Veggie Pancakes

Eeyore loves breakfast. He loves to cook breakfast, go out to breakfast, have people over for breakfast, make breakfast for dinner...well, you get the point. He's the man when it comes to breakfast. A couple of years ago he got onto a pancake kick and was making them pretty much every Saturday morning. I finally had to put a stop to it because I was feeling terrible after every pancake breakfast. It was just too much sugar. Sugar in the batter, white flour, which is basically just more sugar, and then syrup on top of it all--ugh. Honestly, if I'm going to suffer that icky, almost-nauseated feeling until lunchtime, then I'd rather just eat donuts and do it up right. So I told my husband that it was time to turn in his spatula and move on. But being the breakfast enthusiast that he is, Eeyore was determined to change my mind, and so he set about working on a new pancake recipe. He hit upon the veggie pancake idea one morning when he discovered some left-over butternut squash in the fridge. It has taken hours of griddle time and some serious flops (note to readers: never use broccoli in pancakes) to perfect the recipe, but the beta testing finally paid off. These pancakes are delicious and healthful, and they don't give me that sugar hangover for the rest of the day.

Veggie Pancakes
1 sweet potato
1 zucchini
1 carrot
1 handful spinach
1 banana
2 eggs
1/2 to 1 cup milk
1/2 cup whole milk plain yogurt
1/2 tsp baking soda (this is for high altitude--use 1 tsp for lowlanders)
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
pinch of salt

Peel the sweet potato and roughly chop the vegetables. Boil the vegetables until tender (about 5 minutes or so), leaving the spinach out until the last minute. Drain and puree. You should use 2 cups of vegetable puree for this recipe. Mash the banana, lightly beat the eggs and add both to the veggie puree. Add yogurt and 1/2 cup milk and stir. Mix the dry ingredients and gradually add to the batter. The batter will be thicker than regular pancake batter, but it should still pour. Add more milk if necessary to adjust the viscosity. Cook on a buttered 325-degree griddle. These are more dense than regular pancakes and need a little more cooking time to be sure that they are cooked through.

These pancakes are so scrumptious that you don't even need syrup on them. I usually just eat them with a little butter, but you could drizzle on some honey or syrup or even spread on some fruit preserves. The girls absolutely devour them, and who doesn't love a recipe that gets kids to eat vegetables for breakfast? Yum! Enjoy.