Farm Fresh

One thing I have learned over the years when it comes to cooking is your food is only as good as the ingredients that you put into it.  I am thrilled to be closer to natural food resources and excited to include them in our everyday meals.  Who knows, maybe we will all become lovers of vegetables (yes, there will be a story later on this)?

Scratch Pancakes
I found the recipe below on food.com and tweaked it a bit to make it more healthy for my family.  So far, so good.  The Hinkle 5 give it a big thumbs up.

Ingredients

1. 1 cup all-purpose flour (I love King Arthur's flour.  It is well worth the cost)
2. 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour
3. 2 tablespoons sugar (I use raw stevia from Trader Joes, 1 tablespoon instead)
4. 2 teaspoons baking powder
5. 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
6. 1 tablespoon of flaxseed meal
7. 1/2 teaspoon salt
8. 1 1/4-1 1/2 cups milk (I like whole milk)
9. 2 eggs (farm fresh from the market)
10. 1 teaspoon vanilla (highly recommend Haitian or Mexican vanilla)
11. 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
12. 2 tablespoons olive oil or canola oil (you can use vegetable too)

13. Directions

    1. In a bowl, mix together all the dry ingredients.
    2. Make a well in the center and pour in the milk.
    3. Start with 1 1/4 cups milk, adding up to another 1/4 cup if necessary, as you mix it with the flour.
    4. Add the two eggs, vanilla if using and oil, whisking until mixed but still a bit lumpy.
    5. Heat a frying pan (if it is not non-stick, you will need to melt a bit of butter or oil in it) and when hot, pour in some pancake mix.
    6. How much depends on how experienced you are at flipping pancakes and how big you want them. We do about 1/4 cup a time for small, easy-to-flip pancakes but you could make this as much as 1/2 cup of pancake mix.
    7. If you are adding fruit, I like to sprinkle it on top of the pancake now.
    8. When the pancake starts to bubble on top and is golden brown on the cooked side, turn it and continue cooking until both sides are golden brown.
    9. Repeat the cooking process with the remaining batter. You may need to adjust the heat as pan tends to get hotter as you keep making pancakes.
    10. Keep the cooked pancakes covered with a tea towel, to keep them warm while you finish cooking the rest.