Oat & Yogurt Pancakes with Sautéed Cherries

& my thoughts on the 19-year-old TikTok tradwives

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I’ve been seeing an influx of young, tradwife content on TikTok lately, and my feelings about it keep fluctuating. There are a couple of 19-year-olds who repeatedly come on my FYP bragging—proudly—about their lack of education and their dedication to serving their husbands. At first, it feels fairly innocuous: they’re making delicious, from-scratch meals for their partners, and as someone who loves to cook for my friends and family, I, on its face, find it endearing. These are the moments I want to defend these young women from the nasty comments that populate their videos. Although these are not the life choices I would make for myself, feminism involves the right to choose, and we have to let women make their own choices without being bullies.

But then (I say with a big sigh), if you go deeper, things start to look a little more sinister. These young women began to preach about how getting an education is useless. They even brag about not knowing what their husbands do for work. And they trash other women for wanting careers or not wanting to have children. At times, the things they say are so extreme, it’s hard to tell if they’re playing into their audience and saying things as “rage-bait” or if they really mean it.

This is where my feelings flip. It’s one thing to make the choice for yourself and deal with whatever consequence may come in your personal life. It’s another to come onto the internet, where you are reaching swaths of impressionable young teens, and acting like it’s cute not to know anything about finances or bragging about not making your own decisions.

It’s not the cooking sourdough from scratch that’s the problem. It’s not cleaning and decorating the home, or keeping a garden, raising the children, loving and doting on your husband, etc. Enjoying stereotypically feminine roles does not make you a tradwife. And I hate when conversations around feminism get reduced to the actions and not the attitudes. It’s a disingenuous talking point and harms everyone.

What’s really dangerous is glamorizing losing your agency. What’s really dangerous is gleefully relegating yourself to a lower position of power just because you’re a woman. What’s really dangerous is acting disgusted at those who choose to break free from those roles.

So I get why people are mad. Because what you say online when you have a large audience has a broader cultural impact. It’s disingenuous and harms everyone.

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RECIPE!

I’ve been making these pancakes NONSTOP the past few weeks, and after many demands for the recipe, I’m excited to finally bring it to you! I love these pancakes so much, for the following reasons:

1. They’re really easy.

2. They’re made with healthy ingredients.

3. Grant and I both love them.

4. Our 11-month-old loves them.

5. I’m obsessed with cherries.

I adapted this recipe from Feel Good Foodie, with a few important tweaks. I swapped out most of the white flour for oat flour, left out the brown sugar, and added just a little more milk! I love using oats in pancakes—it makes them just a bit more nutritious and doesn’t affect the texture. All you have to do is blend up some rolled oats into a fine powder, and you’re good to go.

The topping is made by just sautéing cherries in butter, and they’re so naturally sweet and delicious that I find the pancakes themselves don’t need any sugar (especially if you top them with maple syrup). Removing the sugar also makes them baby friendly!

When cherry season is over, you can replace the cherries with any in-season fruit. But if you like cherries, you’re really going to love these. For pitting cherries, I recommend this cherry pitter from Oxo. I also like using this griddle from Our Place to make pancakes.

Oat & Yogurt Pancakes with Sautéed Cherries

Ingredients (serves 2-3)

• 3/4 cup oat flour

• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

• 1 tablespoon baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 2 large eggs

• 1 cup whole milk Greek yogurt

• 1/3 cup oat milk (can also use regular milk)

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, plus more for greasing and serving

• 1 3/4 cups pitted and halved cherries

• maple syrup, for serving

• powder sugar (optional), for garnish

1. In a medium bowl, mix together oat flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

2. In a separate large bowl, whisk the eggs. Then mix in the Greek yogurt, milk, and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients to the wet, and mix together until combined.

3. Heat a little butter on a griddle or nonstick pan on medium heat. Using a 1/3 cup, scoop the batter out and onto the griddle. Cook for about 3-4 minutes on each side or until pancakes are starting to turn golden brown and have puffed up (the second side will likely go a little faster, so an eye on them). You can preheat on oven to 200 F to keep the pancakes warm while you cook in batches, if necessary.

4. Meanwhile, heat up 1 tablespoon butter in a medium skillet on medium heat. Add the cherries, and sauté until they’re cooked down and jammy, about 7-10 minutes.

5. To serve, top the pancakes with a pat of butter (if desired, the cherries and a drizzle with maple syrup. Sprinkle with some powdered sugar, if desired.

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