Start Your Day with Breakfast

Apple-Cinnamon Family Pancake

Assorted cheeses

Blueberry juice

Coffee or herbal tea

½ cup unbleached flour                                      ¼ cup butter or Smart Balance® Buttery Spread

½ cup milk                                                        1 or 2 Golden Delicious apples

2 eggs                                                               2 T. lemon juice

Pinch of nutmeg                                                Ground cinnamon

                                                                        Assorted sliced cheeses

Preheat oven to 425 °.  While oven is preheating, melt ¼ cup butter or Smart Balance® Buttery Spread in a 10-inch pie pan (when using a glass pan, heat oven to 400 °).

To make pancake, mix flour, milk, eggs and nutmeg in a bowl.  Beat with an eggbeater, leaving batter slightly lumpy.  When pie pan is hot, pour in batter and put into oven for 15-20 minutes.  Near the end of cooking time, the batter will rise about two inches above the sides of the pan, forming a large, bowl-shaped pancake.  When it is done, remove pancake from oven and fill center with one or two peeled, sliced and seeded sweet apples.  (Golden Delicious apples are naturally sweet.)  Lemon juice may be sprinkled over the apples, if desired.  Top with ground cinnamon and return to oven for about 30 seconds to heat apples.  Cut in half or thirds for two or three servings and serve immediately.

Note:  Other naturally sweet fruit or berries may be substituted for the apples.  This recipe is fun to make and serve and is nutritious, since it contains only wholesome ingredients and no sugar.  It must be accompanied, however, by a protein side dish, since the protein content of the pancake is not very high.  A plate of assorted cheese slices or a glass of kefir rounds out this menu.