Ricotta Pancakes

I had another post that I was going to put up today, until I made breakfast and found something more inspiring. My recipe and food choices for the day are usually guided by what's in the refrigerator and more importantly what needs to be used up. I had half a container of ricotta that wouldn't be good for much longer so I decided to try (again) some ricotta pancakes. I had made one recipe a while back but they were really thin and flat and didn't have a good texture at all. I had almost resigned to the fact that I didn't like ricotta in my pancakes until I tried this recipe. These may be my favorite pancakes! I got the recipe from The King Arthur Flour Bakers Companion Cookbook. I was short on a few ingredients, so I made a few modifications to the recipe, but they turned out so great that I think I will keep making them the same way, which is the recipe I posted below. I had some poached rhubarb which was a wonderful accompaniment to these very light and flavorful pancakes.

Ricotta Pancakes (made about 15 medium large pancakes)

3 eggs (2 of the whites separated and set aside in a clean bowl)
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
3 TBS sugar
2/3 cup of ricotta
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt

In a small mixing bowl, sift the flours, salt, baking powder and baking soda and set aside. In another larger mixing bowl, mix the eggs (minus the two separated egg whites), and ricotta until smooth. Add in the vanilla and buttermilk and whisk until smooth. Begin whipping the egg whites and when they are white a frothy add one tablespoon of sugar. Continue whipping and slowly add the rest of the sugar and whip until medium peaks form. When you hold up the whisk, the egg white should stand up and flop over a little bit at the top. Mix the dry ingredients into the buttermilk mixture, whisk just until the flour is mixed in, be careful to not over mix or the pancakes can be tough. Don't worry if there are a few lumps left. Gently fold in the egg whites. Cook on a griddle over a medium heat. The batter will be very light but thick, so make sure that as you ladle out the batter the pancakes aren't too thick by taking the back of the spoon and spreading the batter out a little. They will take a little longer than regular pancakes to cook, so make sure to keep the heat low enough so they don't get to dark before they're done. Enjoy!

Smoothie

Before I start in on today's post I want to apologize for the lack of posts lately. I have good reason though! I found out a few weeks ago that I'm pregnant. My husband and I are very excited. I'm now through my first trimester and feeling better, but for a while cooking or writing about food sounded less than appealing. I'm very happy to see though that it was short lived! I thought I would start back with a recipe that I find very comforting and a great and quick way to start off the day. I'm sure you've come across many smoothie recipes. I'm fairly sure you haven't seen too many with oatmeal in it though! I got the idea from a few years back when my husband and I were following the Abs Diet it was a very sensible way of eating that basically focuses on a core group of healthy and fresh foods. The oatmeal in the shake gives it a great creaminess and also helps to add fiber and it sticks with you all morning long. In smaller quantities it also makes a great mid day snack. Feel free to play around with all the ingredients in this recipe. I hesitated in labeling this recipe as a specific smoothie (I would have labeled it a banana peanut butter smoothie) because I didn't want to turn anyone off, as you could add whatever you had on hand or were in the mood for. What I'll do is when I'm making oatmeal for breakfast, I'll make extra- then there is oatmeal cold and ready to go whenever I need a quick breakfast. Give it a try and see what you think!



Smoothie (makes 1 large meal sized smoothie)

1/3 cup cooked, cold oatmeal
1 small banana or 1/2- 2/3's of a large
1 TBS peanut butter (preferably natural without any added sugar or salt)
1 TBS of vanilla flavored protein powder*
1/4 tsp of cinnamon
1/2 cup milk (whatever kind you want or you could replace it with soy milk ect.)
3 ice cubes

*for the protein powder I used a whey protein powder- vanilla flavor. This adds some sweetness to the shake along with extra protein. You could also use a soy protein powder if you wanted, if it's not flavored or you want to skip the protein powder all together you might want to add a tsp of honey, maple syrup or sugar. We've made it without any added sugar or protein powder but be forewarned that it's definitely not very sweet. The protein powder or added sugar doesn't make it overly sweet just adds a little more flavor.

Put everything but the ice in a blender, blend until smooth and then add the ice cubes and blend until all the ice is blended in.

Waffles

Making waffles has become a weekend tradition for us. I will make a whole batch and then freeze the leftovers for breakfasts during the week. We usually heat them up in our toaster oven but you can also thaw them out in the microwave and then briefly put them back on the waffle iron to re crisp and they taste like they were just made. I recently made a few small changes to the recipe that I usually use and it made them even lighter and crispier than before. This recipe is very versatile for the flours you use. As long as the total is 2 cups you can mix and match with whatever you have on hand (white flour, whole wheat, buckwheat, flax, cornmeal, oat bran... you get the picture). I think the combination below that I have come up with is a winner!

