The Best Roasted Potatoes

Potatoes were not the primary carb in my house growing up, at least not in their whole potato form. We had mashed potatoes (from a box - gasp!) and sometimes potato salad in the summer, but our mainstay starchy deliciousness was rice, a holdover from my parent's Louisiana upbringing where everything is served on top of it (gumbo, etouffee) or mixed with it (jambalaya, red beans and rice).

As a kid, I actually avoided things that tasted too much like potato. Steak fries? Absolutely not. I wanted skinny, crunchy, well-browned strips that may have been a potato in a former life but were by that point simply delicious vessels for grease, salt, and mustard (never been a ketchup fan). And whole baked potatoes, which I loved, were in my favorite foods index simply because I slathered them in butter, sour cream, gooey cheese, and bacon. Without those "toppings," I wasn't all that interested.

So it took me a while to get into roasted potatoes. The first time I ordered hash browns alongside my omelet and found myself looking at diced potatoes instead of the familiar shredded Waffle House-style pile, I contemplated sending the plate back. What were these? Roasted potatoes? Masquerading as hash browns?

But as my brunch tooth grew (and grew and grew), I started to warm to these perfectly spiced, crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside roasted potatoes. Those were the keys. They had to be spiced well - salted, maybe with a little spice, or an italian kick. They had to be crunchy on the outside. Soggy roasted potatoes are just a nonstarter. But crunchy all the way through won't work either. It's a delicate balance.

And this recipe from Emeril's Farm to Fork is that balance. They are perfect. Every. Time.

I've used russet potatoes, fingerling potatoes, sweet potatoes, those little round red potatoes. I've cut them in large chunks for dinner and diced them for breakfast. They are fabulous without fail.

I have made them so many times that I don't even use the recipe anymore, though the cookbook falls open to that exact page. Because I love thyme so much, I've added in a lot more than the original recipe, and I think that's part of what makes them my absolute favorite.

These are a teensy bit of extra work, but they are entirely worth it.

Roasted Potatoes
Very slightly adapted from Farm to Fork

2 pounds potatoes
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon coarse sea salt (I use whatever I have)
1 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
3 bay leaves
6 sprigs thyme
2 heaping tablespoons fresh thyme
3 sprigs rosemary
2 tablespoons butter (I use earth balance)

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Slice the potatoes into whatever size you want them - I usually quarter a fingerling potato. Remember to adjust your cooking time if you go very small or very big.
3. In a medium bowl add the olive oil, salt, paprika, pepper, bay leaves, thyme, and rosemary. Add the potatoes and toss thoroughly, making sure all the potatoes are covered.
4. Place the sprigs on a rimmed baking sheet and pour the potatoes on top. Set the bowl aside.
5. Roast the potatoes for 20 minutes.
6. Remove the baking sheet from the oven and pour the potatoes and herbs into the bowl you set aside earlier. Add the butter (or earth balance) and toss well until melted.
7. Carefully return the potatoes to the hot baking sheet. Roast for another 15-20 minutes or until fork-tender. Discard the herb sprigs and serve.


p.s. My wife wanted me to start this post with AAAAAAAHHHH!!! THESE POTATOES ARE AMAZING!! AAAAAAAAH!!!!


p.s.s. My mama's peach cobbler, vegan-style.


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Healthy Decadence: Pumpkin Pancakes with Coconut Fried Bananas

One of my favorite things about the weekend is the breakfast.  Sure, I love my weekday smoothies or a nice bowl of oatmeal, but I get really excited when there's something decadent on the menu.  And that happens on the weekend.

We usually split the days:  one morning of making something delicious at home, one of heading out for brunch.  And though my brunch meal this weekend was great, I can say honestly that it wasn't as good as these homemade pancakes.

The hearty, subtly sweet flavor of the pancakes combined with the decadent, gooey bananas made this perhaps my most successful weekend breakfast ever.

And the good news is that these pancakes aren't only delicious - they're healthy.  Simple ingredients, one hundred percent whole wheat flour, and no refined sugar.

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Pancakes with Coconut Fried Bananas
Adapted from whole wheat pumpkin pancIn akes 

For the pancakes:
1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 tablespoon maple syrup
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups milk (I used unsweetened almond milk)
1 cup pumpkin puree (I used canned pumpkin)
1 egg
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
coconut oil for frying

For the bananas:
Follow the instructions found here. 

