This is the perfect recipe for Valentine’s Day! Don’t turn up your nose, until you try them because the secret ingredient is BEETS! I totally don’t like beets, for no other reason then normal people just don’t like beets! 🙂 (No offense to beet lovers out there!) With that being said, these pancakes taste like totally normal pancakes, they just have a really awesome color to them! So here is how to make gorgeously pink pancakes:

Buy some beets.

Cut off the stems and roots and wrap them in foil.

Place them in the oven at 400 degrees for 1 1/2 hours or until they are soft. Place a baking sheet underneath them to catch the juices. (Just like you bake potatoes.)

Once they are done let them cool. Unwrap the foil and take the skin off of the beets. It literally falls right off, but it will turn your fingers pink in the process! (Don’t worry it comes right off when you wash your hands.)

Cut it into chunks and place in the food processor.

Blend until smooth. I added about 1/4 cup water to get my puree smooth.

You will only need 1/3 cup pureed beets for the recipe, so I divided the extra into 1/3 cup measurements and put each 1/3 cup in its own ziplock to freeze for another time. I would recommend that you do all of the above steps the day before. So in the morning you just have to make the batter. I put the measured beets that I was planning on using the next day in the refrigerator.

Then all you need to do is make your favorite pancake mix, or try this homemade mix. Simply add 1/3 cup pureed beets to get this amazing color.

Bake them on a low temperature so they don’t turn brown on the outside.

What a great start to Valentine’s Day!!!!