Sunday Morning Pancakes

Delicious oat/whole-grain pancakes on a Sunday morning, how perfect!  I even busted out the whip cream and asked Ben to run downstairs and pick a few fresh strawberries.  Yup, I sure do have illegally planted strawberries in front of my assigned parking space.  Everytime I see the maintenance people pulling weeds, I run outside to make sure they don't pull them out.  Last time they were here, Ben said they were picking and eating my strawberries while weeding! 

As you may know, Vicki and I are cooking through the book, Whole Grains Every Day Every Way by Lorna Sass.  She actually found out we created this website and emailed us about a year ago.  Lorna gave us permission to post three of her original recipes.  Since her pancakes turned out AMAZING, I decided this is a must post for everyone to try.  Vicki and I have been very pleased with her book and hope that you enjoy this recipe.

Stop yourself from purchasing Bisquick or Aunt Jemima instant "just add water mix".  You should already have the ingredients listed below in your pantry.  Lorna suggests you make a large batch and store.  This is exactly what I did.

Dry Mix

1/2 cup old-fashioned rolled oats

3 1/4 cups whole - wheat pastry flour (100% ground wheat worked just fine)

1/4 cup sugar

4 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons salt

Place oats in a spice grinder, processor, or Magic Bullet and process to the consistency of flour. Mix all dry ingedients together.  Place 1 1/3 cups of the mix into each of the 4 Ziplock bags.  Refrigerate or freeze for up to 3 months.

Whole Grain Pancakes

2 large eggs

1 1/4 cup of well-shaken buttermilk, plus more if needed. 

(If you do not have buttermilk use regular milk and add 1 tsp of vinegar)

2 tablespoons butter, melted

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 packet (1 1/3 cups) Whole-Grain Pancake Mix (see recipe above)

In a large bowl, lightly beat the eggs.  Blend in the buttermilk, butter, and vanilla.  Add the pancake mix, and stir just until the mixture forms a lumpy batter.  Avoid overmixing.  Heat griddle over medium heat and coat lightly with oil. Make pancakes!!!!  - amy w.

Whole Wheat and Cranberry Scones

Wow, it's been a crazy busy couple of weeks! I started a new job (yes, a cooking job!!!) and have finished my 3rd week of summer classes. I'm exhausted, but feeling happy and satisfied. I am cooking for a wonderful family of four, 2 to 3 nights/week to take the load off the busy, working parents.  So far I love it! I'm reading countless blogs, magazines and cookbooks, now with a focused goal: 3 healthy, varied meals per week that adults and kids alike will love. It's been a blast so far, and I'll be keeping you updated.

I'm trying to work in the grains here and there so I baked these scones for them this past week with whole wheat pastry flour as directed in the recipe. The pastry flour has a lower protein content than say cake or all purpose flour and will absorb less moisture (right?!).  Having never baked a scone before, or worked to much with a kneaded dough, these types of recipes always intimidate me. For no good reason either, because it's was super simple and you get better every time. Working with doughs, you'll learn how they should feel and how to do it better the next time.

I think my end product was a little dry, but scones are supposed to be a little dry? yes/no? Not sure? I always here the States or at least Seattle, is not a great place for good scones, so I'm not sure I've ever had what the French would call a good one.   Anyway, it was tasty and I did the real milk and butter recipe, no substitutions this time. The family doesn't have a wheat or dairy issue, so I plan to do some gluten free and dairy free stuff, but not all. I'd give this recipe a 4 1/2 out of 5. I think the dryish texture was my fault, but other than that they were great and according to what I've read, this recipe is perfect ;)

Fun and random...I was volunteering at a cooking class called Fast Food for Busy Families at PCC the the other night and the instructor told everyone to save time, you should get a pressure cooker, then recommended a book by none other than, Lorna Sass, "Cooking Under Pressure". In a small class of 15, she got a great review from the instructor and 2 students who have and love the book. Yeah, go Lorna, you've got Sass! Cheers ya'll...now go bake some scones ;)  -Vicki

Kamut Chicken Salad-pg. 135

I opened an email from Karen, Director of Advertising  for Graingirls.com and she wrote, "Amy, Lorna Sass posted on your website. That's so great!" My first thought was that Karen was playing a joke on the two of us. That was not the case, Lorna Sass REALLY did post on our blog! I told Mr. Ben that he better watch out!

So back to the recipe that recieved a large makeover! With the two of us being olive haters, I had to get creative and substitute. In place of black and green olives, I roasted asparagus and added grapes + cranberries. The original dressing consisted of fresh squeezed lemon juice and olive oil. Since I don't like lemon flavor, I found some balsamic in my fridge and mixed that with a bit of sugar. I added whole wheat tortillas and shredded cheese to make this more of a chicken salad wrap. I know we are trying to eat healthy here BUT I  fried up some sweet potato french fries to compliment the wrap!

Ben gave it 4/5 grains up! This salad made delicious leftovers for lunch! -amy


I was so nervous this morning when I packed this salad into a couple containers to take it to work with me for a luncheon we were having at the Jewelry Store I work at.  I tasted the chicken mixture a couple times and thought it was lacking flavor...combined with the fact that I was bringing some "wacky" grain salad to a group of normal eating office mates who don't know me too well, I thought I might quickly turn into the all too healthy, but not so tasty "Cooking School Girl".  Quite the contrary though, they loved it! (or they were just being nice...but I think they really liked it!).  When you combine the lettuce mix with the chicken salad and the dressing, the combination is full of flavor & texture that everyone enjoyed, including myself.  One of the girls was trying to stash any leftovers for herself for later! What a compliment!

The recipe calls for romaine+raddichio+sage tossed in a simple lemon vinaigrette dressing (I used green cabbage instead of raddichio because I had some to use up) and combine it with a blend of chicken+kamut+green & black olives (to which I also added a seasoning salt blend, olive oil, more sage & green onions). 

I am a big fan of chicken salad and just love the idea of doctoring it up with a plump and chewy whole grain like kamut and tossing with vinaigrette instead of mayo. Don't get me wrong, I won't be giving up mayo chicken salad anytime soon, but this lighter alternative is fantastic!
Thanks for coming through for me on this one Lorna!
-Vicki

Oh, and for fun, I took a photo with our fancy camera "bubble" we use for rings...not bad! This would be fun to have at home!

Meet Lorna Sass

LORNA SASS is an award-winning cookbook author, food historian, and consultant. She is considered the country's leading authority on pressure cooking and writes regularly for Vegetarian Times and the Los Angeles Times Food Syndicate. She is author of the bestselling Cooking Under Pressure, and a dozen other cookbooks. She lives in New York City. Taken from randomhouse.com

Lorna's Homepage     

Vegetarian Times  

Whole Grains Every Day, Every Way Review

Vicki and I are just getting started. Purchase the book and join us as we continue to cook through Whole Grains Every Day, Every Way!