pancakes

khristal23 · Post by **khristal23** » Sun Apr 26, 2009 4:48 pm

We eat a lot of pancakes around here (I'm a mom of a 3 year old who is a very picky eater, and this is something he's loving right now). I normally use maple syrup, but I'm pretty sure I need to make this off-limits to myself on N-days since maple syrup is so sugary. What are some other, less sugary toppings I could use for pancakes? Any ideas?

gratefuldeb67 · Post by **gratefuldeb67** » Sun Apr 26, 2009 5:22 pm

How about cutting them up and having him dip them in applesauce??

Debs

bluebunny27 · Post by **bluebunny27** » Sun Apr 26, 2009 5:48 pm

Any type of fruit goes well with pancakes ... you take
the raw fruit and cut it up into lil' pieces, better than to buy the commercially prepared apple sauce (it has been tampered with since they add sugar and whatnot in
there, chemicals !) .... nothing beats the real fruit that you prepare yourself in 30 seconds flat ... delicious ! (Or if you have some time, you make your own sugar free apple sauce ... since you make it yourself you know it hasn't been MESSED WITH!)

Make sure not to add too much margarine or butter on top of the 'cakes' ... though ... in the bad old day I would have 4-5 pancakes in a row, add plenty of butter on top and then a lot of syrup, brown sugar, etc.

Other healthy topings : molasses or honey, they are not as bad as other stuff and there are nutrients that are good for you in there, just make sure not to use them excessively of course (This goes for just about anything !) one teaspoon per pancake serving, so you get the taste, not a huge amount of calories !

I don't have pancakes very often these days, I find that I eat them and a couple of hours later I am already hungry again. ... I prefer things that are more filling like oatmeal and my fibre cereal (Fibre 1)

I add some nuts to those as well, a few unsalted peanuts/sunflower seeds/soy nuts ... in moderation + either 1/2 banana, 1/2 apple, or 1/2 pear, cutting them in slices ... I save the 2nd half of the fruit for later when I cut it up and have it with my daily portion of PLAIN YOGURT.

Another quick tip, when you make a dessert with apple (or some other fruit), you save the apple skin peals in a plastic container, adding a bit of lemon juice so they don't turn brown too quickly and you can eat the peals within 24 hours as a fruity snack, a lot of fruits and veggies have most of their nutrients in the skin, so it's good to eat that, more fibre, vitamins and minerals ...
low calories.

I ate apple peals just yesterday ... also when I cook carrots, potatoes, other veggies, in the oven or skillet ...
I leave the skin on... 4-the nutrients. You just wash 'em first, you wash the veggies and then you cook them right away.

Cheers !

Marc

gratefuldeb67 · Post by **gratefuldeb67** » Sun Apr 26, 2009 9:09 pm

marcdesbiens wrote:better than to buy the commercially prepared apple sauce (it has been tampered with since they add sugar and whatnot in
there, chemicals !) .... nothing beats the real fruit that you prepare yourself in 30 seconds flat ... delicious ! (Or if you have some time, you make your own sugar free apple sauce ... since you make it yourself you know it hasn't been MESSED WITH!)

Not all commercially available applesauce is full of chemicals or even sugar. There are plenty that are unsweetened and fine. But yeah, if a person has enough time and energy to make their own, even better..
I like having a little sugar in applesauce. Doesn't have to be a lot.

When I make pancakes, I actually like to chop up an apple and microwave it a little bit to get the pieces partially cooked, and then I throw the chopped apple right into the batter, then toss in the frying pan and brown it up... That is really delicious. Also, like Marc mentioned, I like adding a small amount of crushed nuts to them as well, to add some protein and fibre. Walnuts are great. Just crush up 1/2 cup or so of nuts and mix directly into the batter, or almonds or pecans.

A while back someone mentioned making their own fruit flavored syrups by taking juice and boiling it with corn starch or something, to thicken the juice.. I imagine doing this with raspberry or grape juice, would make a very nice fruity syrup, without adding sugar..
This is the NoS diet tho and the rule is "No Sweets".. so it's not *no sugar* just to clarify.. A small amount is really okay.
But definitely reserve your maple syrup for S days, because one tablespoon is about 90 calories of sugar, quite a bit more than a teaspoon or two's worth.

Good luck and congrats for thinking of your baby's health.
I agree with Marc that you should serve fresh fruit whenever you can as well..They learn to eat what we serve them.
If they are fussy eaters, we need to little by little, just casually introduce these foods to them and not have them end up subsisting on a diet of mac and cheese and chicken nuggets alone, or whatever picky toddlers like these days... Mine is now thirteen, and he is much more experimental than back then, and pretty much eats almost everything, or at least gives it a try... but I remember those days like it was yesterday!

Debs

wosnes · Post by **wosnes** » Sun Apr 26, 2009 9:17 pm

I'm not sure about dipping them in applesauce, but pancakes spread with applesauce or applebutter are very good. Any fresh fruit or fruit sauce would be good.

