Heart-healthy, easy to make and vegetarian!

Here is a wonderful and hearty recipe for cold weather days - and lazy Sundays! This recipe is heart-healthy with lots of oatmeal, cherries for the mineral iron and buttermilk as the American version of yogurt. Vegetarian yet filling and easy too!

You can also increase your iron intake by using a cast iron skillet. Years ago when I was anemic I started cooking almost everything in a cast iron skillet and it really made a difference to my energy level.

Note to beginners: Don't advise cooking anything with tomatoes in an iron skillet - like spaghetti - as the iron tastes dreadful and the high acid tomato pits the skillet, causing you to season the skillet all over again. Can you tell I already tried that one? Big grin.

These days my husband asks at every meal, "Where's the camera phone? Aren't you going to take a picture?" Yes, this author is truly a shameless foodie. It just comes from living in Louisiana where food is practically a religion! From my kitchen to yours and hope you enjoy. Life is meant to be cultivated, savored and treasured with good friends!

Dennys Oatmeal Pancakes with Cherries

Ingredients

Dry Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats

¼ teaspoon salt

1 Tablespoon baking powder

3 teaspoons cinnamon

Wet Ingredients:

2 Tablespoons honey

2 eggs

2 Tablespoons canola oil

2 cups organic low-fat buttermilk

1 teaspoon vanilla

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For serving: 21 ounce can of cherry pie filling

Directions

In a large bowl, mix together with a whisk the dry ingredients: flour, oats, salt, baking powder, and cinnamon. Make sure you distribute well the baking powder and salt throughout the mixture.

In a medium bowl, mix together with a whisk honey, eggs, canola oil, buttermilk and vanilla.

Now pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix together with a large spoon. Use a soup ladle to place on medium heated skillet coated with a little canola oil to make large pancakes. If you'd like smaller pancakes then use a gravy ladle for a smaller portion. I make the hearty one pancake portion with maybe a small side of scrambled eggs or turkey.

Cook well on one side and wait until well set before flipping over. Check to see if they are cooking too fast and burning or browning too much for your taste and adjust heat level.

Note to beginners: To take a look, just slide your metal spatula slowly under the pancake and lift up carefully just enough to gauge how much it is browning. Once it reaches the level you like, flip over the pancake to finish cooking.

It's best if you flip only once as it tends to cook well into the middle the longer it stays on its side. If you flip and flip as I see some people do what you end up with is a gooey undercooked mess in the middle but browned on the outside. That is known as Bad Pancake 101 that kills the fluffy factor too.

Serves about 8 - when using the large pancake portions. Serve with heated canned cherry pie filling in place of syrups. A 21 ounce can of cherry pie filling gives a generous amount to 4 very large servings.

You can also serve with a smaller portion of cherries and add drizzles of warmed maple syrup too as they blend well together.

These oatmeal pancakes also taste good with other canned fruit fillings like blueberry or apple. Try them all!

Include some café au lait - Louisiana style from French Dark Roast coffee with chicory! (Chicory reduces the acidity of coffee and also acts as a digestive.)

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Other Recipes from Denny Lyon

*** Recipes published exclusively with HubPages ***

Check out this recipe: Dennys Dark Chocolate Bread Pudding - Easy and quick to put together, lower fat, lower sugar version that explodes with enough chocolate flavor to drown in it!

Check out this recipe: Dennys Louisiana Lyon Oven Pancake - Great for a quick supper or brunch with a minimum of fuss mixed in one bowl and baked in one pan - and this pancake is long on presentation!

Check out this recipe: Dennys Low Gluten Southern Cornbread - This is very low-gluten and wonderfully moist and satisfying. White corn meal cornbread is lighter than yellow. Fast and easy for beginner cooks! Vegetarian too!

Fun Food Blogs by Denny Lyon:

Romancing The Chocolate – yummy photos, recipes and just plain fun. Quotes illustrated with chocolate photos to make you laugh!

Comfort Food From Louisiana – yummy easy comfort food recipes, photos of New Orleans, history and cultural traditions of south Louisiana.

*** Thank you for visiting and a big thank you to HubPages, Yahoo, Google, AOL, Mister Wong, Facebook and StumbleUpon readers for all your great support!

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