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Yes, the weekend brunch...where you feed the kids and then leave them with Daddy while you're off for a little shopping. Let him deal w/ the behavior that follows consumption of that much food dye (not to mention sugar)!
Sure does make for a pretty photo, though.

I LOVE this idea! I was thinking a rainbow cake (also seen here awhile ago) for my son's circus birthday party. Now I'm thinking rainbow pancakes for his birthday breakfast is a fantastic new tradition!

I've made rainbow cake and you really don't need that much food dye to make it a pretty color.

WOW! I am the horrible mother that made these for her children. My kids eat raw, natural, and organic food for 95% of their diet. They take VitD3 and VitC and probiotics and fish oil. They are just really good kids and I wanted to TREAT them one morning. I use GEL food coloring which requires a FRACTION of normal food coloring to achieve the desired results. Spread out over the entire batter, I probably used a total of 12 drops.

The batter was mostly organic (based on my ingredients) and I added flax seed.

You can do more damage by letting your kid eat french fries and fruit snacks then I did with my rainbow pancakes.

I am sad to see that people cant just take in a moment of joy and let is sit and warm their heart. Why must everything be a “You Should” or a “You Shouldn’t”.

Just be happy.

Jeez.

abbygraykit- wasn't that a bit too mean?

There are all sort of organic, vegan, natural food colorings ot there. So putting that aside....

Wow. Sooo colorful. Your kids must have been so happy to see a rainbow on their plate.

This is a great idea for a birthday morning breakfast. And I feel like I could parlay it into, "there should be a rainbow on your plate every meal... eat your greens...."

:)

I love these, they look so beautiful and cheery! Perfect for a dreary winter morning!

That is amazing!

Boy. There sure are some high and mighty, un-fun parents out there, and I'm not talking about ones who take the loving effort to separate pancake batter into seven bowls so they can make an amazing rainbow stack. My daughter is obsessed with the song Roy G Biv by They Might Be Giants and she would be over the moon if I made these. And I might just let her have some Skittles and M&M's later. Food dye! Sugar! The horror!

This idea is fun and I and will be sure to try it out on a special occasion. A little food coloring once in a blue moon is not going to do any long term damage... lighten up people!

While I am all for feeding my kids organic and natural food, the idea of pushing a raw diet on a child seems horrid... and completely ridiculous.

And manda2177, I'm sure right after you stuffed your kids full of hot death and sugar cubes, you flounced off for an afternoon of booze, rampant consumerism and environmental rape with your friends while your kids went all Lord of the Flies on your husband after ingesting your pretty poisoncakes. It's simply not possible that you are just a fun, normal mom because you made megacute RAINBOW PANCAKES.

Some people are judgment monkeys.

You need to have a little fun as a child - so you don't grow up to be a miserable adult! ;)

LOVE the pancakes!What a fun idea, especially with all this winter weather - I think I'll make them on Sunday morning, which just happens to be my 4 year old daughter's birthday!!

Too cute! We already do this with scrambled eggs which looks a bit weird (but the kids love 'em!)

Love it!

i just wanted to clarify... i love the pancakes. lol

I was just kidding! I fed my kids a pack each of the colorful fruit snacks from Sam's Club today AND we ate Chick FilA for lunch yesterday! No offense meant, I thought it was funny but then again, I have a quirky sense of humor.
Far be it for me to judge what people feed their kids-I'm off to the living room to make S'mores over the fire with mine! Heck, we might even roast the pink marshmallows that came in the bag instead of feeding them to the dog!

I'm all for fun food, but for me, this is pushing it too much. Although I'm sure that food dye isn't good for you, I'm sure its no worse that whats in regular processed food. I am more concerned with the fact that it doesn't *look* like real food. It looks like candy.

I think its important that our kids' meals look a little more natural - meals are made from the stuff that comes from nature, and not from melted plastic which is what this looks like to me. Its so important that kids appreciate simple, real food and I guess this just goes in the opposite direction of that.

