Breakfast, as we all know, is the most important meal of the day. It jumps-starts our metabolism and provides our brains with the nutrients we need to work and think throughout the day. Unfortunately for me, it's my least favourite meal to make, and one I often find myself overlooking in the hustle and bustle of the morning. For me, that is, not the boys, who always clamor down the stairs bright and early in search of food. I also find it to be the meal for which I have the least amount of culinary creativity. Sleep seems to remove all creative thoughts from my mind and I stumble down the stairs in the morning not feeling eager to fashion some food.
Enter my "pancake-mix-in-a-jar" idea. I love to keep one of these jars of homemade fluffy pancake mix on hand, which, in a pinch, allows me to put together a hot breakfast with ease and speed. All of the dry ingredients are combined in a glass container and stored in the fridge. I get three mornings worth of pancakes with this recipe, and all I need to do in the morning is measure out the mixture and add a few wet ingredients. My kind of simple morning food.
Now, let's talk about the pancakes themselves. I love these for their rich flavour and hearty taste. Toasted oats bring a golden hue and nice crunch to the mixture and the ground flax meal offers a nice splatter of texture throughout. Adapted by adding chocolate chips, fresh blueberries or crunchy nuts to the bowl, you can create an entire colour palette by customizing the base ingredients.
Seeing that today is Pancake Tuesday we made these for breakfast, of course. For some variety I added handful of granola to the bowl before pouring in the wet ingredients. This was met with complete unhappiness from Jackson, total indifference from Ben and loving praise from Rob.
Ah, you've got to love mornings!
Homemade Whole Wheat Pancake Mix (in a jar)
1 cup rolled oats 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour 1/4 cup ground flax seed 3 tbsp brown sugar 4 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp baking soda 1 tsp cinnamon
To make pancakes:
- In a small mixing bowl whisk together 1 egg, 1 tbsp olive oil, 3/4 cup milk and 1 tsp vanilla. Stir in 1 cup of the homemade pancake mix. Let mixture stand for 2 minutes.
- In a non-stick pan set over medium high heat, drizzle a small amount of olive oil to coat the pan. Using a 1/4 cup measure, pour the batter into the pan. Cook for approx. three minutes or until bubbles break the surface.
- Turn the pancakes with a spatula and cook until the bottom is slightly browned. Repeat with remaining batter until all of the pancakes are cooked.