1.  Mix together the wet ingredients in a large bowl (including the pumpkin).
2. Quickly wisk together the dry ingredients in a separate bowl, and then pour the dry ingredients into the wet, mixing completely.
3.  Pour 1 tablespoon of coconut oil (or melt 1 tablespoon in the pan if your coconut oil is in a solid state) into a frying pan over medium heat.
4.  Scoop about 1/4 cup of batter into the pan for each pancake.
5.  When large bubbles appear in the center of the pancakes and they start to lose the shiny look of batter, flip them over.  (Note: Because of the pumpkin, these will likely need to cook a little longer and on a lower heat than your average pancakes so that they're not too gooey on the inside.)
6.  While the pancakes are cooking, prepare the bananas as instructed here. 
7.  Create a stack of finished pancakes, topping with the carmelized bananas, a sprinkle of coconut, and a drizzle of maple syrup. 
8.  Enjoy!

 

Whole Wheat Fried Dough

One of my all-time favorite treats as a kid was fried biscuits from a can. I felt like they were something special my family did to approximate beignets because we were cajun but not great with the beignet-making. Ours never puffed up.


I've since learned that lots of people make them, but it hasn't lessened my enjoyment one bit. I've made them for other folks on various occasions, and it has won me undying devotion in certain circles. You think I'm kidding, but I'm not.

Of course, I don't think there's a single ingredient in a can of Pillsbury biscuits that Navah can eat. I still make them for myself sometimes, but fried dough is something she's never gotten to enjoy.


Until this past weekend.

When I made the honey whole wheat biscuits a few weeks back, I had a bit of dough leftover that wasn't big enough to make into a full biscuit. While the others were baking, I heated up some oil and plopped the little bit in and...Kabam! A little ball of puffy, fried dough!


So this weekend, I whipped up a batch of the biscuit dough - using a flax egg in place of the real egg, rolled it out, cut it into little squares and made us some fried biscuits. I sprinkled them with cinnamon and "sugar" (xylitol) to take the place of the powdered sugar that I would normally sprinkle on fried biscuits.

They look a little like chicken nuggets here, but I assure you they are not. They're sweet and delicious. I also recommend making them when you have friends around. Or only making a half batch. We had a little self-restraint issue, which led to a big food coma issue.

Honey Whole-Wheat Fried Dough
Adapted from King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking


3 cups whole wheat pastry flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (or 1 stick) cold earth balance
1 flax egg (1 tbsp ground flax seeds mixed with 3 tbps warm water)
3/4 cup almond milk (or soymilk or buttermilk if you can have it)
3 tablespoons honey


1. Whisk together the dry ingredients in a large bowl.
2. Cut the butter into the dry ingredients with a pastry cutter, a fork, or your hands until it's a dry, crumbly mixture. Set aside.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flax egg, almond milk, and honey. Then pour into the dry ingredients and mix until just moistened.
4. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and fold over onto itself several times to bring it together. A dough scraper is great for this, but if you don't have one, just use your hands.
5. Now's about the time to start heating up your oil. Pour canola (or other mild vegetable oil) about 1 inch deep into a pot. Using a candy thermometer, heat the oil until it's between 360 and 375 degrees. If it's too hot, the outside of the dough will burn before the inside gets cooked. If it's too cold, the dough will soak up the oil - not good, I promise. You'll have to monitor the temperature throughout, as it will fluctuate once you start putting the dough in.5. With a lightly floured rolling pin, roll the dough out until it's about 3/4 inch thick.
7. Using a sharp knife or pizza cutter, cut the dough into squares.
8. Depending on the size of your pot, drop the dough into the oil a few pieces at a time. Turn each piece over when it starts to get slightly golden on the top. 
9. Scoop out with a slotted spoon and place on a plate that's been covered with paper towels. Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar, or xylitol for a sugar-free version. 


Katie 

Honey Whole Wheat Biscuits

On that glorious internet-free Saturday last weekend, I whipped up a batch of whole wheat biscuits from my new favorite, the King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking cookbook. My audience is pretty easy since, being lactose intolerant, Navah's never really been able to eat biscuits. She's got no gauge for comparison, so she's pretty happy with anything that tastes yummy. But even I thought these were delicious. 


