Breakfast for Lunch & Dinner

I love breakfast. Eggs and bacon, crispy hashbrowns, omelettes, nice fluffy pancakes and waffles. If I am at a restaurant that serves lunch or breakfast food, I am always going to go for breakfast.

While I love getting breakfast when eating out, we also have a tradition of a nice homemade breakfast on Saturday mornings. Of course, some Saturdays are too busy for that and all the clean up that comes after breakfast.

But sometimes breakfast makes a great dinner, as it can be thrown together with little planning. You can even make your breakfast, lunch or dinner extra fancy with a few special ingredients.

While dining out for lunch this past year, I had my first-ever Lemon Ricotta pancakes and they were AMAZING. Knowing pancakes are fairly easy to conquer, I decided to try them at home.

Now, I love fresh fruit on my pancakes, but fruit IN my pancakes is even better. Lemon zest and lemon juice make for a lively, delicious pancake that goes well with any berry.

I found gorgeous strawberries on sale at Publix this week, so that’s what I served with our pancakes. But blueberries and raspberries would also be great.

The ricotta may seem strange, if you are used to thinking of it as the cheese in calzones and pastas. But ricotta is often used in desserts as well, like cannoli and cheesecake. Used in pancakes, it adds a subtle, sweet depth of flavor and gives them a creamy texture.

I also discovered these pancakes are delicious served with lemon curd. I have not gotten brave enough to make my own lemon curd yet, but found some at Publix also. It’s Scottish, so surely it’s authentic.

The key to any good pancake is to not overwork the batter before you get them to the griddle. It seems odd to leave lumps in your batter intentionally, but this allows your pancakes to be light and fluffy.

Pancake size is extremely personal. Generally, when you order pancakes in a restaurant, they come as big as your plate. That is easier to achieve if you are using a commercial griddle and some fancy flipping skills. Some people love silver dollar-sized pancakes. Mine end up somewhere in between. I use an electric griddle, and like to do about 4 medium-sized cakes at a time, so I have room to flip them without mashing the others with my spatula. My griddle is nonstick, but a little butter or non-stick spray makes the flipping just a little easier.

To make these delicious pancakes even more of a meal, I like to serve nice crispy, salty bacon alongside them. I have completely converted to cooking my bacon in the oven. If you haven’t tried this yet, it is a game-changer.

Line 2 rimmed baking sheets with aluminum foil, bringing the foil up all of the sides of each pan. Divide the bacon between the 2 sheets, so the slices aren’t crowded.

Place the baking sheets into a cold oven and set the temperature to 400º. By heating the oven and the bacon at the same time, there is no messy splattering and popping of grease.

Cook the bacon for 10 minutes, then remove the sheets and flip the bacon. Don’t be alarmed that the bacon still looks quite floppy at this stage.

Pop the sheets back into the oven, and bake for 10 more minutes, or until nicely brown and bubbly. Place the bacon between paper towels to remove extra grease.

Allow the grease to cool on the pans and start to congeal. Then simply roll up the aluminum and throw away. It’s so easy and delicious.

Bright lemon pancakes with a helping of fresh fruit on top, with some perfect bacon on the side and you have a delicious meal – whether you call it breakfast, lunch or dinner. Try them out this weekend and let me know what you think.