Blintzes: Crepe Pancakes

Credit: Courtesy Breast Friends

A cheese and fruit filling gives these crepes substance to keep you fueled all day

Spice up your brunches with these thin pancakes stuffed with a delicious fruit and cheese filling

One large egg is jam-packed with energy-promoting protein. It contains iron, which helps carry oxygen to the cells; vitamin A, which keeps tissue healthy; and vitamin D, which helps strengthen bones and teeth and protects against cancer. (Eggs are one of the few foods that contain vitamin D.)

Eggs have vitamin E, an antioxidant; vitamin B12, a hard-to-get vitamin, especially if you’re vegetarian, which helps protect against heart disease; folate, which helps create new cells; selenium, which acts as an antioxidant; choline, which aids brain function; and lutein and zeaxanthin; important antioxidants for healthy eyes.

Food or Thought: What You Eat Can Affect Your Emotions

To keep moods high (especially in women):

1. Keep your homocysteine levels low with folic acid, vitamin B6 (both found in greens, beans, nuts and seeds), and vitamin B12 (in meat, fish and eggs). Studies prove that B12 deficiency is common, even if you eat meat, and that vegans who don’t supplement have worse moods and memory.
2. Selenium, found in seafood, Brazil nuts, lean meat, whole grains and legumes, helps improve a blue mood.
3. Magnesium is a calming mineral depleted by stress, so is often deficient. The richest source is pumpkin seeds (it’s also in other seeds and in leafy greens).
4. Relieve a depressed mood with fatty fish (due to its omega-3 and other good fats).

Ingredients

Blintzes

• 4 organic eggs, slightly beaten
• 1 ½ cups filtered water
• Pinch of unrefined salt
• 3 tablespoons cold-pressed canola oil (plus extra for frying)
• 2 cups spelt or whole wheat pastry flour

Instructions

(These thin pancakes are cooked on one side, stuffed, and then rolled to enclose the filling and pan-fried until crisp and brown.)

1. Mix ingredients with electric beater, beginning with the eggs, adding flour last. 
2. Heat a crepe pan, add a ½ teaspoon of oil, then ladle a little batter into pan, swirling it to form a thin pancake. 
3. When the edges of the pancake begin to lift, gently loosen the edges and flip the pancake on to a plate. 
4. Continue with the remaining batter to make about 10 pancakes, stacking as you cook them.

Filling

• 2 ¼ cups organic ricotta or cottage cheese
• 1 organic egg, slightly beaten
• Rind of 1 lemon, grated
• 4 tablespoons unrefined or raw sugar
• 2 tablespoons thick (called Greek-style), organic plain yogurt
• Optional: 2 tablespoons organic raisins
• Extra organic plain yogurt
• Organic strawberries

Instructions

1. Mix ricotta/cottage cheese with egg, lemon rind, sugar, yogurt and raisins. 
2. Place 1-2 tablespoons of the filling on the cooked side of a pancake and spread it out, leaving a border at the top and bottom over the filling, then fold over one side and roll the pancake up carefully to enclose the filling completely. 
3. To finish the blintzes, heat the pan to medium, add a little oil, then place the pancakes in the pan and fry until the underside is golden brown. 
4. Turn the blintz over and fry the second side. 

Serve hot, topped with additional plain yogurt and strawberries.

For this book’s healthy recipes, Breast Friends teamed up with InspireHealth, a not-for-profit organization and leader in integrative cancer care, with three centres in BC and an online program. InspireHealth promotes healthy lifestyle including nutrition, exercise, support groups and stress management while supporting standard cancer treatments.