2.18.2010

Valentine's Day

I got a little adventurous for our Valentine's Day breakfast this year, and decided to try out Deceptively Delicious's recipe for pink pancakes. I've slowly been experimenting with the recipes from this book, because, although I want my kids to love veggies all by themselves, I like the idea of including some extra nutrition in our muffins, pancakes, scrambled eggs, and even mac'n'cheese!

The magic (and healthful) ingredient for these pink pancakes is beets. By adding this extremely colorful vegetable and some ricotta, this is what the batter ended up looking like (and I should clarify -- I did not adjust the color of this photo one tiny bit!):

Wow... talk about eye-catching!

At this point, I was a little concerned that the pancakes might be a little too pink, but fortunately they darken and brown slightly while cooking, and a dusting of powdered sugar helps bring it down a notch:


Okay... now as to the taste. Even with a little syrup, Daniel and I both thought they still had a destinctly "beet-y" flavor, maybe a little too much for us. But our little Valentine didn't mind one bit! In fact, she devours them much faster than regular pancakes! Who would have thought!


As an added bonus, I've found that these pancakes freeze well, so I bring one out every morning and toast it until it's warmed through! What an easy way to add a little extra nutrition to Elli's diet!

Hmm... I wonder how I could make some "green pancakes" for St. Patrick's Day....

2 comments:

smithec said...

I have that cookbook too - thanks for testing this one out for me. I'm a little scared of beets and I'm not sure I would have braved this recipe - glad to know that Elli likes them! They definitely turned out cute!

Christine said...

Good to know! Micah loved his heart-shaped pancakes this Valentine's Day, and I think he would love them all the more if they were pink! I have this cookbook and need to cook out of it more often.