Buckwheat farinetta pancakes, DCI

LeilaniBaby · 06-11-2008, 06:03 PM

Hello.

I have been searching for a buckwheat recipe that I can actually enjoy and I think I found it

!I would love to share the recipe but before I do here's a little bit about my experience.

Back in April I got stinkin AF after a failed clomid and IUI cycle. I was so depressed I just didn't return to RE for a second cycle. Didn't take anything to help bring on a second cycle, in fact I wasn't expecting a cycle at all. But I did want to try something natural while I recovered from my depressed state. After reading a lot around here on SC

, I found out about DCI and found also that buckwheat farinetta has DCI and is a relatively inexpensive alternative to chiralbalance pills. So I tried the buckwheat farinetta muffins recipe that I found around here, but honestly they were yucky and I couldn't take too much of them. I did manage to eat 4-5 days worth of them though, along with 1300mg of inositol daily. And 2 weeks surprise! I got AF (a 43 day cycle) on my own for the first time in 6 years (I had AF b4 in past but ONLY with provera or BCP-Once I went 2 1/2 yrs w/o AF)! And I think I O'd for the first time too (see my chart for April)! I just could NOT believe it!

Long story short, I seriously believe that DCI in the buckwheat farinetta and inositol helped bring on my cycle w/o meds. I just wanted to find a better recipe for buckwheat farinetta b/c I really want to try it again this time to see if it will help me at all to bring O earlier (I took clomid this cycle and have not O'd, today is CD 16).

So this is the recipe I used in case anyone wants to try, which I would at least try once to see if it will help. The general recipe I got from a website founddownunder.com and I added some other ingredients from another recipe on the site and on my own. 1 recipe yields 2 "servings" of DCI . 1 serving has about 1300mg of DCI. The study that used DCI to help PCOS women used 1200mg a day for obese women (like me) and 600mg for non-obese women so you can adjust the servings accordingly if you need to.

And these pancakes are fluffy, yummy

, compared to the muffin recipe. Plus the buckwheat flavor, which can be nasty

, is not as pronounced in this recipe, which is what I like. I can actually eat these everyday.

Buckwheat farinetta pancakes

1 cup buckwheat farinetta flour (www.minndak.com/)
1/2 cup Aunt Jemima whole wheat blend pancake and waffle mix
1/2 cup apple sauce
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp sugar (or equivalent of substitute)
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg (or egg substitute equivalent)
1 cup of skim milk (more if you like thinner pancakes, I added 1/4cup more)
2 tbsp melted butter (I used I Can't Believe...Butter)

Mix all ingredients together. Divide your batter according to how much DCI you need. I.e: for 600mg use 1/4 batter total and for 1200mg use 1/2 batter total. Heat skillet enough at first, enough to make butter melt and sizzle. Then turn heat down to low-med. IMPORTANT: Leave on low-med while cooking pancakes to avoid burning pancakes. Only turn when lots of little bubbles appear on surface. Otherwise, pancakes will probably not cook. It takes about 2 min to cook per side, be careful not to burn.
Serve these with sugar free syrup. I like to use FF whip cream though b/c it has less carbs per serving. The whip cream actually tastes like ice cream.
I haven't counted calories or fat though. But I hope those that try it like it as much as I do. I plan to use this recipe for a while longer until I can afford the chiralbalance DCI pills which will be much easier to take. If you try it let me know how it goes. Good luck!

etuc · 06-12-2008, 05:32 PM

Thanks for the recipe, I have added it to my collection and hope to order the farinetta someday soon.

I see they only sell it in 4lb bags, do you have any idea how many cups that would be?

LeilaniBaby · 06-13-2008, 01:15 AM

Hi thanks for looking. Didn't think anyone was willing to try farinetta anymore.

I don't know how many cups are in there. I haven't gone thru one bag yet b/c I just now found this recipe that I liked. If I had to guess I would say that there are at least 8-10 cups, roughly.

I hope you enjoy and get great results like I did! Please keep me updated. GL!

