Beet Week Continues: Blueberry Banana Beet Chocolate Chip Pancakes
Ah, fuchsia food. There ought to be more of it. Anytime you can turn your meals maroon or something similar, you just should. It's good clean fun. The kids love it, and with beets as the color-er, you don't have to worry they're getting some fake dye in their systems. Instead they're enjoying a vegetable high in vitamin B, folate, manganese, potassium, dietary
fiber, vitamin C, magnesium, iron, copper, and phosphorus.
PLUS, according to the World's Healthiest Foods organization, beets are radical cancer fighters and death defiers. Check this out:
"Remember all those legendary Russian centenarians? Beets, frequently consumed either pickled or in borscht, the traditional Russian soup, may be one reason behind their long and healthy lives. These colorful root vegetables contain powerful nutrient compounds that help protect against heart disease, birth defects and certain cancers, especially colon cancer. The pigment that gives beets their rich, purple-crimson color-betacyanin-is also a powerful cancer-fighting agent. Beets' potential effectiveness against colon cancer, in particular, has been demonstrated in several studies."
If you go to their website, get ready to be knocked flat on your back from learning all the ways beets are awesome for your body. Truly amazing. I feel like I've lived too long without them as a regular part of my diet.
But how to make these pancakes. Here's how.
Ingredients:
Arrowhead Mills Multigrain Pancake Mix
2 bananas
1/2 or 3/4 cups of pureed roasted purple beets
1 or 2 big handfuls of blueberries
milk
flaxseed meal
semi-sweet chocolate chips
Directions:
1. Mash 2 bananas completely in a mixing bowl.
2. Stir in pureed beet.
3. Stir in pancake mix, flaxseed meal, and milk.
4. Add blueberries and chocolate chips.
5. Make pancakes and top with yogurt, honey, or syrup.
Here's a photo story of how it went down at our house this morning. I tried like heck to truly render the fun color, but I have terrible yellow lighting. Sorry.
--Sweet B
kathryn pew on October 08, 2008 at 09:45 PM
Sorry, but this just doesn't sound yummy...
John Gardner on October 08, 2008 at 10:04 PM
If beets are so good for the heart, why is it that the heart disease rate in Russian is something on the order of 5 times ours?
Merry on October 09, 2008 at 01:47 AM
*coughvodkacough*
buckland on October 09, 2008 at 05:38 AM
I guess sufficient amounts of maple syrup will make anything go down
Tawny on October 09, 2008 at 08:29 AM
Why do these pancakes look like blood pancakes or hamburger pancakes? I think the color would weird me out enough to never eat them :(
Liz4life on November 13, 2008 at 11:41 AM
Hey, I for one am eager to try these out! I am very experimental with foods and this totally intrigues me. I have a son who is wheat intolerant and will substitute the Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free Pancake and Waffle mix in its place or try sorghum flour and the addition of xanthan gum and a no-aluminum leavening agent.
He also can't have berries, but I think I can substitute raw honey or apple sauce.
Let me know if you're interested in how these come out and thanks for sharing your recipe!