Best Pregnancy Breakfast 3: Whole Grain Apple Cinnamon Oat Pancakes

 

This is one of the all-time favorite breakfasts at our house (for me and Sawyer at least; Chris only ever wants cereal…curious), that happens to also be an excellent choice for the pregnant lady. The apple and whole grain flours ensure loads of good fiber to keep things moving (in case you haven’t heard, pregnancy hormones cause digestion to slow and many a pregnant lady to reach for the Metamucil), and pancakes, just by their very nature—their roundness, their sweet syrupyness, their fluffiness, I don’t know--seem to be able to cure all manner of depressive states.

1 apple, cored and grated (skin n’ all)

2 Tbl canola oil

2 Tbl brown sugar

1/3 C + 2 Tbl milk or soymilk

2 eggs

1/3 C oat flour (see direction)

1/3 C whole wheat flour

1/3 C barley flour

1/3 C brown rice flour

2 Tbl wheat germ

heaping ¼ tsp salt

heaping ¼ tsp baking soda

2 tsp cinnamon (or for a variation, use ½ tsp fresh grated ginger instead)

 

First order of business is to make the oat flour. Pour a bunch of oats in your blender or food processor and blend/process away. Now you have oat flour. Here is my trusty helper getting the task done.

A word about the other whole grain flours before moving on: many people keep whole wheat flour around, but barley and rice, not so much. But I promise that once you start using them, you won’t be able to stop! Barley has a lower gluten content than wheat, so it can be mixed nicely in most things without affecting the texture. It’s also great because it’s extremely fine, which means you can use lots of it in baked goods, call them ‘whole grain,’ but not have the dry, tough texture that sometimes comes with whole wheat flour. As for rice flour, I swear benevolent aliens brought it to us, that’s how good it is in an unworldly kind of way. Rice flour makes pancakes SO fluffy! And you know how sometimes after they cool regular pancakes get rubbery? No more! Because rice flour has no gluten, this problem is eliminated and you’re left with inexplicably delicious pancakes. If you have a wheat grinder you can grind the flours yourself from regular ole’ brown rice and barley. If not, your local Whole Foods type market will have them.

Back to the pancakes at hand: mix the apple, oil, milk, eggs and sugar together.

  

Add the flours, wheat germ, salt, baking soda and cinnamon, stir until mixed.

Cook them in the usual pancake way, with butter or oil, flipping when tiny bubbles start to appear on the surface.

Give ‘em another minute or two on the flip side…

…and devour with the sweetner of your choice (we like real maple as well as agave syrup).