Going Back To Pure Foods

I originally wrote this 6/26 and am just now posting it. Life, man. It calls. And obviously too fast and furiously for me to click on that Publish button. So I deprived you all for a solid week of a really good recipe. My apologies.

This past week has been odd. A niggling in the back of my head keeps saying, "look up this" and "research THAT".... "*impatient foot tap* ....NOW!" ... and it ain't about rediscovered gnostic codices or lost and now rediscovered mega-cities, although I have been reading about those, too, gosh darn it. I am writing three blog posts at once here. Keep getting side-tracked. Damn YouTube. I hate those "you might like" video offerings when you're done watching the one you were. I end up chasing my tail for three hours. 

Anyway! Going back to pure foods- that is what the topic has been from my Divine Nag. That's what I'm calling him now. With much love. Because he is lovely. And most definitely silly, waking me up this morning at 4:30am saying, "Ya know, flax seeds might actually give that bland thing some taste..." After today's lunch, I have to concur that milled flax seeds made it awesome. He does have some good culinary ideas. So now I'd like to share a recipe with you to tuck away for some rainy day experimentation. Or even for dinner tonight! This is a very flexible recipe. I've included pictures.

The thing which got my brain churning to create this recipe today was to get away from all the sugar in my diet. The high fructose corn syrup, plain sugar, aspartame, and white flour in my diet has been making me feel pretty crappy. In my teens when I danced and was so athletic I ate insanely healthy and didn't have the physical problems I have now.

I've noticed that the more soda I drink the more anxious(and obnoxious) I feel, the more white flour items I consume the more of them I want, and overall- I make really bad choices! I have almost no fresh vegetables in my diet or whole grains. Yeah, it's fine and dandy to buy whole wheat bread by the loaf, but what about all the other ingredients in there? What if you want to make it more nutritious and make it more versatile?(Sorry, but I'm cheap. I don't want to pay $3+ for a loaf of super-yuppie bread) I haven't found a product out there like that. These pancakes seem to be it, at least they are for me. Try them and tell me what you think.

Because the pancakes are so neutral tasting you can dress them up with fruit and even make a fruit glaze to drizzle on top, or slap a few eggs on top of them and call it a meal. So it can be sweet or savory. Again, there's NO SUGAR in these! IHOP these are not. But they do taste kinda nutty, because of the flax.

What is this, you ask? This was my lunch just a few short minutes ago. The second picture is the finished plate before I noshed on it. Here we have two medium sized graham-and-flax pancakes with one piece each of sliced smoked turkey and topped with shredded five-cheese blend. I moved a slice of turkey so you could see the pancake underneath.   

I popped  my pancakes in the microwave for a minute to melt the cheese and warm it all up and voila! An... open faced... pancake/sandwich thingie with a side of sliced apple. I don't know what to call this thing. Help me out.

I tried eating it with a knife and fork but that didn't work out very well because the meat kept sliding off. So I rolled them up and ate them like a pita. YUM! I was like the richest whole wheat turkey cheese sandwich ever made! My tastebuds were smiling. My fingers were a little buttery, but my tastebuds were dancing happy.

Here's the recipe for the pancakes; other great topper ideas are below. It's the basic pancake recipe from Joy of Cooking Cookbook(yes, I actually have the original hardback which is three inches thick) but tweaked with healthier ingredients and measurements.

Graham and Flax Pancakes, makes about 12-15 medium sized pancakes.

2 cups graham flour(the healthy flour!)

1.5 teaspoons aluminum-free baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1.5 cups of milk(your choice of fat content)

2 tablespoons of butter, melted

2 large eggs

1 heaping tablespoon of milled flax seeds

Mix dry with dry and wet with wet in two separate bowels. Combine the two, gently folding in the wet ingredients taking care not to over mix. Don't whip out all the lumps. Finished batter consistency will be like a runny porridge. Cook pancakes like normal, on medium heat and flip once golden brown on one side.

Other topping ideas for meals: 

shredded meat

bacon and cheese

peanut butter

raisins/craisins

plain sliced fruit

curried okra in tomato sauce

humus

cottage cheese

pecans, walnuts, almonds, etc

guacamole and sliced tomatoes

scrambled sausage, onion, and garlic

agave or honey

Sheesh, the sky is the limit for these things. If you make large pancakes, because they're so thin, you can roll them up and stuff them with virtually anything. You can also use them in place of cornbread to mop up drippy sauces that are part of the main course, like a gumbo or bean or meat stew. 

When I made this today I fully expected the pancake to be dry and stiff, like a brick. I haven't had much luck using graham flour before now with muffins. But these pancakes were very flexible. The secret is the flax seed PLUS the melted butter. See, you can use milled flax seeds to substitute a large portion of the butter or oil in a recipe; it's a very oily seed. Loaded with Omega 3 fatty acids. 

The original Joy of Cooking recipe called for 3 tablespoons of butter. I decreased that down to 2 tablespoons and replaced it with one tablespoon of a healthier fat- flax seeds.

Once the seed is milled/shredded the shell is cracked and you have these superfine little spindle shaped threads and chips. Inside the seed is where the good stuff lies and that's what you want to use in your baking. Some of the fatty acids are destroyed during cooking but the oil itself is much healthier to use. Just don't go trying to use actual flax seed oil in your cooking unless it calls for it. The oil in the bottle is insanely good, yes, but I don't know the conversion. And besides, it's highly unstable. The dried seeds are easier to keep fresh. If you can't find milled flax seeds(they're in the flour section) then you can purchase the whole flax seeds and just pop them in your blender/food processor for a minute or three. Never tried it. But I've heard it's pretty easy.

I made about 15 of these pancakes today and shoved 13 of them in a gallon sized freezer baggie, squeezed the air out, pressed it shut, and the tossed them in the freezer. The butter they're cooked with in the pan will make really easy to separate when I need to grab a few. Or just wack the bag on the counter(or floor) to separate and there ya go- instant pancakes.

Now I am off to stuff my blender full of peanuts to make peanut butter....  Hydrogenated vegetable oils are next on my hit list.