Selective Palate

Last night M and I were in a comfort mood. He has been putting in the hours at work and so have I. We went to the gym late and when we came home we just wanted to relax with some good comfort food in front of the tube, or in M’s case get back to work. I decided I was in the mood for breakfast, pancakes to be exact. What is more comforting than fluffy pancakes covered in maple syrup? But as we all know regular pancakes are not the healthiest option especially after putting in all that time at the gym. So I decided to make a healthier version and from now on will make no other! It was awesome, so awesome that I had it for breakfast this morning too!

Whole Wheat Low-Fat Buttermilk Pancakes

Recipe:

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 cup low-fat buttermilk
1 beaten egg
2 Tbsp. Honey

Whisk together all the dry ingredients and set aside. In another bowl whisk together all the wet ingredients. Add the wet to the dry while whisking to combine. DO NOT over mix, if it is a little lumpy that is ok. Just make sure you have no dry spots and you should be good. Let the batter stand for a few minutes, I waited about 15 or so. When ready heat a skillet and either spray with cooking spray or coat with butter. To keep the fat and calories in check I used butter flavor cooking spray. Drop 1/4 cup spoonfuls onto the hot griddle. Cook until you see bubbles and flip for another 1-2 minutes. These cook pretty quick and brown fast because of the wheat so be careful, no washing the dishes while these cook.

We enjoyed them with maple bacon and homemade pomegranate molasses and a fruit salad along side. Beautiful and yummy dinner/breakfast!

The pomegranate molasses is so easy to make you should make your own.

Recipe:

4 cups pomegranate juice
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup lemon juice.

Combine all ingredients and bring to boil. Once at a boil lower the heat and simmer gentely for about 1 hour. Let cool completely and refridgerate for later use. YUM!

Well at least it was for me! The other day I was having company at around 10am, so me being the good host that I am realized while making a pot of coffee that I had absolutely nothing to serve with said coffee. So I quickly jumped on the lovely internet for a quick scones recipe. I knew I had everything, or a least I thought I did. I was going to use an Ina Garten recipe because from my understanding scones are her thing, but she called for a whole cup of heavy cream. Now not that I have anything against the nectar of the gods but since I have been on this health kick, I didn’t have any on hand and I just could not sub an entire cup of reduced fat milk for cream so I moved on. In my quick googling I found a nice easy recipe from Anne Burrell. I like her and she only called for a 1/2 cup of cream and plenty of butter! That I thought I could live with. Scones also worked out well for a quicky breakfast because everything needed to be chilled and since I only had about 30 minutes to mix, bake, clean up, and set up I could have used all the time I could get! Well needless to say they came out great and I even I had a little dough left over for the next day.

To accompany the Cherry Almond Scones I made this yummy honey butter by just whipping up a stick of softened butter with a GOOD tablespoon of local honey. I couldn’t stop tasting it, you know to make sure it was good enough.

Well all tolled everything came out great but I had way too much left over; scones were my breakfast, lunch and dessert! The next morning I still had leftovers and the left over dough so I baked them off, and sent M to work with them. I told him he was not allowed to come home with left overs or I might do something crazy like ya know eat them! However, I was able to grab 1 hot from the oven to go with my coffee before he left and hoo boy when the butter melts on top… lets just say its as close to heaven as I will probably get!

If you’re interested in the recipe check it out. I subbed the cream for low fat milk and I only had about 3/4 cup of dried cherries left. You really could use any combo of dried fruit and nuts though it would all taste good. She also made her scones very large. I used a cup and cut them in circles and I managed to get a little more than double the amount and they were the perfect size.

Cherry almond scones with honey butter