Bicycles and Breakfast

So, definitely blogging when I should be sleeping again, so bear with me if my English falls apart.  Truth be told, I’m actually thinking about what to eat for breakfast already.  I love breakfast.  Likely more than any other meal.  I believe that breakfast should be the snazziest meal of the day, as it really is what carries you through said day.  I mean, you eat supper, and then go to bed not too many hours later, whether your body has used up whatever you put into it or not.  You eat breakfast, and you’ve got a whole day ahead of you to put all those lovely nutrients to work.  Point being- fill up on good stuff at breakfast.  Your body will thank you, and you’ll find that breakfast foods are just really fun, simple and enjoyable.

It’s actually SarahWynne’s fault you’re getting this post by the way, as she reminded me how awesome breakfast is, and that I really haven’t talked about it here.  Maybe that’s because a lot of my breakfast foods don’t really merit recipes.  I mean, I’m not going to write out a recipe for each smoothie I make, or what I put on my toast this morning, but these foods are still awesome in their own simple way.

However, I did make some pretty awesome pancakes the other day, and feel the need to share.  The first time I tried making pancakes using flax as an egg replacer, I used a really bad on-line recipe that resulted in these scary, strangely-textured things that I could barely eat.  However, I didn’t give up, and waltzed over to the Kid’s Company’s Coming cookbook, and tweaked their recipe until I had some pretty awesome pancakes.  The flax still does change the texture slightly, but not as bad as in that first batch.  I just find that since this batter is a little thick, you have to cook each pancake a little longer than you’re used to to get good results.  If you feel like it, try adding more liquid, but I would recommend keeping these proportions for nice, thick pancakes.  I did half this recipe, and ate it all by myself, with a side of fruit and soy milk, I believe.

Pineapple-Coconut Pancakes

– substitute for two eggs ( I used two tablespoons of ground flax and six tablespoons of water)

– 1 cup coconut milk

– 2 tbsp cooking oil

– 1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour

– 1 tbsp (or less) unrefined sugar

– 1 tbsp baking powder

– 1/4 tsp salt

– about 1/2 cup or so crushed pineapple (smaller than pineapple tidbits, and fresh would be great if available)

– maybe a little unsweetened, shredded coconut, if you like.  I can’t remember if I used any or not (looking at my picture, I think I did).  My muffins and my pancakes are blending together in my brain.  Why would anyone sweeten dried coconut anyways, it’s soooo good on it’s own?

1.) Mix the flax and water, and let it sit in a large bowl on the side for a minute.

2.) Mix the flax ‘egg,’ coconut milk, cooking oil, and pineapple

3.) In a separate bowl, mix the dry ingredients (including the shredded coconut, if you’re adding any, being sure not to get carried away and make your pancakes too dry).  Then, make a well in the dried ingredients, pour in the wet ingredients, and mix until just moistened (like when making muffins!).  The flax seed should have made it a little thicker than traditional pancake batter, but I like this, as it adds thickness to the pancakes.  Like I said previously, you’ll just have to cook them a little longer.

4.) Heat a frying pan or electric skillet until water droplets bounce off it’s surface, adding some non-stick canola oil spray if your pan isn’t non-stick.  Scoop into pan, possibly helping each pancake spread out a bit.  Cook until you see some bubbles, and each side is very golden.

URGENT PANCAKE UPDATE!!!!  I have actually switched to making my pancakes with fruit as the egg substitute, to much fluffier results.  Try a banana mashed together well with 1 tsp of baking soda to replace the two eggs.  Today, I actually made these with an equivalent amount of mashed pear and baking soda, halved the oil, used soymilk instead of coconut milk, replaced the pineapple with shredded coconut, and replaced the 1/4 cup of the flour with cocoa powder.  Also, to be perfectly honest, I made a half batch.  These were the absolute best pancakes I’ve ever tasted.  It was like eating fluffy chocolate cake for breakfast, yet I knew it had way less sugar and oil than cake, and no refined white flour.  Absolutely amazing.

Now, you’re probably wondering why this post is called “Bicycles and Breakfast.”  Well, I’ve been very amused by taking pictures of bikes lately, and I just noticed that my little Flickr widget is showing a few of those pictures.  Here’s one of my own bike to study while you eat your pancakes.

P.S.- I decided not to be stupid, and went to sleep.  Therefore, this post was completed when I was less exhausted, and is a little more coherent than it would have been otherwise.  However, just thought I would share with you a little of how my brain works when I’m tired; last night, I figured that it would be hilarious if I intentionally changed the spelling of ‘pancakes’ to ‘pankaces’, just to confuse people.  And sorry for the lack of posts lately.  I did write one last week that I haven’t posted yet, because I ran into a bit of a snag with it.  Anywho, more food soon!