Pancake Beauty...Blackberry, Honey, Coconut Syrup

i never really plan to make pancakes. there are just times when i walk into the kitchen, hungry, and know that pancakes are what i want. like today. and the cool thing about them is that pretty much anything can go into the batter and i always have the basic ingredients on hand: flour, eggs, milk... you know the drill. and while boxed mixes are convenient, making your own from scratch results, in my opinion, in a much heartier taste and texture. this morning i threw together brown rice flour, coconut flour, eggs, milk, ground flax, unsweetened applesauce, a bit of salt, some cinnamon and baking soda. honestly though, these were just a vehicle for what i really had in mind to make this morning. blackberry syrup.

in the last couple of weeks, i've started to pay attention to how much sugar i eat each day. a ridiculous amount, really. and even people who eat relatively healthy still take in about 30 teaspoons a day ~ over half a cup. ouch! and just a 1/4 cup of maple syrup has 43 grams of sugar which is a little over 8 teaspoons of sugar per serving! you get the picture. so, that said, i wanted to do something with the fresh blackberries i bought yesterday and some avocado blossom honey i got over the weekend. of course, there's still sugar in honey and there are also some health benefits to it, especially when it's raw. add to that the many health benefits of coconut oil, a bit of cardamom and, lovey, you've got yourself a delightful syrup.

no real recipe here. i used about 2 tablespoons of virgin coconut oil, melted. 1/4 cup of honey, about 1/2 cup fresh blackberries and 1/8 teaspoon cardamom. whirl it around in the blender until it all comes together and gets kind of creamy.

really, really good! sweet, creamy, flavorful. and with summer almost here there are so many fruits that would be terrific to try with this: apricots, peaches, pineapple, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries. go with berries to keep the sugar content down if you're wanting to lower your intake.

Enjoy!