Life, if that’s what you call it

Two weeks ago we invaded the pumpkin patch and returned with three beauties. Quinlyn decided that we would decorate the two smaller ones that Kevyn and Caelyn picked out and that we should use her monster to make numerous pumpkin treats. I had no problem with doing this because even though it is time consuming, fresh pumpkin puree is pretty easy to make. After spending all of Saturday cleaning, roasting, running it all through the food processor and then draining the pumpkin I was left with about 16 cups of pumpkin puree. And I was lacking in recipes for all of this pumpkin.

Of course, I made pumpkin muffins and am planning a crunch type cake and a few other things but I was wanting pancakes. See Kevyn is a very picky eater and I am normally of the mind set that if he doesn’t eat was is given to him he goes hungry, but a sure fire winner for him is pancakes. My thinking was that if I make pumpkin pancakes not only is he getting the food he wants he is also getting the nutrition from the pumpkin that I want him to get. My only issue was that I couldn’t find a recipe that I liked. So, this morning I decided that I was to make a little experiment with pumpkin, oatmeal and pancakes. I was happily surprised with the results and so were the kids.

This is definitely going to be a new addition to our breakfast recipes. Beauty of this recipe is that should you want to use a different type of fruit or even sweet potatoes it is a rather easy to substitute. You can simply replace pumpkin puree with mashed or diced bananas or chunky apple sauce. Hope you all enjoy!

Oatmeal Pumpkin Pancakes

1.5  cup milk

1/3 cup butter

1.5 cup quick oatmeal uncooked

1/3 cup unsifted flour

1.5 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1tsp vanilla

2 tablespoons honey

2 eggs, separated

1/2 cup pumpkin puree

Heat milk and butter until butter is completely melted. Remove from heat and stir in oatmeal and let cool. Beat egg yolks, honey and vanilla and add to  oatmeal mixture along with pumpkin puree. Combine flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon, add to wet ingredients. Beat egg white to stiff peaks and gently fold into batter. Let rest for 5 minutes before cooking.  Makes 10-14 pancakes. Serve with maple syrup or powdered sugared.

*Note* Due to the weight of the batter these take longer to cook throughout (approximately 2-3 minute per side). Make sure to use lower heat to avoid burning.