Breakfast

I couldn't decide this morning (okay, for most people it was already afternoon, but for me, it was morning!) on oatmeal or Cheerios. And then I remembered I'd bought a carton of the season's first strawberries last night at the market. Usually the first ones are a bit tasteless but these are giant and very sweet. Perfect atop pancakes. But hmmmm, I'd made pancakes a few weeks ago, certain they were a healthy lowfat choice. I mean, I made them with whole grain flour skipped the butter and syrup. Boy was I shocked when I discovered that 100% whole wheat, although healthy and high in protein, is also high in calories. Who knew!?

So I decided to tweak yet another recipe. Well, not a recipe. I've been making my pancake and waffle batters from scratch for so many decades that it's not really a recipe. But whatever it was, I tweaked it. I substituted oat flour for half the wheat flour. I didn't have oat flour in the house. But I did have old fashioned oats and a coffee grinder. Voila! I added two tablespoons of flaxseed meal because, although it's high in calories, it's great for lowering cholesterol. A tweak more here and a tweak more there and .....

There's no sugar in the pancakes themselves but the soy milk and flaxseed made it quite sweet enough. It seemed sort of "dry" (it didn't taste dry, the pancakes were moist, but it looked dry) so I added a dollop of nonfat yogurt, which made a perfect substitute for the butter my brain expected to be there. The pancakes (which were about 4" across or so) were 122 calories each. That whole pile of strawberries, less than 20. But again, most importantly, delicious and filling.

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