Millet Pancake Recipe

The first time I made these, they came out perfect.  Well, as perfect as a pancake can be with such limited ingredients.  I didn't write down the recipe.  I just winged it.  It has taken me a few tries to try to get something close to what I did the first time. 

Jake is a little tired of our magical millet muffins.  And I have to admit, I'm partial to these pancakes.  They don't crumble as easily, which means less mess.   They freeze great, too.  Every morning I pop one into the microwave and in 30 seconds he has a pancake to eat.  These little pancakes are our new staple. 

Millet Pancakes

1 cup millet flour

2 Tbsp raw organic sugar

1 tsp baking powder (corn free)

¼ tsp sea salt

2 Tbsp applesauce

3 Tbsp canola oil

½ cup of water (or more if needed for desired consistency)

Combine dry ingredients.  Add wet ingredients, stir to combine.  Pour ¼ cup portions onto a hot griddle.  Flip after a few minutes when bottoms are golden brown.  Let flip side brown for a few minutes.  Serve alone or with some 100% pure maple syrup!  These pancakes freeze well. 

 

On a side note:  Jake passed turkey! 

Gobble, Gobble!

Magical Millet "Cookies"

I am so inspired by Baby B's Mommy, Amanda.  She is so creative and inventive to provide her little one "normal" type food with such a small menu.  So I ventured to create my own recipe for millet muffins and cookies. 

Millet is not easy to bake with.  I like it best as a breakfast cereal with lots of stuff added in to make it taste better.  Honey, pears. raisins, nuts, cinnamon...  to name a few. 

This is my breakfast most mornings.  Looks better with the millet blurred out a bit...

During the last few weeks I have made 562 batches of millet muffins and cookies, trying to find an edible combination with our limited ingredients.  That might be a slight exaggeration.  But I did a lot of baking of the SAME thing, slightly altered, over and over again. 

The result?  Magical Millet "Cookies"!! Cookies in parenthesis because they're really muffin tops.  But they look like cookies!  And they are very edible.  My 5 year old LOVES them.  Jake LOVES them.  I like them.  I prefer a good chocolate chip cookie, but these are definitely worthy of a freshly brewed cup of coffee served with them.  Or apple juice.

Magic Millet Cookies

1 cup millet flour

1 tsp baking powder (corn-free)

¼ tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup canola oil

1/2 cup water

2 Tbs applesauce

Preheat oven to 375.  Mix together dry ingredients.  Make a well.  Add wet ingredients fold in until just moistened.  Spoon batter into muffin top pan so it just covers the bottom.  Bake for 14-16 minutes.  Transfer to cooling rack.  Enjoy!!

I never officially trialed sugar or canola oil.  We just flew by the seat of our pants here.  Jake had some sugar mixed with millet porridge a few times.  He's had some oil from french fries a few times, as well.  He's had quite a few of these muffins with no reactions!

Mini Millet Muffins - say that 10 times fast

Millet Muffin Tops ready to become Cookies!

COOKIES!!

MUFFINS!!

OH MY!!!!

Enjoy!!  Please leave me a comment if you make these and let me know what you think!

Millet, Millet the Magical Grain!

I think I'm going to finally call millet a pass!  Jake's been eating the puffs fairly regularly now at breakfast.  He hates the millet porridge.  The $33 millet porridge from Austrailia.  Oh well.  I tried.  I even mixed it in with some other pureed food.  He knew.  Actually, he doesn't really like much pureed food anymore.  My older son did this at the same age.  Jake wants to feed himself.  He will still take applesauce from me, as long as he has some kind of finger food on his plate, also.  He will also eat sweet potatoes with no problem.  But he L.O.V.E.S. sweet potatoes.  I make them thick enough so they stick on the spoon.  When he gets tired of me feeding him, he can actually pick up the spoon (with food already on it) and feed himself.  It's messy, but he feels so independent and proud! 

So now I'm on the quest to make some sort of millet cookie or muffin.  Millet doesn't rise, so this will be interesting.  I think a cookie might be a better bet.

