Whole Grain and Nut Pancakes

Around here we have pancakes one day a week, on Sunday. I cannot tolerate my children wigging out on white flour and sugar regularly so we started this weekly ritual and the kids really look forward to it. We use to have pancake Saturday because our church was at 8:30 on Sunday morning, but this year church starts at 12:30 so we have extra time on Sunday morning to indulge and then someone else gets to tolerate their wigging out on Sunday :) Just kidding, of course!

Anyway, I cannot eat regular pancakes. Before losing 70 lbs last year I was pre-diabetic and would go into a massive sugar crash after eating pancakes. Between the white flour and sugary syrup I would feel awful! So I stopped eating pancakes and just made them for everyone else.

Well, I've finally found my pancake answer and it is TASTY! These pancakes are made with whole grains and nuts, the only questionable component that I haven't worked out of them is the oil, but I'm okay with that because it isn't the oil that causes problems for me, it's the fluff (white flour and sugar) that makes me feel icky. So here is my new Sunday morning ritual!

Ingredients:

1 cup rolled oats, ground into flour
3/4 cup white whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups buttermilk (or read my buttermilk alternative note at the end)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 cup whole almonds, ground
1/4 cup walnuts, ground

Directions:

1. Grind the oats in a food processor or small grinder like a coffee grinder - this works well for grinding the nuts, too. Mix the dry ingredients - ground oats, flour, ground nuts, baking soda, baking powder, salt and sugar in a medium size mixing bowl.

2. In a separate bowl, mix your wet ingredients - buttermilk, oil and egg. Blend well with a wire whisk.

3. Pour wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and blend well with your whisk, but do not over mix.

I found that the pancakes I made towards the end of the batch were fluffier and looked nicer so I would suggest letting your batter rest for 20-30 minutes if you have the time. The first ones were not bad, they just did not hold together as well but this could have also been from using a lower heat setting.

This is one of the last pancakes.

Cook the pancakes in a dry, hot, non-stick pan/griddle on medium heat until brown and slightly bubbling (these will not bubble like regular pancakes do). I use a 1/3 cup measuring cup to scoop out the batter and this makes for perfect sized pancakes and gave me 9 pancakes. Since I'm the only one eating these pancakes, I let the extra pancakes cool with parchment paper separating them, then placed 2 pancakes per quart sized freezer bag for 3 more Sundays of pancakes!

NOTE: Butermilk alternative. I love buttermilk pancakes, but I rarely use buttermilk and never have it on hand. I learned a little buttermilk trick years ago and use it regularly in all kinds of recipes. Add 1 1/2 tsp of cider vinegar to the 1 1/2 cup of milk, stir and let sit for 5 minutes.