Blueberry Multi-Grain Yogurt Pancakes

Do you ever wake up and feel like you're already behind?

Like, you're still lying in bed, foggy and barely awake, but you're already thinking that you didn't get enough done yesterday and today is not going to be enough for all the things you have yet to do?

I hate that feeling, but I'm embarrassed to admit that I experience it an awful lot.

When I was teaching, running through my morning guilt parade were grading, lesson planning, photo-copying, tutoring, and paperwork.

Now it's reading, reading, reading, writing, and more reading.

And of course there's always the dirty dishes, dirty bathrooms, dirty carpet, dirty laundry…

It never ends. We could be go-go-go all day long and never get it all done.

I would like to avoid this morning shame fest, so lately I've been reevaluating how I spend my time.

I realized, of course, that there will never be enough hours in the day for me to get all the reading/writing/studying I feel like I need to get done, nor would it be healthy for my mental/emotional/physical well-being to spend all of my hours committed to such tasks.

We're not robots, we're people.

So I've thought about things that are not studying but are still worthy of my time, but also things that aren't.

List One: spending time with Adam, cooking a healthy meal, running, going to church, talking with a friend, working on the blog, or going to yoga.

List Two: Pretty much all social media. Mindless t.v. Internet shopping. Jealous blog browsing.

Anytime I'm doing something on List One? Not going to feel guilty about doing it instead of studying.

Anytime I'm doing something on List Two? (Which is still quite often, let's be honest) Move toward either spending that time studying or doing something else from List One.

As far as the cleaning goes? Do it when I can.  No guilt about dirty dishes in my sink. Who really cares, anyway?

Waking up with a to-do list buzzing through my brain still happens, but I'm trying to change what's on the list.

Yesterday for example, I had two things.

1. Cuddle with Adam.

2. Make pancakes.

The best kind of list, and I did both both things well, I have to say.

These pancakes are a delicious blend of both white and whole wheat flours, oats, flax seeds, vanilla greek yogurt and honey. They're thicker than your average pancake, but still soft and fluffy. I like mine drenched in an easy blackberry syrup.

I'm thinking about these pancakes in the context of a lovely quote I read recently from Molly of Orangette:

"I started to understand that maybe, what I love so much about food is stories. I love the shape food gives to my life--the stories it tells me about who I am, the people close to me, about the city I live in, all of it. Food is a very sharp lens for looking at what matters to us, and suddenly, I wanted to find out what else it could show me. Those were the stories I wanted to tell."  (source)

The stories I want to remember about my Saturday mornings are not about waking up stressed over school work.  I'd much rather they involve cuddling with the man I love and consuming an enormous plate of healthy pancakes.

So far, I'm off to a good start.

Hope you have a peace-filled week, friends.

Blueberry Multi-Grain Yogurt Pancakes

Ingredients:
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons old fashioned oats
2 tablespoons ground flax seed
1 tablespoon, plus 1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup vanilla Greek yogurt
2 eggs
4 tablespoons milk. (I used unsweetened almond milk)
3 tablespoons melted butter, plus more for the pan
2 tablespoons honey
1 cup blueberries

Directions: 
Preheat oven to 200. Set out a baking sheet next to the stove.

Melt 3 tablespoons of butter in the microwave and set aside to cool

In a medium bowl, whisk together flours, oats, flax seed, baking powder and salt.

In a separate bowl, combine yogurt, eggs, milk, melted butter and honey.

Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir until combined. (It's ok if it's a bit lumpy.) At this point, you can let the batter sit for a few minutes (up to an hour) or go ahead and make the pancakes.

When you're ready, heat a large skillet over medium high heat and add butter to coat the pan.

Add a little less than 1/4 cup of batter to the pan. The batter is thick, so you may need to use your spoon  to create the desired round shape. Press blueberries into pancake.  Cook for a minute or two on each side or until golden. Place finished pancakes on the cookie sheet and keep warm in the oven. I cooked 3 pancakes at a time in my large skillet.  Recipe makes 6-8 pancakes, depending on the size.

For an easy blueberry syrup, combine 1 cup maple syrup with 2 tablespoons blackberry or blubbery preserves. Heat in microwave safe bowl for 1-2 minutes.

Heavily adapted from Smitten Kitchen.