In six weeks Jake will be one.  I can't believe it.  I need to start thinking about his birthday.  Do we do it up big with a huge party?  Or do we keep it small and intimate and have good crumb control?  I feel like this year should be celebrated, yet I want to be able to enjoy the party.  I don't want to worry the whole time about someone giving him a bite of cake because they think I'm just some over anxious crazy mom.   Decisions.  In the meantime, I will practice making some pear sorbet and some kind of cookie.  It would be fun to have some cookies in the shapes of "1" with a little frosting.

Christmas was great.  Jake would have been happy with some wrapping paper and empty boxes, but he got a few new toys that he's enjoying, as well.  He's also happy playing with his older siblings toys!  Zoobles and Zhu Zhu's seem to be favorites of his, too.

It's been a difficult week crumb-wise.  Having everyone home for the week for every meal and snacks is... well... messy.  I about flipped yesterday when Jake seemed like he was choking on something.  I did a finger swipe and found the inside of a piece of popcorn.  You know those little things that get stuck in your teeth?  I'm not sure what the technical term is.  I was so mad I had let the kids have popcorn.  I watched the clock.  He went to bed about the time he should have reacted.  Jake was cranky.  He was up a lot last night.  He did spit up a little.  But that was it.  No full blown reaction.  One more week of having the kids home.  Popcorn may have to be banned, or limited to outside.

We see our allergist again in four weeks.  I had been debating doing some kind of formula trial.  However, the elimination diet I'm on is much easier now that I can have wheat.  I'm not wasting away and starving anymore.  I plan to stick it out until 18 months.  We're still nursing 6-8 times a day.  I still feel like Jake's food menu is so small.  I think we're just about ready to tackle some bigger items.  Eggs?  Lamb?  I think we'll stick to a few more fruits and veggies until Jake is 12 months.  After that (if we're reaction free), I might get a little more aggressive with his trials. 

One other thing I want to ask the allergist about... probiotics.  Or maybe this is more of a GI question?  I never made the follow up appointment with the GI.. on my to do list.  I just felt the last appointment was so pointless.  Anyway, probiotics seem to be the new buzz word on the boards.  Definitely something I want to look into.  It seems like some kiddos have had success with the gut healing bacteria!  I have probiotics most days through the kefir I drink.  Does this pass through the milk, I wonder?  Something to think about.

One other important thing I wanted to mention. 

Because FPIES does not rule our lives...

Jake took TWO STEPS yesterday. 

This kid will be running before I know it!

Fun Facts about Millet

It's the holiday season.  This always puts me in a list mood. 

• Millet has been cultivated for some 8,000 years and is one of the oldest foods known to man.
• Yesterday I ate millet twice.  Breakfast and Dinner.  It's OK to be jealous.  I won't fault you for it.
• Millet is mentioned in the Bible and was used during those times to make bread. 
• I ordered infant millet porridge from Australia a few weeks ago.  It's still not here.   
• There is such a thing as millet beer (ummm where can I find some, Mama could use a beverage on this elimination diet!)
• The U.S. uses millet mainly for cattle and bird feed.  (and those who have FPIES or nourish a baby with FPIES, or in our case BOTH)
• My visa actually called to tell me someone was using my credit card in Australia and they suspected fraud.  Someone had charged $33.00 to a food company.
• Yes, I paid $33 freaking dollars for infant millet porridge.  The things we do. 
• Millet is grown in hot, dry climates where other grains will not thrive.  Hmmm...  I live in the southwest.  It is awfully hot and dry here.  I may be on to something. 
• Millet puffs are very tiny.  They fit up a baby's nostril.  With patience, time and long finger nails you can carefully remove them from a baby's nostril.  As long as he doesn't snort it up.  Whew. 
• Jake has had a very small amount of millet puffs six out of the last eight days.  With no reaction. (doing a very small happy dance... taking things slow, going to start increasing amounts today) 

Reference: http://chetday.com/millet.html