Wednesday, February 19, 2014

MACS SPICED APPLE PANCAKES


The majority of your carbs for the day, as well as your healthy fat intake and any natural sugars (apples or other fruit) should be eaten earlier in the day, breakfast time if possible. Healthy carbs and fats help drive your energy for the day and give you ample time to burn off any extra calories.

Ingredients:
2 apples (organic preferred)
1 cup Bob's Red Mill Organic 7 Grain Pancake and Waffle Mix
1 egg (organic, free-range preferred)
1 T organic, extra-virgin olive oil
3/4 cup cold, organic whole milk
2 t vanilla extract
1/2 t cinnamon
1/4 t all spice


Directions:
  1. Core, slice, and peel apples.
  2. Place apple slices into a blender or drop them into a food processor to shred.
  3. Add the rest of the ingredients to blender or food processor and blend for about 10-15 seconds, just until ingredients are well mixed. You do not want to over blend the batter.
  4. Cook pancakes, sized to your preference, on a griddle or pan set to medium-low heat.
VEGAN OPTIONS: Replace the egg with 1/4 cup of plain, soy yogurt and replace the whole cow's milk with soy milk, rice milk, or hemp milk.


Serves: 3-4 (Yields about 15 3-inch pancakes, or about 7 4-5 inch pancakes.) 
Total Time: Approximately 30 minutes.
{Calories - 256; Carbs - 31; Fat - 7; Protein - 8; Sodium - 325; Sugar - 4}*
*Nutritional information based on 4 servings.



Details for New Cooks

Ingredients
APPLES: For information and a video on how to core and slice an apple easily, click here. Apples are one of the number one produce items that you want to buy organic. For more information on why, click here. And, of course, always wash your apples right before preparing them for this recipe. Use an apple/potato peeler, rather than a knife, for easy peeling of the skin.

BOB'S RED MILL: Manufactured right here in the Pacific Northwest, Milwaukie, Oregon to be exact, Bob's Red Mill "uses time-honored techniques, like grinding whole grains at cool temperatures with a traditional stone mill". This process is similar to those used in ancient Roman times. This process ensures that the most nutritional part of the whole grains stay intact. Using your Fooducate app, most flours and pancake-type mixes will show that the best alternatives are Bob's Red Mill brands. For more information on their products and a coupon, click here.

EGG: Organic and free-range eggs are always a better option than regular eggs. As a new cook, use what you got; however, always remember to continue learning about ways to incorporate a healthier ingredient into your meal and why.

OLIVE OIL AND MILK: Organic olive oils and milk is very accessible now, even main grocery store chains like Fred Meyers and Safeway carry organic options. When choosing an olive oil, extra-virgin will always be your best and healthiest option. When purchasing milk, organic can be quite a bit spendier than regular milk. Regular milk, on average, goes for about $2 to $2.50 a gallon, depending on where you purchase it and what the brand name is. Organic milk usually costs above $3.00 on average and upwards to over $5.00. If organic milk is out of your budget at least look for milk that is rBST free - this is a synthetic hormone used by many commercial dairies to increase milk production and has already been banned in several countries except, you guessed it, good ol' America. The best choice is to just steer clear of anything that isn't as natural as possible.

VANILLA, CINNAMON, AND ALL SPICE: Very accessible flavoring and spices. These three things should actually be a staple in your cupboard because they can be used in a bazillion different recipes. Even if you are making a regular batch of pancakes from some store-bought package, throw in some vanilla, cinnamon, and all spice to add some delicious flavors - or - throw some into your morning bowl of oatmeal! When purchasing cinnamon, make sure you are actually buying pure ground cinnamon, not cassia which is commonly sold and labeled as cinnamon in stores. Check your labels always! Cinnamon is not only delicious, it holds a myriad of health benefits including but not limited to lowering cholesterol, blood sugar regulation, help with yeast infections, and cancer prevention.

Directions
1. To learn how to core, slice, and peel an apple easily click here. There are also many gadgets available nowadays to help the home cook be more efficient in the kitchen including an apple corer and produce slicers. Amazon is one of my favorite places to purchase low priced kitchen gadgets.
2. A good blender or food processor works great with this recipe! Just shred the apples first. Cutting them into slices, rather than big chunks, will help with this process. Though a blender will work fine, I do highly suggest investing in a good food processor if you don't have one already. I finally purchased mine about six months ago and I can't even keep count of how many times I have used it already! This recipe, when everything else is added, ends up with about three cups worth of batter so I suggest getting a bigger capacity food processor rather than one of the cheaper, smaller capacity ones - the bigger ones not only will hold more, giving you better options for future recipes, but it'll last longer than the smaller ones.
3. Literally, as the directions state, just add everything else into the blender/food processor on top of the shredded apples. Easy peasy, right! Then you will want to only blend it all together just until everything is mixed well - about 10-15 seconds. This isn't a recipe where you want to push the button all the way in on the blender/food processor and just leave it while you go put the dishes in the dishwasher. Press the button in and out quickly just until the mixture is well blended. Stop once to scrape the walls and then blend again for just a few seconds.

4. If you are using a griddle or just a pan on the stove, make sure the heat is set to a medium-low setting. My stove goes from 0 (Low) to 11 (High), so 6 is right about in the middle - for this recipe I usually set my stove at about 4-5. Pancakes cook fairly quickly on the outside but remember, you still have all that gooey goodness on the inside that needs to be cooked well. Cooking pancakes on too high of a setting will end up burning the outside of your pancakes before the center even has a chance to fully cook, leaving you with pancakes crispy on the outside but gooey on the inside. You want to flip the pancakes when the outsides of them, (the very outer part of the circle), begin to look done. Use your spatula to peek underneath to make sure there is a nice golden brown look to them prior to flipping. I know I just said this but I'll say it again, pancakes cook fast! If it looks like they need to cook longer, don't walk away from the stove; wait about 20-30 seconds and check again.

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