Seriously, I meant no harm! I forget that people on here don't know me but if you did, you'd surely laugh at the idea that I'm an uptight, organic "freak." We're a family that considers corn dogs as a healthy meat option for dinner. (Our pancakes are pure Bisquick)
manda2177, I am so sorry. I caused quite the uproar with my comment. Your cool idea deserved better than another tired debate between balancing healthy eating and loosening up so we can enjoy our children.
I just reread my comment & though it was meant to be funny in a "dry" sort of way, it came off snarky because I'm the stay at home Mom snowed-in with a sick toddler, today.
I'm truly sorry my post came off rude & demeaning. I hope anyone bothering to check back will accept my apologies.
I think I'll eat my words and try the pancakes this week. But then can I run out the door leaving the sick toddler & her older siblings with their Daddio while I go shopping for a while?!

She didn't say anything that mean - and people are allowed to their opinions. If you're easily offended - don't post on a public website. The pancakes look yummy.

lol Ok! Forgiven! I hope you like them. :)

I guess I missed something here because I didn't see anything judgemental or rude on your part abbygraykit. The pancakes are awesome and after I make them I'm going to leave the children with their more energetic parent to run off the energy. Woo-hoo!

Way to go...I know my kids love bright colors, so I am sure your's were truly delighted by such a thoughtful treat.

It seems to me that the judgement went a little overboard on the other side - why is everyone so quick to jump all over abbygraykit? Why is it so horrible to point out that it's an excessive amount of sugar and dye? Isn't the First Lady talking childhood obesity....? Hello?

That said, I think this is an adorable idea for a special occasion, like a birthday as many have already pointed out. Or maybe St. Patrick's Day or the first day of Spring. My kid would love this. And she gets plenty of sugar on a regular basis and the occasional dye too, don't get me wrong.

My first thought was actually: yes my kid would love this but then she would probably manage to eat about two color's worth and then I'd be left with the rest of it after all that effort. Blech. But I will probably still do it for her birthday. She's only a kid once.

Lynnebee, nothing says they have to be big pancakes -- you can make her seven tiny ones so she'll have room for all of them! (Smaller pancakes also cook a little more quickly.)

I am screaming in fear.

These kind of creep me out! I just don't really like to eat a lot of dyed things. It's personal. Like I can't get down the green bagels for St. Patricks Day or the pink ones for Race for the Cure. I am who I am. If they weren't so vibrant I might do better!

This is awesome. It reminds me of when my brother was little and I used to dye our scrambled eggs with food coloring. Note: If you ever want to try this, a red pancake looks delicious. A red scrambled egg does not. Also, telling your brother that you "scrambled a smurf" and then giving him a plate of blue scrambled eggs MIGHT get you in trouble with your parents.

Why not make it for yourself? I want a cheery stack of sugary goodness in the morning.

Gorgeous shot! I usually think the rainbow cakes look gross, but this bright stack of pancakes is really eye catching. I'd definitely make that for a special day.

I feel bad for the kids whose parents have a problem with this, and I raised a vegetarian, vegetable loving, adventurous eater with organic soy milk and kale and the works. You can feed kids healthy and still indulge in a little fun sometimes.

Your kids will never forget these pancakes!

Years from now, they will still be talking about these pancakes!

C'mon, a little food colouring a couple times a year is not going to hurt anyone! (I make my daughter a red velvet cake every year, and I am an all-natural-no-junk-food mom).

Not sure if this will work with the kind of pancakes we make though, which are made with stiffly beaten eggs white and are very tender... I think they'd fall apart if we stacked them this high.

Very fun idea!

When I was a kid, my best friend and I would drag out the trusty, battered (in more than one way) old Joy of Cooking and make batter. We would then try as hard as we could to make tie-dyed pancakes. I'm actually sending her a link to this as a reminder of frighteningly grey pancakes and blue milk.

I love making pancakes, but always temper this sugary breakfast with some whole-grains in my batter and by adding fruits. For this project I may add blueberries in the blue, strawberries in the red, peaches in the orange, blackberries in the purple, bananas in the yellow, apples in the green!

If you make the pancakes with your children they will be aware of the raw natural ingredients and still get to appreciate the fantastic colour!

I teach pre school and we will be making these as soon as we can!

Bah, I totally jumped the gun. Sorry for the snippiness, abbygraykit.