A friend of mine taught me to spread pancakes with butter and sprinkle with sugar. It's quite good AND uses less than a teaspoon of sugar. You could put fruit on top and roll 'em up and have something pretty tasty.

Hmm...I see something here. One of my favorite little restaurants serves crepes and one is a sugar crepe -- topped with butter and sugar: plain sugar, vanilla sugar, cinnamon sugar, orange sugar or chocolate sugar. Also, they top with Nutella or peanut butter and jelly, or berries or bananas. They also put ricotta with lemon sugar on one and ricotta with honey on another.

I think I'm going to have to go there for breakfast next Saturday!

gratefuldeb67 · Post by **gratefuldeb67** » Sun Apr 26, 2009 9:17 pm

Just to share.. My Uncle, an ex hippy, turned yuppy, is a health food distributor to most of the stores on Long Island.
Here's his own line of all natural unsweetened applesauce..
I have to say it's really delicious.
So here's my little plug in case anyone ever sees it in a store somewhere.
Give it a try.
Very chunky and good.

http://www.amazon.com/Kensington-Farms- ... B000VCRV3Q

gratefuldeb67 · Post by **gratefuldeb67** » Sun Apr 26, 2009 9:24 pm

marcdesbiens wrote: I ate apple peals just yesterday ... also when I cook carrots, potatoes, other veggies, in the oven or skillet ...
I leave the skin on... 4-the nutrients. You just wash 'em first, you wash the veggies and then you cook them right away.

Cheers !

Marc

That's great Marc

Keep in mind tho, that unless you are buying organic produce, apple peels and other fruit and veggie skin, can also contain an extremely high pesticide content. It's sad how much they spray them.
So if you really care about your health, which obviously you *do*, since you are 100 percent on a health kick, then go the extra mile and buy organic, and eat your apple peels not worrying whether they are toxic.

For example, I read an article about commercial peach orchards and how much they spray them while they grow.. I think it was between 40 and 60 times!!! And that's a soft skin, so it's gonna absorb the chemicals no doubt.
Same way with berries.. Strawberries absorb all the chemicals, and they spray them like mad, and really kill the taste of the fruit.

Try comparing organic strawberries to non organic, and you won't believe what a difference it makes in taste.

Debs

khristal23 · Post by **khristal23** » Sun Apr 26, 2009 9:45 pm

Thanks for the excellent tips. I'll keep them all in mind. I'll be so glad when my little one outgrows this. He is very resistant to trying anything new and has also suddenly decided he no longer cares for macaroni and cheese, which is just unbelievable!

wosnes · Post by **wosnes** » Sun Apr 26, 2009 10:02 pm

khristal23 wrote:Thanks for the excellent tips. I'll keep them all in mind. I'll be so glad when my little one outgrows this. He is very resistant to trying anything new and has also suddenly decided he no longer cares for macaroni and cheese, which is just unbelievable!

My eldest went through a period of eating not much more than bananas. Now she can't stand them. Be prepared, though, he may not outgrow it for many years. Neither my ex or I were picky eaters, and we had two kids who were very picky. It wasn't until they reached adulthood that it all kind of leveled off. Funny thing is, some of the things they LOVED were things other parents had trouble getting their kids to eat!

apomerantz · Post by **apomerantz** » Mon Apr 27, 2009 1:04 am

I know a lot of folks here aren't too hip on sugar free items, but I use a sugar free syrup (Smuckers) , and I think it tastes great. Not too much different than regular syrup. I will admit that I don't eat pancakes on N days just because psychologically, syrup seems like a sweet to me, even if it is sugar-free . . .

annafarmer · Post by **annafarmer** » Mon Apr 27, 2009 1:29 pm

I like my pancakes with peanut butter on them!

kccc · Post by **kccc** » Mon Apr 27, 2009 1:55 pm

You've gotten a lot of great ideas.

I like cream cheese (not much!) and jelly (not much!)
Or PB
Or ricotta cheese
Or applesauce
Or fresh berries

On the kid front - some totally unsolicited advice that you're totally free to ignore...

Tthere's a book about "how to get kids to eat, but not too much" that advises multiple "exposures" to different foods. Not fighting about it - that's counterproductive - but just having it on the plate, etc. The more the better: 10 is a baseline for it to be kind of "familiar."

khristal23 · Post by **khristal23** » Mon Apr 27, 2009 1:59 pm

KCCC wrote:You've gotten a lot of great ideas.

I like cream cheese (not much!) and jelly (not much!)
Or PB
Or ricotta cheese
Or applesauce
Or fresh berries

On the kid front - some totally unsolicited advice that you're totally free to ignore... Tthere's a book about "how to get kids to eat, but not too much" that advises multiple "exposures" to different foods. Not fighting about it - that's counterproductive - but just having it on the plate, etc. The more the better: 10 is a baseline for it to be kind of "familiar."

