Paleo Food Spotlight: Pancakes!
This time of year, fall, October, makes most of us dream about pumpkin treats and fireside hot chocolate drinking. While I have a lifetime of recipes for these items, from relatives and old Betty Crocker cookbooks, that involve white, processed sugar, it takes a bit of research to make the transition from traditional to paleo. This doesn’t mean you have to lose the deliciousness! Nor is the fun, spending time with family in the kitchen, going away. For me, all it has meant was research, learning to make new shopping lists, and understanding new ways of cooking.
I have mastered the steak and veggie meals, but the family has really been missing baked goods. We love biscuits, cookies, muffins, and PANCAKES. So, the other day I went over to my favorite food site, www.PaleOMG.com for a recipe. Sure enough, there were many pancake choices! I tried this one: http://paleomg.com/banana-vanilla-bean-pancakes-with-mixed-berry-compote. Of course, at the time it was early morning, I had never tried this before and was missing some ingredients. Specifically, I was not stocked up on frozen fruit for the compote and did not have vanilla beans. After a bit of brainstorming, what sounded like a decent sweetener alternative were 75% cacao chocolate chips! I had plenty of those on hand. I also added some extra vanilla extract and cinnamon, just in case. It took about 10 minutes to measure and mix everything with the food processor, cooked them in a pan like any other pancake, and then we ate the most delicious, chocolate-banana pancakes we’ve ever tasted! All I could think was: why did I wait so long to try this???
When I talk to people who are health conscious but don’t “diet,” they reject the Paleo diet because it appears to be a current fad. Most want to buy and prepare fresh, whole foods that have not been heavily processed. This is exactly what the Paleo or Zone diets are trying to accomplish. Even if you could not possibly care less about your work-out performance, there is logic behind using fresh, unprocessed ingredients in new ways to make traditional food. With the world’s increasing gluten sensitivity, the issues with wheat byproducts are evident. Those who are lactose intolerant can attest to the discomfort and inflammation experienced eating dairy products. Mix all of those ingredients together, plus cheap fat and corn syrup, with extreme processing in fast, canned or frozen food, and you have a lot of unhealthy people!
So! Despite this knowledge, it’s easy to fall back into old routines in the kitchen. I want to make (and eat) Pioneer Woman’s cinnamon rolls like you wouldn’t believe! However, my goal for this holiday season is to expand horizons, and attempt to make old food in new ways. Try it and you will be surprised at how good fresh food tastes! This is not a diet, it’s just a new way to cook.
