Recipe Tuesday

I (Melissa) spent time searching recipe books for beet foods our children would truly enjoy. Slim pickins. So I shut the books and started thinking. And I came up with a SMASH HIT for the little Zechs:

Purple Pancakes:
Use your typical pancake recipe that you always use. (We used whole wheat.) Use a little less milk or water than normal. Add about 2-3 cups of pureed beets. (I used cooked beets). The batter should be thick and not runny so the pancakes will be thick and moist.

Then I just cooked them like I always do. One batch I made with sprinkled cheese on top - that was really good - and another batch I put cinnamon into the batter. That was good too. Both times we had it, we didn't need syrup - but they are really good with butter. I'm guessing they'd be really good with chocolate chips inside too.

Here's another one that they'll gobble up, even if it's not all that healthy:

Red Bread:
Take a banana bread recipe and simply substitute mashed cooked beets for bananas. I included extra cinnamon, and also walnuts. If I make it again I will put in extra beets (probably substitute a cup and a half of beets for one cup of bananas, for example) to make it more red. I would probably also add raisins.

How to Cook Beets:
Take kettle filled with water. Dump in your beets straight from the farm, stems and all! Boil them for a few minutes, then turn the heat down a little to a simmer/low boil. Let them go for 40 minutes or so. Check if they're tender all through, then drain them and cool them (I put them on ice) and then peel them with your fingers. They peel so easily and the stems slide right off - no knife is needed.
(I never knew this before this year because I always cut them up and ate them raw. You can do that that too!)

How about you?