Wednesday, August 12, 2009

What's for lunch? Beets!

Believe it or not, both of my kids ate beets for lunch today! It was so fabulous I can hardly believe it!! The beets, also called the new spinach, are nutritional powerhouses. They are high in folate, manganese and potassium, and are known to clean out and build blood. Beets are loaded with vitamins A, B1, B2, B6 and C. They are also an excellent source of calcium, magnesium, copper, phosphorus, sodium and iron. The health benefits of beets are numerous for almost every part of your body.

So what did I do to make my kids eat beets? I made pink pancakes. The recipe originates from the Deceptively Delicious cookbook and the pancakes are delicious!! Who knew??! You can make your regular pancake mix whether from scratch or prepackaged from the store. To that you would add a mixture of 1/4 c pureed beets, 1/2 c Ricotta cheese, 3/4 c water, 1 tsp pure vanilla extract and 1/2 tsp cinnamon that you processed in the food processor or blender. I also added 1/4 c grated apple to the mix and then mixed until everything was well incorporated. I didn't really puree my beets because I was lazy. I just threw them in the food processor straight from the can and then went on to follow the recipe. My puree was more grainy because the little tiny pieces of beets wouldn't liquefy but as I said I was too lazy to boil them first. Had my kids not gobbled them up, that would've been the first mistake I would have fixed but since the huge stack was gone in a matter of minutes, I will continue to use them directly from the can.


I was a little scared serving my snooty bunch this specialty food because as you can see from the picture below, the pancakes were very pink. The kids were so excited about them that they even turned down pizza. "No, we want pink pancakes!" I sent them out of the kitchen while I mixed my concoction and luckily they stayed out. I didn't want them to see any evidence of healthy foods that they might be ingesting in a moment. Today was a huge success and I'm encouraged to try other sneaky recipes.

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