I'm still perfecting whole grain baking. I do it a lot, but there's a great deal of trial and error. I don't always know why things turn out the way they do. Whole wheat creations are always a little crumbly, and I'm hoping that continued baking out of this book will help me figure out how to make my baked goods fluffier and lighter. 

While these biscuits were a bit crumblier and less fluffy than my mom's biscuits, the taste was fabulous. Especially since they were 100% whole wheat and dairy-free. And we gobbled them up. 




Honey Whole-Wheat Biscuits
Adapted just slightly from King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking


3 cups whole wheat pastry flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (or 1 stick) cold earth balance
1 large egg
3/4 cup almond milk (or soymilk or buttermilk if you can have it)
3 tablespoons honey


1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper
2. Whisk together the dry ingredients in a large bowl.
3. Cut the butter into the dry ingredients with a pastry cutter, a fork, or your hands until it's a dry, crumbly mixture. Set aside.
4. In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg, almond milk, and honey. Then pour into the dry ingredients and mix until just moistened.
5. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and fold over onto itself several times to bring it together. A dough scraper is great for this, but if you don't have one, just use your hands.
6. With a lightly floured rolling pin, roll the dough out until it's about 3/4 inch thick.
7. Using a biscuit cutter, cut out the biscuits and place them onto the prepared parchment paper. (King Arthur Flour recommends using a biscuit cutter and not a glass because the biscuit cutter cuts the dough cleanly, allowing the layers to fluff up when baking, rather than smashing them all together like the blunt edge of a glass does. I didn't have a biscuit cutter, but I think I'll get one and try it again since I'm going for fluffy.)
8. Fold over the extra bits and roll out again to cut more biscuits.
9. Bake for 11-14 minutes and serve hot. 

Katie 

Whole Grain Pancakes

Is there anything better than a lazy weekend morning with homemade pancakes?

It almost seems like time slows down a bit to let you enjoy the unbeatable smell of pancakes on the stove, steeping coffee, and sweet maple syrup.

I recently purchased the King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking tome. Seriously, it weighs about 10 pounds. I'm constantly adapting recipes to make them with whole grain flours, without eggs, without dairy, with alternative sweeteners, and it's really a hit-or-miss sort of affair. I've got nothing against trial and error, but sometimes you want a loaf of bread that doesn't feel like an anvil or cookies that don't crumble into a thousand piece the moment you pick them up off the pan. And you don't want it to take 50 tries to get there. 


I decided it was time to buy a whole grain baking book so that I could at least limit the number of ingredients I was substituting or futzing around with, and perhaps learn a little about different types of flours and why they act like they do. 


After just flipping through the pages I bit, I'd already learned important things about how I'm measuring my flour and the temperature of my ingredients. 


I started with the first recipe - Simple Spelt Pancakes.


Of course, after all that talk about not making too many substitutions, I was out of spelt flour and running quite low on some others. So I made these with a little buckwheat flour and the rest whole wheat bread flour. 


If the pancakes are any sign of what's to come, the cookbook is going to be a great addition to our kitchen. Light, fluffy, and flavorful, we gobbled these pancakes up - perhaps a bit faster than we should have! Pancake-induced comas followed.


Whole Grain Pancakes
Adapted from The King Arthur Flour Company's Simple Spelt Pancakes

1/2 cup buckwheat flour

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour (I used whole wheat bread flour)
2 tablespoons xylitol (or sugar)
1 tablespoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups almond milk (or regular milk)
2 tablespoons earth balance, melted (or butter)
2 teaspoons vanilla 

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.

2. Combine the milk, melted earth balance, and the vanilla.

3. Form a well in the center of the dry ingredients, and pour the wet ingredients into the dry. Stir the batter just until the dry ingredients are thoroughly moistened. Let the batter sit for 15 minutes before you use it. (Hardest part! I was a hungry lady!)

4. Heat your pan. When the surface of your pan is hot enough that a drop of water sputters across the surface, melt in a teensy bit of earth balance, and spoon the batter onto the hot surface, 1/4-cupful at a time.

6. Let the pancakes cook on the first side until bubbles begin to form around the edges of the cakes, about 2 to 3 minutes. You may need to adjust your heat up or down to get the pancakes to cook through without scorching the surface, or being too pale.