HarleyGirl93 · 07-18-2008, 01:38 PM

Cindy,
Thanks for the great recipe - My first batch didn't turn out so good (burner was on too high, so they ended up gummy on the inside, but burnt on the outside), but by my second batch I realized a low heat was required (per your instructions in the recipe lol). They really are tasty. Since I am *dieting*, I calculated the calorie count for all of the ingredients as follows:
For ~1200 mg of DCI, would be 654 calories (2 large pancakes)
Total Calories = 1307, per pancake based on 4 large 8" = 326
1 cup buckwheat farinetta flour (860 calories, 3112mg DCI)
1/2 cup Aunt Jemima whole wheat blend pancake and waffle mix (120 calories)
1/2 cup apple sauce (52 calories)
3/4 tsp cinnamon (4 calories)
1/2 tsp vanilla (6 calories)
1 tsp baking powder (5 calories)
2 tbsp sugar (or equivalent of substitute) (0 calories)
1/2 tsp salt (0 calories)
1 egg (or egg substitute equivalent) (80 calories for 1 egg)
1 cup of skim milk (more if you like thinner pancakes, I added 1/4cup more) (80 calories)
2 tbsp melted butter (I used I Can't Believe...Butter) (100 calories)

What bums me out about BWF is how much you have to eat to get the 1200mg recommended. It seems all of the recipes (pancakes, muffins, etc) take roughly 600 calories to get to the 1200mg of DCI recommended for larger ladies like me... Which is a huge amount when you are watching everyone... ARGH! At least, I don't get hungry as quickly after eating these pancakes or the muffins. At any rate, thanks again for the tasty recipe, the pancakes come out nice and crispy (when you cook em right

and have a wonderful nutty BW flavor to them! Even DH is strangely compelled.
Dianna

audrey'smama · 07-18-2008, 06:13 PM

Is there a difference between BW flour and Farinetta? I make BW pancakes for DD all the time because I'm trying to get her used to eating healthier foods and we both love them. But I wasn't aware that they could help me with my PCOS. I just buy the buckwheat pancake mix. I hope this is the same thing.

HarleyGirl93 · 07-18-2008, 09:57 PM

Amber -
I am not a BW expert, but there is a difference in how much d-chiro inositol that farinetta vs flour contains. We all get our farinetta from www.minndak.com. They have a blurb on the different BW products http://www.minndak.com/Buckwheat.htm
Apparently farinetta is BW seed and embryo, while flour includes BW hull, seed and embryo, so is less nutritious if that makes sense.

A lack of D-chiro inositol may be a cause of PCOS according to some studies. And helps in insulin resistance, I think. You'd have to search to d-chiro (or DCI) on this site or google to investigate further. The minn-dak site also include a nutrition breakdown at: http://www.minndak.com/factsofbuckwheat.htm (It's hard to find through their web site browsing....) A 100g of BW Farinetta contains 1371mg of DCI (FLour only has 287mg) and there are studies that have been done that show 1200 mg of DCI can "reverse" the effects of PCOS... You can learn more in the Alternative Remedies section of this board... I think it's listed in one of the stickies as a link. HTH

Cheers,
Dianna

LeilaniBaby · 07-18-2008, 11:10 PM

Hey ladies. I am so so glad you enjoyed the BWF pancakes Dianna! They aren't that bad, huh.

Amber- Dianna is right on target wih the BW vs the BWF flour. I wouldn't suggest you give it to your dd (who is adorable btw) though.

audrey'smama · 07-19-2008, 03:20 PM

thanks guys, I'll order some of the farrinnetta for myself then. I make all of DD's food, she hates the jarred stuff. And on the site I go on, it says that BW is really healthy for babies. Here is the link for the info http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/buckwheatbabyfood.htm Do you think I'm doing her a diservice by feeding her BW? I really had no idea that it could be changing her hormonal makeup. Yikes! I am only feeding her the flour though and it's such a small amount and only like once a week or so.

HarleyGirl93 · 07-19-2008, 07:27 PM

Amber - I made all of my DS' baby food - he really wouldn't eat the jarred stuff, so it started out easy enough - with mashing bananas, next thing I knew I was making spaghetti bolognese, and other *gourmet* foods even my DH thought tasted great... It was quite time consuming, but I enjoyed. Thankfully DS is eating table food now and eats a pretty good variety still. I'm sure your DD will be fine with a little bit of regular BW!

Cheers,
Dianna

audrey'smama · 07-20-2008, 03:29 AM

I know what you mean Diana. I started cooking for DD because a lot of the jarred stuff had citric acid and DD had severe reflux. It was so easy in the beginning because she ate such a small amount but just in the last couple of weeks, it seems that she's doubled her consumption. But I love being able to cook for her and she'll eat absolutely anything!