Holiday memories from around the table and new traditions!

When I think of the holidays, I think of family memories… many of which are related to food! Last week, Maggy, our newest addition to the family straight from Germany (foreign exchange student), asked me to tell her about the types of traditions our family has around Christmas. When I think of Christmas growing up, I remember sitting at a very long table (which was made from a collection of mismatched card tables pushed together with layered tablecloths to cover them all) to celebrate Christmas Eve with at least 25 relatives. While some families had turkey, ham or prime rib, our Christmas Eve meal was always lasagna, salad and garlic bread. It was a recipe that my mom could make in advance, yet serve hot to everyone at once. While the lasagna was most definitely made with love, the ingredients it contained, (cheese, ground meat and oil), didn’t even come close to loving us back! If lasagna sounds like a tasty option for a special holiday meal, check out the recipe for Veroniqè’s Courgette Lasagna. My student did a wonderful job with creating a version that satisfies the palate without clogging the arteries!

While formal holiday dinners can be great, my favorite meal during this season is a late breakfast on Christmas morning. It is so fun to be in cozy PJs whipping up food in the kitchen while everyone is assembling, reading or enjoying the gifts they received. I have made all sorts of different breakfast/brunch options through the years. Some of the recipes I have shared through these newspaper articles and are available here on my website – they include Scrambled Tacos, Pumpkin Zucchini Bread, and Valentina’s Muesli Foodie Bar. Each of us have our favorites, but if we had to choose one breakfast that everyone absolutely loves… it would be pancakes!!! We are so crazy about pancakes, that when the kids were younger, we’d have a “pancake-making fest” and over a 5-6 hour time span, Scot and I would crank out 250+ pancakes and wrap them in 4 packs to stock up our standalone freezer. Then, over the next few months, our pancake bounty would begin to disappear, as they are ready to be enjoyed after being popped into the toaster for only a few minutes!

Our family also happens to love pumpkin.  So, when I was recently working on recipe ideas to share on Studio40 TV, I thought it might be fun to make pumpkin pancakes! I had a couple goals in mind when I set out to develop the recipe. First, it had to be easy and quick, with the fewest steps possible. Second, I wanted to use whole food ingredients that offered health benefits. Lastly, it needed to be tasty and versatile. After a couple of experiments… Mission accomplished! All goals have been met!

Easy & Quick? Yes! All of the ingredients are combined in a high-powered blender for a few seconds and the batter is ready to be poured on the griddle! (Actually, be sure the griddles are warm before you blend the batter, as it will get very thick if it sits!)

Whole foods? Yes! I don’t use processed flour or sugar – just dry old-fashioned oatmeal, whole grain cornmeal and dates for the sweetness, all sources of fiber which feed our gut bacteria! The pumpkin puree provides carotenoids, which protect our cells and DNA from damage and support our immune system. The pumpkin pie spice (store-bought or made from my recipe) is a packed with so many antioxidants that even just a pinch can be a powerful health ally! And that doesn’t even include the nutrient-rich topping, bursting with nature’s candy… the sweet goodness of fruit!

Tasty? YES! My family loved them! I always like to provide an alternative to syrup, since maple syrup is a very concentrated sweetener and is expensive, and the commercially available “pancake syrups” are typically full of artificial flavorings and chemicals (read those labels!). Ideally, I wanted to capture the natural sweetness of seasonal fruit. We had a bowl of cuties, (which make a great holiday gift) and a pomegranate, so I went to work to come up with a sweet topping to add even more flavor, nutrients and color! When I was younger, I used to love getting an original flavored “Orange Julius” at the mall, and thought I might be able to create a similar taste experience to drizzle over the pumpkin pancakes. I did it! With a sprinkle of pomegranate arils on top, the recipe creation process was complete! Be sure to check out all of my tips below the recipe.

