Carrot Pancakes

Sometimes I think people shudder at what I feed my kid (or what my kid will eat). Last night on the phone to Auntie K, I said, "Can you believe Sweet P is eating homemade pizza with a pesto base, dried tomatoes, spinach and broccoli? Would you have eaten that?" Auntie K's response, "Who makes that for their kid?" Um, well, me. And Auntie K meant that in the nicest way possible. She keeps me up to snuff on nutrition since she's a biology major who knows lots about that kind of stuff (that and my Science Guy husband). Auntie K always reminds me to wash Sweet P's hands (and my own) after we play in the dirt because a cat might have pooped in it. What would I do without her?

Whew, what a tangent. All that to say I'm gonna share my carrot pancake recipe with you. I wasn't sure how these would turn out, but ya know, if you can make carrot cake and carrot muffins, then why not pancakes? I desperately wanted them to be pumpkin pancakes, but I refuse to give Sweet P things out of a can (you know I'm a nutso, right?) so I nixed that until I figure out how to bake my own pumpkins. I really wanted to buy a sugar pumpkin at Trader Joe's today (Yes!!!!!!! we finally got one!!!! grand opening today!!! that should be it's own post, really), but I had the Farmer with me and he's the voice of reason and said, "No." to the pumpkin. Grr. Sheesh, where is this post going? Here's the recipe. And along with it (please don't gag, I tried it and it was good), carrot yogurt to dip them in.

The Recipe: Carrot Pancakes

What you need:

1 cup organic whole wheat flour

1 cup organic oats (uncooked)

1 tbsp flax + 3 tbsp water (egg replacement)

1/4 c organic plain yogurt

3/4 c steamed carrots (mashed)

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tbsp honey

About 1 cup of water

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

Mix dry ingredients in a bowl.

Add yogurt, olive oil, carrots and honey, stirring slightly. Combine 3 tbsp water and slowly add cup of water until pancakes reach your desired consistency. They should be somewhat runny, but thick. Heat a skillet or griddle on medium heat and drizzle olive oil in the pan. Drop small amounts of batter into skillet (or large amounts depending on what size you want them). Cook for 1 minute and turn. They may need a bit longer if they are still moist on the inside. Repeat until you've used all the batter.

Carrot Yogurt

1/2 c organic plain yogurt

2 tbsp steamed carrots (mashed)

sprinkle of cinnamon

Mix ingredients together in a small bowl. Dip pancakes in yogurt.

You can of course use shredded carrots for the pancakes, but I wanted to use mashed for better consistency. It also helps since I use water instead of milk to make it thicker instead of runny. I made these for Sweet P on Halloween morning, hence the pumpkin shaped pancake. She LOVED dipping them in the yogurt and then licking the yogurt off. She didn't quite get the concept of actually taking a bite of the pancake with the yogurt on it, but we'll get there! Keep leftovers in the fridge or freezer.