Red, White, and Blue-berry Pancakes

My mom, sister, Layla, and I were away on vacation at the beach this past week! The down side is that the only day it decided to ran was the Fourth of July. And I mean it probably could've been classified as a minor hurricane. There was no way we could have left the house unless we wanted to get spontaneously blown away to some random place. We decided not to risk our chances of ending up in a stranger's backyard and cozied up inside.

I had a major craving for pancakes and as I've gotten much better now, I actually allow myself to indulge my cravings (as long as they're within reason). We had picked up some pancake mix at the grocery store earlier in the week for my mom plus I had some fresh blueberries so I figured why not? Sounded like the perfect start to blueberry pancakes and a delicious way to get my carb fix!

But then I saw the fatal flaw in my plan: no maple syrup. I mean who wants to eat plain pancakes, am I right? Then another idea came to me and it's one I've always wanted to try but was too lazy because I had maple syrup within my reach-- a fresh fruit compote! I've never made one before and they always sound so fancy and time-consuming to me but I was ready to take on the challenge for the sake of eating delicious pancakes.

I had blueberries, stevia, and water so I decided to give it a go. I promise you I may never go back to maple syrup again! And that's saying something. I was so pleasantly surprised that I was mildly (extremely) disappointed when I finished the last bite and wasn't able to have a second helping of pancakes. One because I ran out of blueberries and two because I didn't feel like making a fresh batch.

So for the pancakes I ended up following the directions from the box and substituted almond milk and egg whites for the regular milk and whole eggs to make it a little healthier. Once I had the base mixed, I added about 1/2 cup fresh blueberries to the batter. If I had been at home I would have prepared the batter from scratch but I didn't have all the necessary ingredients on hand and had to make the best of it!

For the blueberry compote:

1/4 cup fresh blueberries
1-2 tbsp stevia
1/2 cup water

I can't promise that these are exact measurements for the compote since I was experimenting. I was only left with about a quarter cup of blueberries once I made the pancake mix and I had no idea how much water would be needed. All I did was fill the sauce pan until the blueberries were submerged a bit so I'm guessing it was about 1/2 or a little more. Once again with the stevia I guess-timated and it was probably closer to 2 tablespoons in the end.

I brought the mixture to a boil and then turned down the heat to a simmer and let it reduce while I cooked the pancakes. I didn't have it exactly timed but it probably took about 8-10 minutes for it to get to a consistency that I liked. If you're not sure while you're cooking it check to see if the blueberries have burst and are breaking down a bit. You don't want them to be completely disintegrated but they should be slightly broken down. It should also have considerably thickened up. Those two things is how I judged it to be done and removed it from the heat.

I poured the compote over the pancakes and dug in! I'm telling you I was in carb heaven :)

Sometimes the best recipes turn out when you have simple ingredients and are forced to try out new things! I'm glad that I actually got around to trying out a compote and can't wait to experiment with it. I'll keep you posted with all my compotesitions ;) sorry that was a terrible joke. Compote + composition = compotesition...get it...? Let's pretend that didn't happen and move on.

Here's a picture of the tasty beauties

Just because she's so darn cute and I love showing her off here's some of the pictures from vacation with Layla. She had never been to the beach before and definitely loved it! She just turned 7 months but I still think she's just as cute as the first day we brought her home!

Did you do anything fun for the Fourth?!