7. When the cakes are just beginning to set, flip them and let them finish cooking on the second side, about 1 minute more, until they’re golden brown on both sides.

Enjoy!

Katie

Vegan Tofu Scramble: Copycat Recipe

One of my favorite brunch places in DC is Open City in Woodley Park, primarily because they have a super interesting and varied menu, and they give you coffee in a cup only slightly smaller than your head. One of my favorite items there is the vegan tofu scramble.  It has such a fresh and unique flavor that I used to order it even before I knew I was somewhat allergic to eggs.


When I was there a couple of weekends ago - for what I knew would be the last time before I leave for Vermont (which, thankfully has many great brunch spots), I ordered the vegan tofu scramble, noted the ingredients in the menu listing, and studied the flavors while I ate so that I could attempt to recreate it at home.

Before I share the results, I must admit that I am not one of those people who tastes a spoonful of something and instantly knows it needs more paprika or cumin or dill or anything really except salt.  I'm also not one of those people who can eat something and say, "yes, that thing you're tasting is cardamom."  Just not one of my skills.  So if the folks at Open City hadn't been so kind as to put the main ingredients on the menu, and if the dish weren't fairly straightforward, I probably never would've been able to make it.


With that being said, this was one of the best meals I've ever made.  The taste is complex and refreshing, and it's super simple to make - the best combination ever.


It was simply a matter of slightly browning the chickpeas,

steaming the broccoli, and throwing that and the tofu in the pan

while making the sauce.




The MVP Award goes to:

Well played.  Seriously well played.


So, without further ado, here's the recipe:



Vegan Tofu Scramble
Adapted from Open City's menu item


2 T tahini
Juice of 1 lemon
2 T water
2 T olive oil
1 tsp dried chives (I subbed these because I didn't have scallions)
1/2 block extra firm tofu
1 can chickpeas
1/2 small head of broccoli


1.  Rinse the chickpeas and pour into a pan with about 1/2 T olive oil over medium heat.  Add a little salt and pepper to taste.  You'll stir these occasionally while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
2.  Take your tofu out and place it between two paper towels on a plate, and place a heavy object, such as a cast iron pan on top of it to squeeze out the water.  Let it rest like that until you're ready to cut it up.
3.  Steam the broccoli just until bright green - I used a traditional steamer in a pot, but a microwave steamer would work just as well.
4.  Prepare the sauce by combining the tahini, lemon, water, olive oil, and chives in a small bowl.  Set aside
5.  At this point, your chickpeas should be nice and golden, and your broccoli should be bright green. Cut up your tofu into small cubes and throw it and the broccoli in with the chickpeas.  Let that cook for about 2 minutes.
6.  At the last minute, just before serving, pour in the sauce and stir around until everything is coated.  You don't want it to be in there for more than a minute or so - just enough to heat the sauce.
7.  Serve!  I paired mine with mixed greens and a vinaigrette, but it would be great with toast and fruit or hash browns as well.

Enjoy!


Katie 

Strangers + Granola = Happy

I'm not even sure how the conversation got started, but last Friday morning, I found myself laughing about cooking woes with another woman in line getting coffee.  I told her about the batch of granola I had burned the night before because I didn't realize how much hotter this oven is than my old oven.  She was amazed that anyone even made their own granola, and after I assured her that it was just about the easiest thing to make (as long as you don't get into a long phone conversation with your mom and forget to check on it), she asked for the recipe.  We exchanged emails, and I sent it to her when I got to my desk.  She emailed back that she was looking forward to making it and would let me know how it goes.



Connecting with strangers is, for me, one of the simplest and most delightful pleasures of life. Sharing a laugh or a smile with someone I've never met breaks through - if only a little bit - the barriers that we put up around ourselves every day.  Here in the city, especially with Navah gone, I feel pretty walled off.  I take the bus to work, sit in my office, take the bus home, play with Jammer.  I talk to people at work about work stuff, I talk to my friends and family on the phone, and I usually hang out with friends on the weekends.  But I realize that my in-person interactions are exceedingly rare these days.  And interactions that involve laughter and lightness are even more rare.  The result is that a conversation like the one I had with that woman last week can brighten my whole day.




I don't know if she'll make the granola, but I thought about her as I made mine, making sure not to let it burn this time.

