Sweet Potato Panini-cakes with Cranberries & Pecans

We have a tradition at my house:  pancakes or waffles on the weekend.  Usually Daddy cooks up a batch of Woody's Buttermilk Pancakes, but sometimes Mommy gets to make breakfast.  Today was one of those days.  We had a leftover baked sweet potato in the fridge that needed to be used, and some beautiful fresh cranberries from the Farmer's Market.  Awhile back, my mom and I discovered that our panini presses make great pancakes- no flipping required.  The pancakes come out evenly cooked, with the ridges of the press baked into them.  And so, I present...

Sweet Potato Panini-cakes with Cranberries & Pecans
1 cooked sweet potato
3 T oil or melted butter
2 eggs, beaten
1 c. milk
2.5 teaspoons baking powder
1 t. salt
1.25 cups whole wheat pastry flour
.25 t nutmeg
1 c. fresh (or frozen) cranberries, coarsely chopped
.5 c. pecans, coarsely chopped

1.  Plug in panini press.
2.  Mash cooked sweet potato in medium bowl, add beaten eggs, milk and oil.  Set aside.
3.  Mix together dry ingredients:  flour, soda, salt, nutmeg.  Pour wet ingredients into flour mixture, stir.
4.  Add cranberries & pecans, stir.
5.  Drop large spoonfuls onto hot panini press, close lid, wait expectantly.
6. Serve with generous helping of REAL maple syrup.  Enjoy.

This is actually a really good way to get your kids to eat vegetables (sweet potatoes for breakfast).  Jack had thirds!  I took some great photos of these lofty pancakes, but my camera battery died, and after an hour of looking for my charger, I decided to post this without photos.  Look for an upcoming post on putting things back where they belong.  Argh!

Edit:  ordered new camera battery charger!

Gouged Through the Heart

Jack has this tendency to cry so hard that sometimes he almost passes out.  Like his lips turn blue and he's not breathing- scary.  He's done it a few times, and of course we consulted our doctor about it.  To rule out anything more serious than a behavioral issue, we were sent to see a pediatric heart specialist.  We went (he's totally fine, by the way, it's apparently behavioral- still terrifying, but nothing to worry about).  We were there for about an hour, had an EKG, echo-cardiogram (heart ultrasound) and a visit with the nurse practitioner.

I just got the bill.

We were charged $2,788.80 for this visit.

Yes, that's right.  Almost $3,000 for a 60 minute outpatient office visit.  The breakdown:  $2,205 for the echo-cardiogram, $69.30 for the EKG, $183.75 for the pulmonary function test, and $330.75 for the office visit.  ARE YOU KIDDING ME?  Ok, sure, the u/s tech needs to be highly specialized and trained to get proper pictures of the heart.  So that can cost the most, but $2,205? And the pulmonary function test?  That was this little sensor that you clip to a toe or finger for about 5 seconds.  Jack wouldn't sit still for it, so my husband actually did the clipping on and holding.  $183.75?!?!

But it gets better.  First, when I called to get some explanation about the charges, I asked who sets the rates for these services.  Apparently it's neither the medical office or the insurance company, but the state! What?  I can only imagine that this is supposedly to insure fairness or to avoid gouging or something, but really?  This is the result?  Then, I looked more closely at the bill.  Our account was credited $1,983 for "payments/adjustments/charity".  That's right.  The hugely inflated costs were then written off, presumably for tax purposes.  Or so I figure...I'm still thinking this through, and I don't really know how all this works.  But I think this is how they get us- precisely because we don't know how it all works.   So now our "real" bill is $805.80.  Insurance took care of $330.75, leaving us responsible for $475.05.  Since, according to my doctor, she rarely sees even a third of what insurance bills us for her time, I'd prefer to just pay the medical office the $475.05 directly and cut out the middlemen. That seems to make much more sense to me, AND keeps our money in our local community.

And they say our healthcare system isn't broken?