Whole Wheat Pancakes with Strawberry Sauce

I know that Valentine's day is a corny "holiday" and its even worse if you're single. But I realized when I was editing this photo of the stack of heart-shaped pancakes with pinky red strawberry sauce that these pancakes will work if you're making them for your sweetheart or for yourself on one of the most lonely days of the year. Because depending on your point of view, these could either look like the perfect breakfast treat for your Valentine, or a strawberry sauce-bleeding broken heart if you're single. Either way they're cute, sweet, and healthy. What more could you ask for in a breakfast in bed? Or in a bitter reminder that you're without a Valentine this year.

Recipe rundown:
Taste: Mildly sweet so you don't feel guilty for inducing a sugar coma before 11a.m..
Texture: Surprisingly tender for being whole-wheat.
Ease: Easy-peasy
Appearance: One of the cutest things I've ever made. Got to love V-day.
Expense: For me the only thing I had to buy was frozen strawberries so it ended up being less than $5.
Pros: You can double the strawberry sauce recipe for all kinds of morning goodies.
Cons: I tend to like the crisp edges of pancakes so when you cut them into heart shapes it cuts off my favorite part. Good thing I don't have to make them heart shaped.
Would I make this again? Yes

Heart-Shaped Whole Wheat Pancakes
Adapted from Ellie Krieger's The Food You Crave
Yield: 4 servings

• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup whole-wheat flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
  
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup low-fat buttermilk
• 1/2 cup non-fat milk
  
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
• Strawberry sauce, recipe follows
• Confectioners' sugar, optional

Preheat oven to 200 degrees F. Preheat a large nonstick griddle or skillet over a medium-low flame.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients (flour through salt). In another medium bowl, beat together the eggs, buttermilk, non-fat milk, honey and vanilla.

Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, mixing only enough to combine them. The batter will be somewhat lumpy.

Use a 1/3 cup measuring cup to ladle the batter onto the griddle or skillet. Flip the pancake when the top is bubbling and it is golden brown on the bottom. Then cook until the other side is golden brown. Hold on an oven proof plate in the oven until the entire batch is ready. If heart shape is desired, when all the pancakes are ready, cut them into heart shapes with a heart shaped cookie cutter. Ladle about 1/3 cup of the strawberry sauce onto each plate, place pancakes on top and sprinkle with confectioners' sugar, if using.

Strawberry Sauce
Yield: 4 servings (serving size about 1/3 cup)

• 16 ounces strawberries, fresh or frozen (unsweetened, thawed)
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons maple syrup

Puree strawberries to a chunky puree. Heat them in a small saucepan over a low flame, until they are just warm. Stir in lemon juice and maple syrup.