We’ve got a bad Friday night takeout habit—not that the takeout or getting takeout is bad, per se, but spending $50 every Friday isn’t the best. So I’m trying to keep the freezer stocked with some Trader Joe’s staples, and at the mid-week mark, predict what we might have energy for on Friday. Long week? Frozen pizza and fries. Long week but need something that feels healthy-ish? Salad with anything you can scrounge from your pantry (think chick peas, black beans, tuna, artichokes, those kind of add-ins). And for Fridays where I can carve out a 15 minutes to do the prep during the day (because God knows 15 minutes at 11am on Friday is not the as 15 minutes at 6pm on Friday)—we sometimes do breakfast for dinner. My very favorite of the breakfast for dinner repertoire? Crepes.
I give my mom a hard time about her cooking growing up (and her cooking now), but in truth she’s passed down a handful of really great recipes, mostly in the baking family—pumpkin chip cookies, the best of all time dinner rolls, a honey oat brown bread that can be a meal all on its own. Another staple in our house was the crepe. So versatile, and really, so easy.
Again, the key is to mix this batter before darkness falls. It’s just too much energy at the end of the day.
Katie’s Crepes
Makes about 8 crepes. I’ve tailored this recipe to fit it into a magic bullet. For a crowd, double or even triple the recipe and use a blender.
1 cup milk
2/3 cup flour
1.5 tsp. sugar
2 tbsp. salted butter, melted
½ tsp. vanilla extract
2 large eggs
Butter or cooking spray for pan
Add all ingredients (except butter/oil for cooking) to a blender or magic bullet. Blend until smooth, just a few seconds. Scrape any flour off edges of container and blend again. Refrigerate batter until ready to cook. Note: some recipes require a refrigeration period—I don’t think that step is necessary.
Heat pan to medium heat (I like to use two pans at a time—start with one and work your way up). Add a dollop of butter or spray the pans liberally with cooking spray. Drop about a ¼ cup of batter onto each pan and then pick up the pan and swirl around the batter so it gets as thin as possible. They key is the pick up the pan to do this. Cook crepe for about a minute and then flip with a spatula. Cook for another minute and then transfer to a wire rack (ideally) or a plate to cool. It’s really ok to just stack them on a plate, though they stick a bit if you don’t eat them all right away. The cooking time depends on your pan, stove, heat amount, etc. Sometimes after the flip they only need about 20 seconds. You’re looking for a golden brown color with some darker spots. There’s really a wide window of acceptable crepe colors. Don’t panic if your first few turn out badly—they’re almost required to. Repeat adding butter/oil after every crepe until all of your crepes are cooked. It takes practice and I could write a long list of things to do and try, but really you just need to fire up your pans, throw some batter in, and see what works for you.
You can serve them with anything—growing up we ate them rolled up with brown sugar, butter, maple syrup. The sky’s the limit—berries, bananas, powdered sugar, Nutella, or you can go the savory route and roll them with prosciutto and parm, or goat cheese and spinach.
Or, you can let your toddler sit on the counter and eat them as they come off the stove, and call it dinner because a. it has eggs, milk, flour, almost all the food groups, yes? b. you didn’t get takeout so you’ve won and c. you’re the parent and it’s dinner if you say it is.
Happy Friday!
