Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Pancakes

Ok, so ordinarily you expect the words oatmeal chocolate chip to be followed by the word cookies, but well, I went in a different direction with this one.  Although these pancakes are every bit as delicious as the cookie version, they are actually much healthier.  Where cookies are mostly sugar and butter, these are mostly whole grains, and only a little bit of sugar and fat.  Don’t get me wrong… I’m not trying to sell these as health food.  I’m simply saying it’s not like having cookies for breakfast.  It’s like having cookies for breakfast minus the guilt and the heartburn. 

Here’s what you’ll need: 

• ½ cup flour
• ½ cup whole wheat flour
• ½ cup rolled oats
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 2 Tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon allspice
• ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
• Whatever other spices you like
• ½ cup mini chocolate chips
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 egg
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 Tablespoons oil 

See those flowers in the background on my table?  Hubby had a coworker over for dinner, and he brought those lovely roses for me.  How nice was that? 

Now, back to pancakes.  First up, throw all your dry ingredients into a mixing bowl.  They’re not in the picture, but throw in the oats and chocolate chips, as well.

Stir the together until everything is evenly distributed. 

Set that aside and move to the wet stuff.  Measure the buttermilk, then add the egg, vanilla, and oil. 

Whisk that together and pour it over the dry ingredients. 

Stir just until it all comes together, and you should have a nice, fairly thick, pancake batter. 

Heat a pan over medium heat (or if you’re using a griddle, set it for something like 300-350).  Wipe the pan with just a touch of butter, and pour on the batter. 

You’ll know they’re ready to flip when they’ve kind of puffed up and you have bubbles like this forming, and staying, around the edges. 

And hopefully you’re a better flipper than me, because wow.  Look at that mess.  Oh well, they’re still going to taste fabulous. 

I served mine with homemade coconut syrup.  I’ll share that recipe with you soon, but you can certainly just use maple, or honey, or just go naked. 

Just look at that fluffy, chocolaty goodness! 

 

Cheesecake Fruit Dip

I don’t really know where this idea came from.  I suppose it was just one of those random moments of inspiration.  I’m quite happy with this one, though, so whatever, I’ll take it.  The fabulousness really does live up to the name.  Cheesecake Fruit Dip.  Just imagine a bowl of cheesecake in which you dip fresh fruit.  And the best part is, it only requires 2 ingredients and about 3 minutes to put it together. 

Here’s what you’ll need:

• 8 oz. cream cheese
• ½ cup Trader Joe’s Crunchy Cookie Butter

If you don’t have a Trader Joe’s by you, you can probably get speculoos at whatever store you shop at, but they might not have a crunchy option.  Speculoos is a spread made from speculoos cookies, which are basically graham crackers.

If you don’t want to wait for your cream cheese to come to room temperature, you can give it 10 seconds in the microwave.  Then just smoosh it around until it’s nice and soft and creamy.  I like to use Neufchatel rather than regular cream cheese because it’s lower in fat and still tastes fabulous. 

Add the cookie butter.

Then just stir until it’s fully incorporated. 

Serve with whatever kind of fruit you like.  I chose strawberries and sliced apples.  You could even dip bits of chocolate in it, if you like chocolate cheesecake.  Because seriously, you'll think you just made cheesecake in like 3 minutes.  

What’s your favorite kind of cheesecake?