (77% DV), vitamin C 10 mg (17% DV), omega-3 fats 124 mg.