Whole Grain Waffles (makes about 4 waffles in our Belgian waffle maker)

1 cup spelt flour (or whole wheat pastry)
1/4 cup ground flax seed
1/4 cup oat flour
1/2 cup stone ground cornmeal
1 tbs sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3 eggs
1 1/2 cup buttermilk
3 tbs oil or melted butter (I used hazelnut oil)
1 tsp vanilla

Mix all the dry ingredients together whisking to combine. In a separate bowl mix all the wet ingredients. Heat the waffle maker while combining the wet and dry ingredients together. Let the batter sit while the waffle maker heats up, to give the dry ingredients a chance to absorb the liquid. Grease your waffle maker as needed and put about 1/2 of a cup of batter onto the waffle maker (depending on how big it is you may need less or more). For those waffles you plan on freezing I leave them a little bit on the light side (since they will be reheated/ cooked again) and I also immediately cool them off on a rack (as opposed to keeping them warm, causing them to slightly dry out).

Granola

I had been wanting to make some granola for quite a while, and always seem to run out of time and then see the bulk bin at the grocery store on sale (there's a good low fat apple cinnamon granola we like) and give in and this cycle has been going for some time. Finally we had been out of granola for quite a while and I had the time to make some! I also had a large container of pear butter I have been wanting to use up. I went on a pear and apple butter making spree a while a go and managed to can most of it but I had a container in the refrigerator I had wanted to use. Despite all the recipes I had that I wanted to try out I thought it might work to use the pear butter as a binder, and it did! It ended up making a really nice granola. I know it is easy to make your own but I was reminded of just how easy it is and really how little time it actually took. You want to make sure to use a good quality apple butter (maybe one without high fructose corn syrup... Granola is so flexible as far as what you put in it. You could use all oat flakes as well instead of the combination of barley, oat and triticale. You can also use any kind of nut and fruit combo you want.

Granola
2 cups rolled oat
2 cups barley oats
2 cups triticale oats
1 cup unsweetened coconut
1/2 cup ground flax
1 cup pear or apple butter
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
4 cups add ins (dried fruit, nuts- I used almonds, hazelnuts, raisins, golden raisins, dried cherries)

Pre heat the oven to 300. Mix together the oats, barley and triticale along with the flax and coconut. In a separate bowl combine the pear butter, maple syrup and spices. Pour this over the dry ingredients and mix until it looks like everything has been coated. Spread this out over 3 greased sheet pans (some can sit in the bowl if you are short on sheet pans). Bake for probably about 30 minutes or so. You really are looking to see that the oats are golden and that once taken out of the oven, and when it cools, it is crunchy. You can test this by taking a little bit off the sheet pan and letting it cool for a moment on the counter... and if it seems like it's pretty crunchy once it's cool to the touch, then it's done. To ensure that it gets cooked enough keep cooking it as long as you can before it gets too brown. While it's cooking you want to stir about every 10 minutes or so to make sure all the granola gets moved around. If you don't you'll end up with some nice and crunchy (the stuff on the edges) and then some that's pretty soggy (the stuff that's right in the middle). After all the granola is baked and fairly cool then you can add the dried fruit and toasted nuts (toasting them brings more flavor out). I don't think I really measured this, just a hand full of this and a hand full of that.... so if 2 cups total looks like too much to you, don't add it all in or if you like a lot of stuff in your granola, add more. Enjoy!

Cranberry Cornmeal Muffins

We often have muffins around, I like them as a healthy quick and easy snack. Because they are around often, I like to make them as healthy, and try to incorporate as much fiber as I can. I have quite a few favorites I like to use, but this is a new recipe that turned out nicely. As time goes on I will post some of the other recipes I like, but for now this recipe turned out to be a great way to use up some left over cranberries. As with all muffin recipes,they are very flexible and any other berry could easily be substituted.



Cranberry Cornmeal Muffins (makes about 15 smaller muffins or 12 larger ones)

3/4 cups spelt or whole wheat pastry flour
3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 cup stone ground cornmeal
1/2 cup sugar
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
3 tbs ground flax seed
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
3 tbs oil or melted butter
1 1/2 cup cranberries (you can chop them or keep them whole)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Mix all the dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Mix the wet ingredients (buttermilk, eggs, vanilla and oil) to combine and pour into dry ingredients. Continue mixing until almost all mixed in, and add the cranberries and fold just until all the dry ingredients are no longer visible. At this point while you are greasing the muffin tins let the batter sit 10-20 minutes. By letting the batter sit it gives it a chance for all the liquid to be absorbed by the dry ingredients, which will make the batter thicker and easier to scoop. Fill the muffin tins 1/2 - 3/4 full and bake until the muffin springs back when gently pressed in the middle. Rotate the muffin tins half way through baking to help bake evenly. After taking out of the oven let them cool for 5-10 minutes and turn them out onto a cooling rack until completely cool.