Baked Pancakes with Broccoli and Ricotta.

Recently I watched a TV programme where the bassist from Blur, who now makes cheese, did an experiment where he ate almost identical meals for two weeks, but in the second week added lots of low fat dairy, then his poo was examined in the Netherlands. There was twice as much fat in his poo in the non-dairy week as the dairy week - apparently dairy binds with fat inside you, so that it's too big to digest and you excrete it. It's because of this that low fat dairy can help you lose weight. Good old television experiments! So sorry vegans and vegan sympathisers, I'm on a dairy mission. The amount of melted cheddar above is purely for health reasons. Ahem...

In the photo you can see alfalfa sprouts, lettuce, cottage cheese mixed with chard and a big fat pancake. (Sprouting tips: http://www.thefarm.org/charities/i4at/lib2/sprouts.htm) This was my dinner the day before yesterday, and my lunch yesterday. That is the way things are at the moment, and the way I like it. I heartily recommend leftover lunches.

Four baked pancakes were made thus:

Pancakes:

A handful of flour mixed with a beaten egg and enough milk to make a runny-ish consistencey. (It works fine without the egg too.)

Just a teensy bit of oil or butter in a frying pan, ladle enough batter in the cover the bottom nicely. Wait till it's cooked all the way through then flip it till it gets brown on the other side. You know how it goes....

Ricotta and broccoli mix:

Does what it says on the tin - a head of steamed broccoli, chopped up then mixed with a tub of ricotta. This makes a little more than you need - the leftover is nice spread on toast. Leftover breakfasts are the most under-rated leftovers in this day and age.

Cottage cheese and chard mix:

I also stuffed a pancake with some raw chopped chard and a bit of cottage cheese, and it worked surprisingly well. That's the leftovers on the plate in the picture, thinking it can disguise itself as a salad if it sits next to the lettuce.

So I made the pancakes, stuffed them with the mixtures, folded them up, laid them in a dish, grated some cheddar over them and baked them until it started to bubble and turn golden.

Lots of things could go in these pancakes. I might try a mixture of something and hummus next....