Malunggay and Kalabasa Pancakes!

Providing nutritious food is a struggle that most moms experience. Creativity is needed to provide healthy and fun options for our kids. This post my contribution to the National Nutrition Month celebration.

Whenever I can, I include vegetable in their meal –even during snack time! Here is one recipe which I was able to improve over the years.

The original recipe I posted years ago uses an instant pancake mix. But thanks to a co-breastfeeding mamma, Desiree Pante, I was able to find a base that is fluffy!

Here is the recipe that kids and kids at heart can all enjoy!

INGREDIENTS:

¾ cup soya milk
(you can use any milk you prefer. I just use soy milk since my son is intolerant to cow’s milk)

2 tablespoons white vinegar

2 tablespoons of melted salted butter or margarine

2 tablespoons white sugar

4 tablespoons brown sugar (optional if you want to skip syrup upon serving)

1 cup cake flour (all-purpose flour is a substitute)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 large egg

¼ cup sliced kalabasa (you can opt to chop to reduce cooking time)

1 or 2 tablespoons chopped malunggay

PROCEDURE:

1. Shift and mix the white sugar, flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
2. In a small pot, boil the chopped malunggay, 1/4 cup of milk and brown sugar until malunggay is cooked. 
3. In another pot, boil the kalabasa with the remaining of the milk (1/2 cup) until tender. Remove the water then mash or strain and then add to your milk mixture. (I prefer to strain so that there will be no lumps in my mixture. You may also blend.)
4. Mix the malunggay, kalabasa and milk. Make sure that the mixture will fill-up a ¾ measuring cup. If a portion of milk evaporated during the boiling of the malunggay, you may add additional milk to meet the total ¾ cup measurement.
5. Separate the egg yolk from the egg white.*
6. Now it is time to work on your mixture. Get your bowl of dry ingredients and make a well.
7. Place the egg yolk, white vinegar, melted butter, and the kalabasa, malunggay and mixture in the well.
8. Mix everything together until there are no lumps.
9. Beat the egg whites until they form soft peaks.*
10. Gently fold-in the beaten egg white.*
11. Cook in non-stick pan. Make sure bubbles appear on one side before you flip.

(tip: You can make a mickey shaped pancake by using 2 measuring spoon or cups. The bigger one for the face and a small one for the ears. I use 1 tablespoon for the face and teaspoon for the ears)

*you may skip steps 4, 8 and 9 if you are not after fluffy pancakes.