Green Pancakes

Do you remember when Jerry Seinfeld's wife came out with her cookbook that 'secretly' sneaks vegetables into traditionally less nutritious foods? Don't worry, this isn't an endorsement. I am of the personal belief that we should try to teach our kids about healthy foods and establish food knowledge just as we teach the alphabet or numbers. However, I also come from the camp of 'do whatever it takes' to get your kid to eat the most nutritious foods possible. Enter dinner time with my 3 year old. I am lucky in the sense that he will usually eat what a cook for him if he is hungry at dinner time. My trick is to keep him from snacking in the afternoon and not mention what I am cooking for dinner. Otherwise, he will reflexively let me know that he will be eating cereal for dinner. Not exactly the broccoli and cauliflower I had in mind. Tonight was no exception as I casually mentioned to him that I was going to start cooking dinner.

"I want pancakes," says a small but affirmative voice.

At this point, I have been living as a 'seasonal single parent' for over a week and believe me, I am already getting tired. Uh...only approximately 10 more weeks to go. I have a mental conversation with myself and think, am I really going to let him eat pancakes for dinner? Yes, yes I am. But I will not lose the battle entirely. I quickly rummage through his snack drawer and retrieve a Plum Organics baby food package. I keep these handy for quick snacks and for his lunches at preschool. You may think it is odd that my 3 year old still eats baby food, but really it is just pureed fruits and vegetables. Much better than the other conveniently packaged snacks out there. Plus, he loves them.

I started with 1/4 cup of my favorite pancake mix*, Snoqualmie Falls Lodge NutraRich Pancake and Waffle Mix. To that I added 1/4 cup of water and mixed with a wire whisk. I then squeezed a packet of Plum Organics Spinach Peas & Pear baby food into the mix. I added small amounts of additional pancake mix until it reached the right consistency. To cut some of the spinach taste, I added a dash of ground cinnamon and a dash of vanilla extract and then cooked the pancakes like normal. The result was a barely green tinged (really only enough for me to notice because I knew of the special ingredient) and a delicious perfect pancake mostly due to my favorite brand of mix and enhanced by the familiar flavors of cinnamon and vanilla. Dinner was prepared and on the table in less than ten minutes. In the end, his plate was licked clean and both mom and son were happy.

*Note: I should add that this is my super lazy method of pancakes. Here is the basic recipe for pancakes that I use on a regular basis:

3/4 C oat flour
1/4 C whole wheat flour
1 T sugar (I use organic raw sugar, maple syrup or agave syrup interchangeably)
1 1/2 T baking powder
1 C almond milk (or 3/4 C if I am including a vegetable puree)
1/8 tsp salt
(Some people feel the need to add vegetable oil, in which case I would use 2 T for this recipe, but I usually don't add oil if I don't need to.)