Pumpkin Cornmeal Pancakes

The freezer clean out is going very well. I have successfully crossed several items off the inventory list. My storage containers are slowly making it back into the cupboards. Unfortunately I have also been adding to the freezer list. But I take comfort in the fact that I am using the older stuff faster than I am putting new stuff in.

I know that many families love to have breakfast for dinner. It’s easy, quick food and the novelty makes dinner fun for kids. I’ve never really been a big breakfast food fan. In college I would rather have leftover Chinese or a turkey sandwich for breakfast than traditional breakfast food. Now that I’m getting older and starting to eat more eggs, I am coming around to breakfast food and the idea of breakfast for dinner.

I had about a cup of pumpkin puree in the freezer waiting to be used up. I didn’t want to make cookies or bread out of it. I wanted to do something different. Then I thought about pancakes. I looked up a recipe for pumpkin pancakes and found one that looked tasty. I was a little put off by the powdered sugar but I was intrigued by the cornmeal. I decided to throw caution to the wind try the recipe. The good vitamins in the pumpkin totally cancels out all the bad in the powdered sugar right?

I really like these pancakes. They aren’t too sweet (I’m munching on them as I write) and the cornmeal gives a fun little dash of texture. The original recipe called for butter instead of cooking spray, but I decided I wanted to cut back on the fat and calories just a bit. I’m sure the butter would have been heavenly though. I also cut back on the amount of milk I used in the recipe. The amount of milk the original recipe calls for makes really thin crepe-like pancakes.

I am usually pumpkin crazy in October. Pumpkin coffee, pumpkin bread, pumpkin, pumpkin, pumpkin. It’s been a while since I’ve had anything pumpkin so these were a fun spring treat. I’m not sure if we will start having breakfast for dinner on a regular basis, but I might throw it into the mix a little bit more often. I’m sure if I pair these with bacon husband will happy to eat these any night.

Enjoy!

1 cup flour

1 cup cornmeal
1 cup powdered sugar
½ tsp. ground ginger
½ tsp. cinnamon
1 cup pumpkin puree
2 eggs
1½ cups milk
 
Whisk the dry ingredients together in a mixing bowl. Stir in the pumpkin and eggs. Add in the milk and stir until smooth. Add more milk if needed.

Heat a medium frying pan or griddle over medium heat. Spray pan/griddle with cooking spray. Pour ¼ cup to ½ cup of batter in the pan/griddle. Cook until golden on both sides.

Serve hot and topped with your favorite toppings.

Adapted from http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/cooking-live/pumpkin-cornmeal-pancakes-recipe/index.html