I am greatly, greatly appreciative of any and all advice regarding how to get my toddler to eat! I'm all out of ideas. It does seem that the more I push him to eat something, the more resistant he is to trying it. I may try what you said. If I just put things on his plate and don't push him to eat it, just have it there, maybe over time he'll start sampling them!

I have tried jelly on my son's pancakes before, and he seems to like it. I've never tried peanut butter, that sounds interesting!

kccc · Post by **kccc** » Mon Apr 27, 2009 2:04 pm

My experience (one child, so limited sample - but I observe others) is that power struggles over bodily functions of any type with kids almost always end up creating more problems than they solve.

When my son was little, I considered that my job was to select what food choices were available (limiting to "healthy stuff") and my son's job was to figure out what of that selection he was going to eat and how much.

Now that he's older we do have a "polite bite" rule (one bite of everything on the plate, no rudeness allowed - but ONLY one bite if he doesn't like it), but that didn't start until school age.

~reneew · Post by **~reneew** » Mon Apr 27, 2009 2:10 pm

You can make a fun and kid-yummy syrup out of most fruits. You put any fruit, skin and all if you want and puree them in a food processor. Strawberries are incredible! Add water if you want. For picky kids you can add a bit of jello for sweetness and color. You can also make a kind of runny "smoothy-syrup" and add yougurt. For fun, you can make it blue.

I have 4 kids that went through stages... if you keep offering good stuff at meals and limit snacks to necessary and healthy, they'll learn to love the good meals because they'll be hungry (sounds pretty much like no S huh?) ...Until they become teens, then all training seems to fly out the window!

kccc · Post by **kccc** » Mon Apr 27, 2009 2:19 pm

~reneew, a smoothie-type topping on pancakes sounds delish! I like smoothies, but they never feel like a "meal" to me. Just not solid enough, I think. A bran-type pancake with a very thick smoothie-like topping would be awesome!

(Someone posted a recipe using frozen banana as the base recently - that's much like the one I use. Frozen banana, yogurt or milk, more fruit, tiny bit of honey* if needed.)

Oh, and that makes me think - yogurt would be a good topping as well.

(*Note that honey shouldn't be given to kids under 1 year old. Added since the original poster was asking for her kids...)

wosnes · Post by **wosnes** » Mon Apr 27, 2009 3:42 pm

KCCC wrote:~reneew, a smoothie-type topping on pancakes sounds delish! I like smoothies, but they never feel like a "meal" to me. Just not solid enough, I think. A bran-type pancake with a very thick smoothie-like topping would be awesome!

(Someone posted a recipe using frozen banana as the base recently - that's much like the one I use. Frozen banana, yogurt or milk, more fruit, tiny bit of honey* if needed.)

Oh, and that makes me think - yogurt would be a good topping as well.

(*Note that honey shouldn't be given to kids under 1 year old. Added since the original poster was asking for her kids...)

Greek yogurt and fruit would be a wonderful topping. Or Greek yogurt, honey and nuts.

The thick smoothie doesn't sound appealing at all to me, but I think it could be because I think of smoothies being icy cold, and icy just doesn't work on a pancake, in my opinion.

Thalia · Post by **Thalia** » Mon Apr 27, 2009 4:04 pm

Seconding the recommendation for "How to Get Kids to Eat ..." or the same author's other book, "Child of Mine." Ellen Satter (or Sattler? I forget.) is a great voice of sanity about kids and food, and really helped me feel comfortable NOT pushing my daughter to eat or stressing about what/how much she ate.

kccc · Post by **kccc** » Mon Apr 27, 2009 4:28 pm

wosnes wrote:
Greek yogurt and fruit would be a wonderful topping. Or Greek yogurt, honey and nuts.

The thick smoothie doesn't sound appealing at all to me, but I think it could be because I think of smoothies being icy cold, and icy just doesn't work on a pancake, in my opinion.

Good point - I was thinking of the texture. The yogurt/fruit topping would be more what I had in mind, really.

But I think I'd eat a DRY pancake with a smoothie! (A really good home-made pancake, that is.)

wosnes · Post by **wosnes** » Mon Apr 27, 2009 4:40 pm

Thalia wrote:Seconding the recommendation for "How to Get Kids to Eat ..." or the same author's other book, "Child of Mine." Ellen Satter (or Sattler? I forget.) is a great voice of sanity about kids and food, and really helped me feel comfortable NOT pushing my daughter to eat or stressing about what/how much she ate.

I know nothing of these books, but really wish I hadn't made such an issue of food when my kids were little. I've read that if you offer them a selection of healthy foods, they'll pick what they need. It's also okay if they don't pick anything. Eventually, they will.

janmarie · Post by **janmarie** » Tue Apr 28, 2009 10:57 am

on the weekends i sometimes make pancakes roughly out of the same ingredients that i make oatmeal with just an egg and a little whole wheat flour thrown in.

Giarc · Post by **Giarc** » Tue Apr 28, 2009 12:02 pm

Every tried them with strawberry(whatever flavour you like) yogurt on them?