School starts for us next week! That means getting two sleepy kids out the door for the carpool by 7:30 a.m. This means getting them cleaned up, packed. dressed – and most importantly – fed. After all breakfast is the most important meal of the day.
According to AboutKidsHealth.com, a site that provides families with reliable, current information about all areas influencing childhood health and family quality of life, teachers observe that children who do not eat a fulfilling breakfast are less attentive and experience more learning difficulties than students who do.
So how do you get your kids to eat a healthy breakfast? Since my daughter, Lucie, claims not to be hungry most mornings, I have to entice her with something yummy and fun like pancakes. Here’s a recipe from Log Cabin Syrup, the brand that recently replaced High Fructose Corn Syrup with natural sugar, and my sponsor at BlogHer09.
Monkey Fun Pancakes
(makes 6 pancakes)
Ingredients:
2 cup sifted, self-rising flour
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 tablespoons Log Cabin Syrup
- 2 large eggs, beaten
- 2 cups milk
- 6 tablespoons vegetable oil
- Pinch salt
Topping:
- ½ cup chopped walnuts
- 2 ripe bananas, thinly sliced
- 2 tablespoons Log Cabin Syrup
- Confectioner’s sugar
- Whipped Cream
Directions:
- Sift flour, salt and cinnamon into a large bowl. In a second bowl combine syrup, egg and milk.
- Add wet ingredients gradually to flour and mix until smooth. Whisk in oil until mixture is smooth.
- Pour the batter by 2/3 cupful onto a lightly greased hot griddle or greased non-stick pan. Turn them over when bubbles form on top of pancakes. Continue cooking until second side has turned a golden brown color.
- Keep pancakes warm and prepare topping by slicing banana’s into a bowl. add chopped walnuts. Sprinkle Log Cabin Syrup over banana mixture. Carefully mix.
- To serve, spoon mixture over finished pancakes, dust with confectioner’s sugar and drizzle with more maple syrup. Top with whipped cream.
Tips to make breakfast even more healthy:
- use low or no fat milk
- substitute one egg with three egg whites
- instead of whipped cream, top with low fat yogurt
- omit nuts if your child has a nut allergy and substitute with pine nuts (which are really seeds) which are full of protein
- add some ground flax seed or flax seed oil to the pancake batter for an Omega-3 boost
- add some vanilla protein powder for extra protein
Having one of those mornings?
On those crazy mornings where you’re lucky to get the kids out the door with both shoes on, you may want to keep some Aunt Jemima Frozen Pancakes in the freezer just in case. They recently released a blueberry flavor along with their homestyle, buttermilk, low fat Buttermilk, whole grain and mini varieties.
For a hearty back-to-school breakfast for less than 400 calories, you can microwave 3 Aunt Jemima Frozen Blueberry Pancakes (250 calories), top with half of a sliced banana (54 calories), and drizzle 1 tablespoon of Log Cabin’s lite maple syrup (50 calories).
