TJ Special: Jack-o-Lantern Pumpkin Pancakes

This is the first installment of TJ Special, a segment of my blog where I will feature Trader Joe's products in a recipe. This probably won't be a weekly installment, but just something I share when it hits me just how much I love Trader Joe's!

Before Forrest and I moved to NC, we never really had weekends off together. Any weekend we did both have off together we would plan trips to visit family and friends, which often made weekends fun and exhausting all at the same time. Now that he has an 8 to 5 (ish--we all know that most jobs take much longer than our actual contract hours require) we get to hang out almost every evening, and our weekends have become such a great opportunity to spend time together. 

I store our candy corn in a Mason jar

Since we have moved, my favorite new ritual is Sweatpants Sunday. We wake up and head to service at the Summit and then come home and hang out in our sweatpants until it's time to get cleaned up for small group. I absolutely love it. Another great thing about our weekends is that we get to enjoy breakfast together, and we usually make something special. 

The past few weeks while doing my grocery shopping at Trader Joe's I have seen so many amazing pumpkin products: Pumpkin Cream Cheese Spread, Pumpkin Ice Cream, Pumpkin Bread Mix, Pumpkin Pancake Mix and Pumpkin Butter...just to name a few. In case you hadn't noticed (see Pumpkin Dump Cake and Pumpkin Angel Food Cake) I am kind of in love with pumpkin...a lot. We had chocolate chip pancakes last week, but that box of Pumpkin Pancake Mix has been calling my name.

I had some pumpkin left over from making Forrest's birthday cake this week and I decided that would be used in my recipe experiment. We had a box of Trader Joe's Multigrain Pancake Mix in the pantry, which calls for 2 eggs (140 calories) and 2 tbsp Vegetable Oil (240 calories) . I decided to replace these two ingredients with about 3/4 a cup of pumpkin which contains a total of 75 calories (less than 1/4 of the calories in those two ingredients combined). The batter turns just a little bit orange with the pumpkin, so then I got the idea of trying to make them look like Jack-o-Lanterns. I didn't make them in a mold or anything, so they are far from perfect, but I think it would be really fun to make these with kids. We definitely felt like kids eating these this morning!


Jack-o-Lantern Pancakes

Ingredients:
2 cups of Trader Joe's Multigrain Pancake Mix
3/4 cup of Trader Joe's Organic Canned Pumpkin 
1 cup Trader Joe's Original Almond Milk 
2 tbsp Trader Joe's Pumpkin Spice 
1/2 cup Trader Joe's Semisweet Chocolate Chips

(Note: you can use any pancake mix that calls for eggs and oil, your preference of milk--we drink almond and you can read why here, and any canned pumpkin--not pumpkin pie filling)

How To:
 
In a medium bowl whisk the pancake mix, almond milk, pumpkin and pumpkin spice until all of the ingredients are incorporated. 

Heat a large or medium skillet to medium-low heat, and lightly spray the pan with whatever kind of butter/oil spray you have around the house. Use a small ladle (I use my gravy ladle) to pour the batter into medium-sized circles on the skillet. Place the chocolate chips on the batter to create the eyes, nose, and crooked teeth of the Jack-o-Lantern. Cute right?

When the batter on the outer edge of the pancake starts to bubble and cook, carefully flip the pancake over and let it cook on the other side. Here is what our Jack-o-Lantern Pumpkin Pancakes looked like in the end. Like I said they weren't perfectly formed, but I think they turned out looking kind of creepy, which I think works for the Halloween season!

Without the eggs and oil these pancakes are actually a little more dense and moist, which I prefer. The hint of pumpkin is just enough that you can taste it, but it doesn't totally overpower your taste buds. Try it out and let me know how it goes!