It’s funny how food is connected to memories. I remember sitting on my grandpa Comer’s lap, leaning against is big grandpa belly and eating a pralines and cream ice cream cone as a little girl.

I remember summer’s spent at my grandparent’s cabin and starting every morning with my grandma’s banana bread.

I remember family movie nights and my mom’s warm tapioca pudding.

Nostalgia is kind of how today’s recipe came about.

For a number of my growing up years my dad traveled quite a bit and the routine changed a little when he was gone.

Without the whole family home to eat dinner every night, my mom would often rent us girls a good chick flick and make a big oven pancake for dinner.

Somehow good food and cheesy chick flicks create lasting memories… deep I know.

Now, I know that most of our comfort foods we know and love are foods we limit our intake of because we know they aren’t good everyday menu items.

But what if we began creating and building memories around meals and foods that nourish our bodies and fuel our active children? What if those comfort foods could actually be good for us?

I’m not talking about eating raw carrots and celery and telling yourself they taste like candy. They don’t and never will.

Healthy, whole foods can be just as (I argue way more) delicious as the comfort foods we try to avoid!

Today’s recipe is a new take on one of my favorite meals and fun memory growing up.

ENJOY!

APPLE + CINNAMON + OVEN PANCAKE

serves 4-5

(vanilla not pictured)

INGREDIENTS:

1 C almond milk or organic whole milk

4 eggs

1 T maple syrup

¾ C oat flour or whole-wheat flour*

¾ tsp salt

2 tsp vanilla

2 T earth balance butter or coconut oil (or organic butter)

3 apples

1/8 C brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

*If you use oat flour, it won’t puff up as much as a traditional oven pancake. But I promise it still tastes great!

TO MAKE:

Preheat oven to 500F.

Melt the butter or coconut oil in a cast iron skillet or or 8x8 baking pan.

While the butter it melting in the oven, peal and slice the apples.

Add the sliced apples, cinnamon and sugar to the pan and stir until they are well coated.

Bake for 10 – 15 min or until the apples soften and begin to brown.

While the apples are baking, stir together the flour and salt. Set aside.

Wisk together the milk, eggs, vanilla and maple syrup.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir well or blend.

Once the apples are done, pour the batter over the apples and then reduce the oven temperature to 425F.

Bake for about 10 min. You just want to check and make sure it has cooked through in the middle but remove it before the edges get too crispy. 10-12 minutes should do the trick.

TO SERVE:

Let it cool for a few minutes and then lightly dust with powdered sugar for some extra pizzazz.

You can eat it as is or drizzle with a little maple syrup.

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