Whole Wheat Strawberry Vanilla Pancakes

My husband and 3-year-old son have a tradition of making pancakes together on Saturday mornings. They love going through the same routine every week - scooping and adding ingredients, stirring the batter together, flipping them with the special orange pancake spatula. I love watching them together in the kitchen, and, of course, that I get to enjoy a relaxing morning followed by a delicious breakfast with the ones I love. But when daddy's gone on a Saturday morning, it falls to me to follow through on the tradition. I have to admit, I'm not as good at just sticking with the same-old pancake recipe over and over, and so I am prone to experimenting with fun, new pancake recipes to liven things up. While not all of my experimental pancakes have met with my son's standard for pancake excellence (which is, of course, the way daddy makes them) these light and slightly sweet pancakes have been a hit several times over. The bonus, too, is that because they are already sweet and flavorful, they don't need to be drenched in butter and syrup to make them appealing - a tiny sprinkling of powdered sugar and they are gone in seconds!

Whole Wheat Strawberry Vanilla Pancakes
8 SERVINGS (about 2 pancakes per serving...though, I'll be honest, we usually each eat 4 pancakes!)
PREP: 10 minutes           COOK: 10 minutes            READY IN: 20 minutes

SIMPLE	HEALTHY	YUM

INGREDIENTS

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• 1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 1/2 cups skim milk
• 1 egg
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 3 tablespoons vanilla extract (I buy the bottles from Costco to make it more affordable to cook with vanilla as much as I like)
• 1 cup sliced strawberries (*see my Simple Tip below)

DIRECTIONS

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1. Combine flour, baking powder, salt, and brown sugar in a medium mixing bowl. 
2. Whisk, milk, egg, oil, and vanilla extract together in a separate bowl. Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and stir until just combined (my husband has taught me that the trick to fluffier pancakes is to never overmix).
3. Gently fold in sliced strawberries. 
4. Pour about 1/4 cup batter onto hot skillet and let cook until bubbles form on top (about 2-4 minutes). Turn pancake over and cook the other side until golden. 

*Simple Tip:

I love having fresh strawberries whenever I possibly can, but they are only in season part of the year. To cook with them all year long I buy frozen strawberries. For this recipe, I thaw the strawberries in the microwave for about 1-1 1/2 minutes (take them out before they get too mushy - still slightly frozen), then I take a knife and cut through the strawberries in the microwave dish until I have roughly cut strawberry slices to add to the pancake batter.

NUTRITION FACTS

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     1 serving (2 pancakes)   178 calories   6.1 g fat   24.2 g carbs    5.4 g protein    8.0 g sugar   

Here's to looking forward to the weekend!
Recipe adapted from Cheese Please.