Thursday, May 14, 2009

Pancakes From Scratch

I'm tired. Most nights I am. My day starts around 5:30; all three boys and myself need to be out the door for school and work by 6:50am. My van usually doesn't roll back in the driveway until around 5:00pm, by then my youngest has been home for a couple hours and I've just picked up the two older kids from track. Cooking, of course, is the last thing I want to do. Tonight was no different from any other night when I'm bored with the quick pop-in-the-oven pre-packaged stuff, like tater tots and pre-formed, frozen burgers; or even worse, pizza - AGAIN! But my youngest insists that pizza five nights a week is good for you, right? All of the food groups are there...just not in the right proportions, unfortunately.

At least there's one thing I can make from scratch that's quick: pancakes. Not the most nutritious meal, but it's something to put in your stomach. I may be more ambitious tomorrow! At least I took step-by-step photos this time :)


Now I'm thinking I need to take some egg photos for another post - there's a family at our church who has an over-abundance of eggs this year, so they've been giving them away. The brown ones from the farm are so pretty; you never know what color variations you'll get in each carton.






Pancakes (Serves 4-5 people)

2 Eggs, beat in a large bowl until frothy.

Add the following ingredients:

2 cups flour
2 cups milk
3 Tablespoons oil
1 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons baking powder
3 Tablespoons sugar.


Mix well with a whisk or hand mixer.

Heat an electric frypan or griddle to 350 degrees, or heat frypan over stove on medium-high heat (If you do not have a non-stick pan, you will have to add just a little oil or cooking spray before heating). The pan is hot enough when a drop of water dropped on the pan bounces and evaporates quickly.


Pour or ladle pancake batter onto pan, about 1/2 cup per pancake, all depending on how big you want them. When bubbles form and then pop on top, and they start to turn just a little golden on the edges they are ready to flip.

If you are curious whether they are done or not, just lift up an edge - if it's golden, it's done. There are a few variations, all depending on what you have on hand. Sometimes I add a teaspoon of cinnamon, a teaspoon of vanilla or some finely chopped apple (about 1/2 cup) - which is good with cinnamon; blueberries are good too. Strawberries turn into a sticky mess, as they tend to stick a bit, but they're good too. Experiment! It's hard to screw up pancakes! I will have to give you my mother-in-law's recipe for buttermilk pancakes. Those are heaven! Maybe next time!

5 comments:

  1. Thanks I love to make breakfast for supper every so often. My family loves it. Something I like to do that is not real time consuming is kabobs. You can get the wooden scewers at the dollar store. My daughter used to love doing them with me. Chicken or beef or whatever(shrimp) and cut up veggies and then cook on the grill or broiler. It can be fun.

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  2. Soak your skewers in water, then keep them in the freezer...that way they're always ready to go. Mmm grilling season is here - yay!

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  3. so you know Sandi- that bowl you put the eggs in is beautiful!

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  4. It makes me laugh to think, "it that bowl almost an antique?" - I got it for my bridal shower in 1990! lol

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  5. Frozen Pizza every night ..... sounds like my hubby!

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