Easy Peasy Granola
From the Vermont Ladies

3 1/2 cups oats
1/2 cup each:
  pecans
  wheat germ
  toasted shaved coconut (I toasted mine in a pan on the stove)
  slivered almonds (I was out of these, so I used walnuts)
  pumpkin seeds
  sunflower seeds
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup oil (I used olive oil - I bet it'd be delicious with coconut oil)
1/2 cup maple syrup

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees.  Mix everything together on a baking pan, and bake for 2-3 hours, stirring every hour or so and checking on it every half hour.  Let it cool and then store in an air-tight container. 



If you want to add in dried fruit, like raisins or craisins, do that after you bake it so they don't get dried out.

Funny story:  This is a half-recipe of what I normally make, but I forgot in the middle that I was splitting it, and I poured in the full amount of maple syrup and oil.  It looked like a lot, and I realized - woops! - too much maple syrup!  But then I thought, Hey, what the heck.  :)  So this batch is extra decadent.

 

Enjoy!

Katie

PS - This is a great holiday gift!!

Whole Wheat Ginger Peach Waffles...and they're vegan too!

During the week, I eat oatmeal for breakfast every single morning.  Usually with raisins and walnuts.  On special days, with blueberries.  It's my quick and easy go-to breakfast, and I thoroughly enjoy it.

But on the weekends, I like something a little more decadent.  French toast.  Pancakes.  Waffles.  Especially waffles.  There's just something about all those perfectly perfect little squares soaking up butter and syrup.  It's clearly a food made to be relished.

I'm always working on new and interesting healthy takes on the traditional waffle recipe, and this weekend's version was a real winner.  The peaches and nectarines we got from the farmers market were to die for, and I knew they'd be splendid in a breakfast treat.  Unfortunately for Navah, I gave her my cold (I'm very generous), and she couldn't really taste them.  So guess I'll just have to make them again.  Poor, poor me.

When you make these this weekend (as I suspect you will), be sure to make enough for everyone to have seconds because before you know it, they'll be going

going 

going

going 

gone.

Whole Wheat Ginger Peach Waffles

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

1 3/4 cup soy milk (we use Westsoy's unsweetened vanilla)

1/2 cup canola oil (we actually used safflower because I was out of canola)

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon agave nectar

2 cups white whole wheat flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 peaches, diced

1 tablespoon powdered ginger

confectioners sugar and peaches for garnish

1.  Preheat your waffle iron.  Mix all the ingredients together (so special order necessary).

2.  Pour the recommended amount into the waffle maker (ours is 3/4 cup), and await deliciousness.

Enjoy!

Katie 

GUEST BLOG: Hearty Apple Muffins

Hello world! Katie asked if I’d be interested in guest blogging every once in awhile, and I am thrilled to accept her generous offer.  I’m excited to share some of the things I cook with everyone.  Who am I? Well, I’m a friend of Katie’s.  I grew up mostly vegetarian, so lentils, beans, and baked potatoes are some of my comfort foods.  I’m engaged to a meat-and-potatoes man (Mr. MP, which makes me Mrs. MP-to-be).  We love to cook together, and it ends up being a series of compromises (“Honey, aren’t we going to have a vegetable?” -- “Darling, is there going to be any protein tonight?”).  Local, seasonal produce gets me going; show Mr. MP charred cow flesh, and his heart sings.  Alas.

Yet we are BOTH absolutely crazy about Honeycrisp apples. 

They are the best apples ever.  I love the crunch when you bite into the apple and the rosy skin.  Mr. MP loves the sweetness balanced with acidity.  Ideally this apple is eaten alone, right off the core.  Pick it up, wash it off, bite in and enjoy.  It’s perfection.  They come in big, bigger, and gigantic sizes.  It’s an apple that could be your entire meal—and you wouldn’t even be upset about it.

Sometimes, though, an apple on its own won’t cut it.  Sometimes life gets in the way and you have to go to work - a place where Honeycrisp juice running down my arms and onto legal documents (or my keyboard) does not please my co-workers (or tech support) .  Enter the apple muffin.

My muffin preference generally runs toward a lighter, fluffier muffin that has a low level of sweetness.  (I’m not looking for a round piece of pound cake.  But I do enjoy an individual jalapeno-cheddar cornbread.)  I also enjoy a bit of texture in my muffin, so I frequently substitute some of the flour in a recipe with rolled oats, oatmeal being one of my favorite breakfast foods.  The grated apple adds flavor, moisture, and color (pink skin bits!) to the finished product.

