One of my favorite things about weekend mornings are the relaxed breakfasts. During the week, my husband’s already at work by the time I’m getting the kids through their cereal or toast so we can head off to school on time. But on a lazy Saturday or Sunday morning–usually we only get one per weekend as we’re typically rushing off somewhere at least one of those days–I love to get out the skillets or griddle, and slowly cook up a pan of creamy scrambled eggs and golden potatoes, or poach eggs, or as I did this weekend, make yummy, fluffy pancakes.
This particular weekend I was fortunate enough to have been given some Kretschmer wheat germ and thought it’d make a perfect addition to my pancakes, and I was right.
Wheat germ is exactly what the name says it is–the germ of the wheat plant. This tiny nugget of nutrition is packed with vitamins and minerals because this is basically the seed of the wheat plant. If the germ is allowed to sprout, this is what develops into new wheat plants and these nutrients help it do so. And of course, these nutrients are super helpful to we humans too!
In just about 2 tablespoons wheat germ you’ll get 20% of your daily needs of Vitamin E and Folic Acid, as well as 10% of your daily needs of Thiamin, Phosphorus, and Zinc. These nutrients offer an array of benefits, including promoting heart health, cancer protection, and helping healthy babies develop in moms-to-be.
And, getting 2 tablespoons over the course of a day is incredibly easy. You can easily sprinkle some on your cereal in the morning, your yogurt at snack time, and your salad at dinner. But, there’s so much more you can do with it. It’s fantastic as an ingredient in baking (as you’ll see with the pancakes below) and cooking (later in the week I’ll be making some crusted chicken cutlets with a delicious tomato sauce, and of course I’ll share the recipe). Check out this chart from Kretschmer for great tips on how to incorporate wheat germ into your recipes.
I hope you’ll give these pancakes a try on your next lazy morning, and that your family gobbles them up as mine did.
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Hi! I'm Heidi and I'm a Mom, a foodie, and a dietitian all rolled into one. Here I share my common sense thoughts, opinions, ideas, and more about raising healthy kids, eating nutritiously, and eating deliciously in the real world.
