Whole Wheat Sweet Potato Pancakes!

In celebration of National Pancake Day (February 23, of course!), I experimented with a new pancake recipe. Our family is really into pancakes. It's one of those meals that never fails to fill every little or big tummy at the table. And we are all perfectly happy downing pancakes any time of the day.

Being a mom, I'm always trying to pull a fast one on my children. In the kitchen, this means sneaking nutritious stuff into normal everyday foods. Fortunately I don't have to be too sneaky. For example, Ava will not touch raw or cooked spinach with a 10-foot fork, but she insists that I put it in her smoothies. Strange, huh? Same with these pancakes. It really wasn't necessary to hide what went into them, and we all agreed that the "not-so-secret ingredients" make them even yummier than the original recipe. Pancakes are such a great food for squirreling away nutritious tidbits--bananas, ground oats, flaxseed meal, applesauce, etc. Once the syrup is slathered on, most little tasters don't notice the variations.

And now for the recipe. They're moist and tender and delicious. Easy, too.

Whole Wheat Sweet Potato Pancakes

2 eggs
2 C buttermilk
4 T butter, melted
1 C white flour
1 C whole wheat flour
2 T sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
A few dashes pumpkin pie spice (depending on your preference)
2/3 C pureed sweet potato

Beat the eggs in a large bowl. Add remainder of ingredients and mix. You know how to make pancakes.

Makes about 17 medium sized pancakes.

The batter.

Getting cooked up.


Note on puree:
For the sweet potato puree, I roasted a few sweet potatoes (washed but not peeled) in a baking pan in the oven at 400 degrees for about 80 minutes or so. Then I pulled off the peel and pureed the potatoes in a food processor, adding a little water to get the right consistency. Here's a lovely little dollop of sweet potato puree. That is some fine baby food, and also terrific for mixing into other things.