Red Velvet Pancakes on a leisurely Sunday Morning....followed by crazy Mondays

Around here, I strive to make Sundays a quiet, leisurely experience, sometimes it doesn't always work out as planned, but this past weekend included the perfect Sunday. Often, any perfect day has to include perfect food, and this one was no exception. Red Velvet Pancakes with Maple Cream Cheese Syrup was the definition of perfection. Earlier in the week, while doing things around the house while my grandson watched cartoons, I happened to catch the latest IHOP commercial, they were hawking their latest pancake, Red Velvet. This of course made me want them desperately. Knowing I couldn't go get them, we don't have an IHOP around here, and they definitely are not vegan, I tucked the thought away. Unfortunately, or fortunately as the case turned out, the thought didn't want to stay tucked, so after a couple days thinking about that beautiful stack of red pancakes, I calmed myself with the thought that I would attempt to make my own on Sunday. Well, Sunday rolled around, and while I was lazily enjoying the paper and my coffee, I remembered the pancakes. After a look through the kitchen, I decided I definitely had everything to make these glorious beauties, and set to the task. The result was everything that the name Red Velvet should conjure up, fluffy, light chocolate flavor, tangy deliciousness. Any person worth their Red Velvet knows that it must, must, MUST be accompanied by cream cheese, which I luckily had half a container of Toffuti Cream Cheese left, so I mixed it up with some syrup and almond milk to make a delicious syrup. The recipe is below. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. I plan for it to be on my Sunday morning breakfast menu regularly.

Red Velvet Pancakes with Maple Cream Cheese Syrup

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbs cocoa powder
2 tbs sugar
1 1/4 cups soy milk
1 tbs apple cider vinegar
2 tbs vegetable or canola oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbs red food color

1. In measuring cup or bowl, mix together the soy milk and vinegar and set aside.

2. In medium bowl mix flour, baking powder, salt, cocoa powder and sugar.

3. To the soy milk mixture add the oil, vanilla and food color. Mix well.

4. Spray a skillet or griddle with cooking spray and heat. Pour batter by ladle full or 1/4 cup measure onto griddle and cook until bubbles begin to pop. Flip over and cook an additional 2 minutes. Keep warm in oven at 200 degrees until all are cooked.

Maple Cream Cheese Syrup

4 oz. toffuti better than cream cheese
1/2-3/4 cup pure maple syrup
almond milk as needed

1. With a mixer at high blend the cream cheese until fluffy, add the syrup and mix well. Add almond milk until you get the consistency you like. It should be pourable but not too thin.

Seriously, try these. They are just so good.

Now on to Monday. This morning my grandson had an early dentist appointment so he spent the night last night. About 10 p.m. we were having a very loud thunder and lightening storm, and I heard his come running down the hall, he isn't real fond of thunder. So he had to spend the night in my room. The boy just wouldn't shut up, he talked and talked and talked. Nervousness I guess. I learned all about the grand piano he saw at the music store and thinks I should buy, the fact that he would really really love an electric guitar like his dad's, and numerous other things. Finally he fell asleep sometime around midnight. We woke early to more thunder and lots of rain, got ready and headed out to the dentist. Only to find that papa had taken the only umbrella to work with him. Well, just great. So we got a bit soggy running to the truck. Got to the dentist, No Cavities!!! hooray, that was the good news, the bad news was that the back right molar that was coming in 6 months ago has made no progress so we had to have even more (i.e. lots more money) x-rays, and finally Dr. Ben came to the conclusion that he would give it until November and if it was still impacted, it would have to be rectified (i.e. oral surgery, which of course means lots more money). The dentist bill was $140 dollars MORE than what I thought it would be, which required a trip to the bank to transfer money to checking after Dr. Ben. On arriving home, wet and really cold, we discovered a very large puddle of water on the stove top. I'm assuming it came through the stove top vent, but can't completely confirm that. We spent the rest of the day huddled inside, waiting for the day to end it's Monday blahs. Here's looking forward to a Terrific Tuesday. Hope your Monday was a good one.