Versatile? Yes! They can be made all year round, with pantry staples and they freeze perfectly!  You can even play around with some of the ingredients! Unsweetened applesauce can be substituted for some or all of the pumpkin. My Chai Spice Blend (recipe here on my website and in my cookbook) could be used in place of the Pumpkin Pie Spice. Instead of the Sweet Citrus Drizzle, you could make our Berry Compote with apples or pears in place of the nectarines I called for in the original recipe. This is precisely what I did in a segment for Studio40 TV. You can watch the video of my daughter and me making the original version on California BountifulTV).

In my opinion, this was the perfect recipe with which to close out 2019, since it makes me think about each of my kids… Mia absolutely loves breakfast and pancakes are her favorite! Austin always helps me pick fruit in our backyard – including pomegranates. Maggy loves anything pumpkin, which is fitting, since her last name literally translates to “pumpkin” in German!

In 2020, you are going to see many articles from me about bringing the family into the kitchen! You’ll even hear from my kids and have an opportunity to make recipes that they created!  Until then, may you have wonderful holiday celebrations, centered around gratitude and peace.

Timaree’s Easy Pumpkin Pancakes

No bowl or whisk needed! A blender does all of the work to get these pancakes griddle-ready in a flash! I hope that you will make these delicious pancakes a new tradition with your family and friends!

Ingredients
1 cup old fashioned oats, uncooked
2 T whole grain cornmeal
1/2 cup pumpkin puree*
1/2 cup plant milk*
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice* (or 1/2 tsp cinnamon + 1/8 tsp nutmeg)
2 t apple cider vinegar
1 Medjool date, 2 Deglet Noor dates or 2 tsp coconut sugar
2 tsp baking powder*
1/4 tsp baking soda

Procedure
Pre-heat non-stick griddle (preferably ceramic coated) to ~295ºF. Combine all ingredients in a high-powered blender just until smooth. Immediately pour/scrape* all* batter (will be very thick) onto hot griddle (6-8 medium pancakes) and cook until top of each pancake appears dry (~6-8 minutes), then flip and continue cooking for ~4 minutes (until cooked through).  Make single batches, as batter thicken quickly.

Sweet Citrus Drizzle

This delicious sauce tastes great on pancakes, waffles or French toast… even overnight oats or cooked grain for breakfast (or anytime).

Ingredients
3 cuties (mandarin oranges)
3 Medjool dates (or six Deglet Noor dates)
1/2 tsp of vanilla

Procedure
Combine all ingredients in a high-powered blender until silky smooth. Store in tightly-sealed squeeze bottle or jar in refrigerator for 2-3 days.

The Nutrition Professor’s Shop Smart, Prep Smart, Cook Smart Tips:

*Use a good scraper to get ALL of the batter out of the blender, as it is gold!!!

*I tried doing a double batch and while the first pancakes on the griddle came out great, super puffy and cooked through, when it was time to pour out the rest of the batter, it was so thick that I had to add water, which resulted in flat pancakes that didn’t seem to cook through (weird but true). If you want more pancakes, just make another single batch, waiting to add the apple cider vinegar and blend it until there is space on the griddle, as you do not want the batter to sit in the blender jar!

*Be sure to purchase 100% pure pumpkin, not “pumpkin pie filling” as it has sugar added!

*Any plant-based milk should work, I used unsweetened soy milk.

*My Pumpkin Pie Spice recipe, is published in my book, The Foodie Bar Way and in an article on my website.

*Always purchase aluminum-free baking powder!

Timaree Hagenburger, a plant-based registered dietitian nutritionist (RDN), certified exercise physiologist with a master’s degree in public health, has over 20 years of experience as a nutrition professor. She is a sought after speaker, media personality and author, who works with private clients, and in corporate wellness, has contributed to several cookbooks and published her own cookbook, The Foodie Bar Way: One Meal, Lots of Options, Everyone’s Happy (www.foodiebars.com)! Timaree is also the founder of an incredible online membership community, The Foodie Bar Way of Life, that makes loving the food (and living a life) that loves us back… simple, satisfying, sustainable AND FUN! You can contact her about working with her through 1:1 dietitian nutrition coaching, for hands-on cooking instruction and to inquire about arranging a speaking engagement.