Flaxseed Oatmeal Pancakes

Last week of July. The summer is doing what summers do — burning itself out, the days still hot but the angle of the light shifting, the shadows getting longer by minutes you do not notice until you do. August is coming. School is coming. Football practice is coming. The end of long, loose days is coming, and I am both sad about it and ready for it, because summer with four kids is an endurance event and I have been enduring beautifully.

I drove to Omaha and back Thursday — a long day, twelve hours round trip with loading and unloading. The slow cooker had white bean and ham soup, which is a cold-weather recipe that I make in the summer because the truck cab does not know what season it is and the soup does not care. I ate it at a truck stop in York and called Gayle from the parking lot. She answered on the first ring, which means she was sitting by the phone, which means she was waiting for me to call, which is something she will never admit and which I will never mention because the Novak women communicate in silences and the silence between 'I called' and 'she answered on the first ring' says everything.

Justin has been doing push-ups. In his room, in the morning, before anyone is awake. I know this because I am awake — I am always awake before anyone is awake — and I hear the floor creaking in his room with the rhythmic regularity of a twelve-year-old boy trying to make himself bigger, stronger, ready. Football has given him a reason to work on himself, and the working-on is the therapy that therapy has been trying to be for seven years. I do not say this to his therapist. I just notice the push-ups and the way Justin comes to breakfast with his hair damp from sweat and his eyes a little brighter, and I put extra eggs on his plate.

I made breakfast for dinner — a full spread: scrambled eggs, bacon, pancakes, hash browns. The kids love breakfast for dinner because it feels like breaking a rule, even though no rule is being broken, because there is no rule about when you can eat pancakes. I have eaten pancakes at 3 a.m. in a truck cab outside Cheyenne, Wyoming, and nobody arrested me. Pancakes are anarchists. Pancakes do not respect your meal schedule. I respect pancakes.

The breakfast-for-dinner spread had been on my mind all week—the kind of meal that requires nothing from anyone except showing up with an appetite and a willingness to be pleased. After a twelve-hour day on the road and a week of watching Justin quietly rebuild himself one push-up at a time, I wanted something that felt like a small celebration with no occasion required. These flaxseed oatmeal pancakes are what I reach for when I want the table to feel full and easy: they’re sturdy enough for a hungry twelve-year-old who’s been working hard, and they carry that same low-key, anarchist energy that pancakes have always had for me.

Prep Time: 10 min | Cook Time: 20 min | Total Time: 30 min | Servings: 4 (about 12 pancakes)

Ingredients

1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons ground flaxseed
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Butter or nonstick cooking spray, for the griddle

Instructions

Soak the oats. In a large bowl, combine the rolled oats and buttermilk. Let stand for 5 minutes so the oats soften slightly and absorb some of the liquid.
Mix the dry ingredients. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the flour, ground flaxseed, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon until evenly combined.
Combine wet and dry. Add the eggs, vegetable oil, and vanilla extract to the oat-buttermilk mixture and stir to combine. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and stir just until incorporated—a few lumps are fine. Do not overmix.
Heat the griddle. Heat a griddle or large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Lightly coat with butter or nonstick spray. The griddle is ready when a drop of water skitters across the surface.
Cook the pancakes. Pour approximately 1/4 cup of batter per pancake onto the griddle. Cook until bubbles form on the surface and the edges look set, about 2 to 3 minutes. Flip and cook until the underside is golden brown, 1 to 2 minutes more.
Keep warm and serve. Transfer finished pancakes to a plate in a 200°F oven to keep warm while you cook the remaining batter. Serve with butter, maple syrup, fresh fruit, or whatever the table asks for.

Nutrition (per serving)

Flaxseed Oatmeal Pancakes — Breakfast for Dinner, Because No Rule Says Otherwise