Oh my. What lovely, fun pancakes. What harsh comments. If you can't say anything nice....

Personally, I love these. Thanks so much for sharing. Pay no mind, manda. Gorgeous and memorable for your littles to say the least.

LOL! I'm going to have to read ohdeedoh posts more often. You moms are mean! Thanks for the great laugh.

And I will probably be making these for myself soon. I celebrate Pancakepalooza one weekend a month. I've never done colors though. Yum!

@TATTERHOOD

I wonder if you could get a tie-died effect by making batters of different colors and mixing them together during the pour so they start to set right away preventing the colors from blending. Might require hacking together a kitchen gadget to get the pour right...

What fun these are! We do pancakes or waffles most weekend mornings so I'll have to remember these for some special day.

Okay, the pancakes are cool and fun - make them or don't, each to his own. But my fave in this comment thread is jensational talking about "scrambling a smurf" - as a child of the 80s myself, I love this! Didn't we all used to say "gag me with a smurf"?

Love it!
We do orange pumpkins with a little green stem for Halloween.

OMG!!!!
Those are great! I can hardly wait to make them!
Please more cute ideas Manda2177!

@ sstrudeau

We tried that for our son's third birthday cake. It worked pretty well. We used a square pan and poured colors on top of each other. They sort of pushed each other to the edges.

Regarding the scrambled smurf:

When "blue rasberry" became the sudden It color included in all the candy, I was a councilor at a kiddy day camp.

My fellow councilor and I would eat blue rasberry pops until the stained our lips blue, and then tell the kids we had been eating smurfs!

I am so gonna make these, and then cover them with something healthy like whipped cream and pop rocks. Awesome idea!

Very fun little project. I can recall being allowed to make a blue cake when I was a kid, and we had green pancakes on St. Patrick's Day, red ones of Valentine's Day. What great parents we had!

Please note, there are six colors up there, not seven! No indigo.

Sugar doesn't make kids hyper! It's a myth that so many people believe! No study has ever proven a connection between sugar and hyperactivity. http://www.miamiherald.com/living/health/nutrition/story/1393826.html

Wow the pancakes look spectacular!

This brings back memories of my childhood when my mother used to make pancakes for St Patricks (green) and Valentines Day (pink). Granted my mother went to the extreme and turned me off of milk when she dyed it to match... Don't make your children drink green milk, it messes with their minds.

I think this is a lovely idea for kids as well as grown ups! Who wouldn't be happy to see a stack of rainbow colored pancakes on the table in the morning! I'm going to have to make these with my nieces! Thank you for sharing, my dear!

http://girlwhimsy.blogspot.com

I've made the rainbow cake before. Even made rainbow cupcakes for a 7 year old's birthday party. It's sad that I never even THOUGHT about pancakes!! They make me happy!!! Food coloring, shmood fluttering...I used the liquid, and not the gel. Shame on me, I'm a bad mother! :o) But my kids are happy, healthy and loved!

wow... what a cool idea

Those are so totally gorgeous and fun. Thank you for sharing them online. I attempted something similar yesterday with my kids using sugar cookie dough to make "play dough" designs that we baked into cookies. Your idea is better...next weekend.

Geez, this rainbow baked-goods thing really went viral this week in blogland. It would be really cool to do tonal, graduated shades of a single color...if I were so inclined.
http://modernhaus.blogspot.com/2010/02/youre-probably-hipster-if.html

WOOOHOOO! We are a pancake family here. And yes, I get all earthy and natural, so I am wondering, you think the same color/look can be achieved with whole wheat flour? I use a 50 - 50 mix of whole wheat and all purpose, so I assume yes? I'll have to wait to try it out. ( my toddler still eats his pancakes one at a time by hand, but we'r workingon the fork thing!!!)

LOVE IT. Such a great & fun idea mama!

These are awesome and while I don't have children (crosses fingers) I would most definitely make these for my sister's children. In fact, I will make them the next time they stay over. So what if it has food coloring in it? Guess what, most food we don't grow ourselves does. This is a fun little extra something to do for the kiddos every once in a while. Relax y'all.