In addition to Honeycrisp, this muffin is about nutmeg.  I think nutmeg has played second-fiddle to cinnamon for far too long.  I adore cinnamon—what would an oatmeal cookie be without it?—but I’m also now a huge fan of nutmeg.  It has a spicy-woodsy-floral aroma that’s more complex, and less sweet, than cinnamon.  Buying it in seed form, not pre-ground, is the best way to go.  I think I really can taste more nutmeg-ness. I also think the pattern you see in the inside of the seed while you grate it is pretty—like Katie, I’m a huge fan of pretty AND delicious.

A few tips: (1) Honeycrisp apples grate quickly, generating a TON of juice, so it’s better to grate into a bowl rather than onto a cutting board.  (2) If you want extra fluffiness, add another ½ teaspoon of baking soda.  (3) If you want more sweetness, add another ¼ cup of brown sugar.  (4) I add water to the empty muffin tins for the second batch so the crumbs left do not burn.

Many thanks to Katie for sharing her space with me- hopefully this won’t be the only time.

XOXO,

Mrs. MP-to-be

Honeycrisp Muffins

Adapted from Deborah Madison’s Basic Buttermilk Muffins in Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone

Makes 12-18 muffins

2 cups all purpose flour

½ cup rolled oats

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

½ tsp ground cinnamon

1 1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

½ cup packed dark brown sugar (or more, to taste)

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 1/3 cups buttermilk

¼ cup butter, melted

1 ½ tsp vanilla extract

1 Honeycrisp apple, grated, including skin

Preheat oven to 375 F.  Grease the muffin tins, or add liner cups.

Mix all dry ingredients (including sugar) in a large bowl.

Mix all wet ingredients in a second bowl.  Grate apple into the wet bowl.

Add the wet mix into the dry, and combine with a few swift strokes using a spatula to stir the batter up from the bottom of the bowl.  Don’t over-mix the batter—it should look uneven.

Scoop batter into muffin tins, filling each nearly to the top.

Bake in middle of oven until browned, about 20-25 minutes, depending on your oven.  Turn out muffins and serve immediately or let cool on wire rack and then store.

I store in an airtight container for up to one week on the counter.  These freeze well if very well-wrapped.

Delicious Wheat-Free Yogurt Pancakes

What good is a long weekend if not for making delicious pancakes on a leisurely morning?

We're always on the lookout in our house for healthy recipes that are both delicious and can satisfy mine or my girlfriend Navah's eating restrictions.  Navah doesn't eat sugar or refined flours, and she's lactose intolerant.  It was a delightful day when we discovered - thanks to Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle - that Navah might be able to eat yogurt if it had been "cooked" long enough for the good bacteria to eat all of the lactose.  Lucky for us, we have an amazing farmers market in our neighborhood, and we found a farm that "cooks" their yogurt for 12 hours.  Navah tried it out, and Success!

Imagine our excitement when I found a delicious recipe for whole-grain yogurt pancakes.  With a few modifications and the addition of a yummy fruit compote (which is actually not necessary but is delicious), these are our favorite weekend breakfast treat - hearty and so good that we're always completely stuffed afterwards.

Wheat-Free Yogurt Pancakes 
adapted from Tea and Food

1/2 cup spelt flour
1/4 cup buckwheat flour
1/4 cup almond meal/flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 cup plain yogurt
1 egg (we used So Delicious Coconut Milk the other day when we didn't have any eggs)

1.  Mix together dry ingredients.
2.  Beat the egg and mix it and the yogurt into the dry ingredients.  The mixture will be fluffy and thicker than a regular pancake mixture.
3.  Drop the mixture by scant 1/4 cups into a buttered or oiled (we use earth balance) pan over medium heat. Once the begin to bubble a little, flip over and cook until golden.

Peach Blueberry Compote

1 cup frozen peaches (of course, fresh would work as well)
1/2 cup frozen blueberries
1 tsp sweetener (we use xylitol, a natural sweetener)

1.  Put ingredients into a non-stick pot over medium-high heat
2.  Once the fruit creates liquid, bring to a boil.
3.  Lower heat to medium-low and stir frequently until the mixture is as thick as you desire.

Enjoy!

Katie