Anti-Spoon Feeding Rebellion - Breakfast Battle

Last week the twins decided that even though oatmeal with fruit has always been a huge favorite, it wasn't going to be any more.  When mouths became sealed shut against my attempts and spoons (loaded with food) were continuously pulled away from me with tiny strong fists I waved the white flag on the breakfast battle. I blame the spoon.  It seems as though the spoon feeding days are coming to an end.  The kids are much more interested in grabbing and shoving their own food into their mouths now so goodbye oatmeal....hello sweet potato pancakes!

Breakfast in my house is at 6:30am so it has to be easy.  I made this the night before so cutting a few of them up with some diced bananas took me no more time than stirring together that oatmeal. These pancakes taste great, have a ton of veggies in them, freeze and thaw easily...they are the perfect breakfast finger food.

Sweet Potato and Blueberry Pancakes, adapted from Start Fresh: Your Child's Jump Start to Lifelong Healthy Eating by Tyler Florence

2 c. all-purpose flour
1/4 c. sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
3 eggs
2 c. buttermilk *
2 medium sweet potatoes, pureed**
2 Tbsp melted butter
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 c. blueberries (optional)

* To make buttermilk add 1 Tbsp of white vinegar to each cup of milk called for, stir and let stand for 5 minutes.
** For sweet potato puree, chop potatoes into 1 inch pieces and steam in a steam basket until fork tender, about 10 minutes.  Put in food processor or blender with some of the cooking water and process until smooth.

For the pancakes whisk together your flour, sugar, baking powder, soda and salt in a large bowl.  In a smaller bowl whisk your eggs and add the (cooled) melted butter, buttermilk, and vanilla.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry, pour in your sweet potato puree and combine.  You may need to add a bit more flour depending on the consistency of your puree, I needed an extra 1/4 cup.    Pour the batter on a medium hot oiled griddle or skillet.  If using the blueberries add a few into the pancakes right after you pour them out. My poor little Aaron gets a bit of a rash when he eats blueberries so unfortunately we had to skip them.  Flip your pancakes when the edges start to bubble.

A cool trick for freezing these!  After they are completely cool lay them in a single layer on a baking sheet and pop them into the freezer for 15 minutes or so.  After that put them into freezer storage bags.  This flash freezing keeps them from sticking together in the bag, neat huh?!  If you don't have room in the freezer to fit a tray you can just stack them in freezer bags with a piece of parchment paper between each one.  According to the recipe this makes about 12 four inch pancakes but I made them silver-dollar size and I swear it made a hundred.  (or at least it seemed like it)  I'm not complaining though cause the kids loved them and with two bags in the freezer, I won't need to make them again any time soon.