Pancakes with Fresh Apple Syrup

Just so you know, I have not always been such a frugal, highly skilled Foodie.  In fact, I used to consider  French Fries a vegetable serving, and fruit roll-ups a healthy snack…can you imagine?? 🙂
Although my love of food, baking and cooking started at the young age of 7 or 8, it didn’t really take a healthy turn until about 10 years ago.

I was 50 pounds heavier than I am now, trying desperately to get pregnant and struggling with feelings of sluggishness and low energy.  The changes to how I cook and eat started off very slowly–it was a long process to get here, where I am today. Nothing happened overnight, some of it was easy, some of it was not.  But thinking of what precipitated the change–wanting a healthier body to support a pregnancy and then a nursing baby–prompted me to start asking some questions about the food industry, what we buy, and what we eat.
Here are some of the questions that started coming up:

1.  What is the difference between Sour Cream and “Sour Cream Product”, fruit juice and a “fruit beverage” (…I could come up with a million other examples of the sleight of hand  that marketers use to sell these food industry products–next time you are at the grocery store–look at the labels, start asking yourself some questions about what you are buying)

2.  What is margarine really made of, and why do I choose it over butter (a far less processed product, that has real ingredients–not chemicals)

3.Why do I buy that item, instead of making it? (like pancakes, cake mixes and muffin mixes etc)  If I choose to make it, will it have less chemicals, preservatives, sodium, and BHT(what?)? –OF COURSE it will!

So, I am encouraging you to start asking some of those questions. What other questions can you come up with?  There were many, many more for me…and the farther along this path I go, the more changes I make to what I buy and what I cook–and I am 50 pounds lighter, more energetic and happier too!  Could you be too?
 
Pancakes from Scratch (adapted from “The Joy of Cooking” )
2 cups flour
3 tbsp sugar
1tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
2 eggs-beaten
enough milk (about 1 3/4 cup) to fill the measuring cup to 2 cups
3 tbsp oil
1-2 cups fruit of your choice (apples, strawberries or raspberries are popular in our house)
In one measuring cup combine the milk, egg and oil, mix.
In a bowl, mix flour, baking powder, sugar and salt.  Add the milk mixture to the flour mixture all at once and stir until just combined, and moistened.  Add fruit .
You know the rest…ladle into hot pan, flip when brown, done when cooked all the way through.
Serve with maple syrup, or homemade table syrup (..you can make homemade table syrup???!!!)

Homemade Apple Table Syrup 

1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup water
2tbsp butter
1 tsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2-3 med apples, peeled and slice thinly

Bring sugar, water, butter, cornstarch and cinnamon to boil.  Boil  2 minutes or until thick.  Reduce heat and add apple slices, simmer about 10 minutes until apples are tender.  Serve over pancakes or waffles.


Enjoy!