Tag Archives: Pancakes

Don’t Ask For Pancakes, because you’ll only get a granola bar (recipe)

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One of the only things that my husband will request, other than for me to “just stop talking about politics”, are pancakes.  Yup. Pancakes.  I don’t know a thing about politics, but I fake it decently well.  Pancakes?  Didn’t know much about those either until I married a man who could live on them.  Until this past year, anytime we had pancakes, Charlie was the chef at hand.  Knowing how much he loved them, I decided that after 10 years of knowing and loving him, I’d take a heartfelt crack at it.

I searched for a ‘from scratch’ recipe that would rival his mama’s. No way was I going to impress with boxed pancakes. I made trial rounds in advance so he wouldn’t see the complete carbohydrate massacre that would definitely ensue once the griddle was hot.  Then came the big day.  It was a Sunday morning.  We had just gotten home from church, he brewed up a cup of his favorite SLUDGE, eh em.. coffee and I got to making the pancakes.  I told him to take a load off.  Everything went swimmingly.  I was beaming with pride.  I had done it!  I had made pancakes that weren’t undercooked, overcooked and honestly had the perfect golden hue..AND he was eating them up like they were heaven.  The downside, the kitchen looked like a F-5 tornado of buttermilk, flour and eggs had hit it.  Without me even asking, Charlie took a load off and left me to that as well.  That part was not planned, but onward.

So next weekend, when we were out doing our shopping on Saturday, we were in Sam’s Club.  Charlie sees the huge bag of Krusteaz “Just Add Water” Pancake mix.  Thinking he was sneer at it, I was floored when he revelled in the sheer budgetary genius of it!  What?!  All that work for his Sunday Cakes and all he needed was a good ol packaged pancake? One thing I have yet to mention?  Charlie only likes Chocolate Chip Pancakes. No syrup, just butter on his Chocolate Chip Pancakes.

So this weekend, we are staying at my mom’s.  It’s the first weekend of Fighting Sioux Hockey and when we all got up with Timothy this morning at 6am, Charlie was the first to ask “what’s for breakfast”.  I knew what the answer would be.  He would want pancakes.  Then my mother turned to me and said, “I don’t have anything to make pancakes.”  So, at 6:30am, I was off to WallyWorld.

If you’ve never been to WallyWorld (Walmart) that early on a Saturday morning, I totally recommend it.  It was mostly empty and quiet, minus the workers restocking shelves.  I perused the shelves in the baking aisle for the ‘mandatory’ chocolate chips and I glanced over seeing the “dried cherries”.  Ok, dried cherries are one of my favorite and a crutial ingredient in my Dark Chocolate Cherry Granola Bars.

So I figured I would pick up the stuff to make up a batch.  45mins later, I’m walking into my mother’s home with pancake stuff, granola bar ingredients and the latest issue of Oxygen Magazine, only to see Charlie grabbing his keys.  “where are you going?!”  “Mike and I are going to Darcy’s Cafe for Breakfast.”  Insert death stare and disappointed/pissed off Huff of air. He’s lucky WallyWorld was “tame” this morning, otherwise, he’d have never made it out the door alive.  On the upside, I have a stellar pan of Dark Chocolate Cherry Granola Bars that will be perfect for after my midday workout today!

Tomorrow, when he asks for pancakes…Just add water or not..I’m tossing the spatula his way and sitting with MY coffee on the couch.  Oh the joys of marriage!

Dark Chocolate Cherry Granola Bars (CLEAN)

  • 1/4c Ground Flax
  • 1/4c Water
  • 1/4c Spelt Flour
  • 1c Dried Cherries chopped
  • 3/4c 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate (Ghirardelli Bar)
  • Pinch Salt
  • 1/4c Agave Nectar mixed with 1/2c Water
  • 2 1/2c Old Fashioned Oats
  • 1/2c Slivered Almonds or Chopped Almonds
  • 1/4c EVOO
  1. Preheat Oven to 350
  2. Mix Flax and Water in seperate bowl and set aside
  3. mix dry ingredients in a large bowl
  4. mix EVOO/Agave/Flax Mix in a sep bowl
  5. Add wet mixture to dry and combine well
  6. Grease a 9×13 pan with either PAM or EVOO
  7. Press mixture into the pan and bake for 25mins or until golden brown

Cut into 16 pieces

Nutritional Information Per Bar
Calories 195
Total Fat 9.94g
Sat Fat 2.34g
Sodium 1mg
Carbs 25g
Protein 3.6g (up the protein by adding a scoop or two of Whey or Casein)