Saturday mornings are pancake mornings at our house. In fact, I was looking through some old videos yesterday (on my day off) and I had recorded some footage of my then-toddler daughter and I cooking pancake shapes and then smothering them in syrup. That is evidence enough that this has been a tradition for at least a decade around here.

This morning was no different: chocolate chip pancakes on the cast iron grill topped with some mixed berries and a generous slog of maple syrup (…did I mention we live in Canada?)

My plate looked particularly photogenic this morning, and so I took a shot before digging in. All of this, the old videos, the Saturday routine, the fresh fruit and maple syrup of course got me thinking about how we fall into routine and stick with the things that are comfortable. Chocolate chip pancakes are amazing, but we don’t veer far off course of the toppings list.

So, if I someday soon decided to stray a little bit from my patriotic imperative of supporting the national maple syrup industry, here are some of the things I might consider as a good starting list of familiar, unique, interesting, tasty, and maybe a little off-the-wall ideas to add to or on top of my Saturday pancakes:

1. maple syrup (obviously)
2. powdered sugar
3. butter
4. strawberries
5. chocolate
6. fruit syrup
7. banana slices
8. chopped toasted almonds
9. shredded coconut
10. mixed berries
11. peach slices
12. hazelnut spread
13. whipped cream
14. caramel sauce
15. crumbled bacon
16. lemon sugar
17. cinnamon sugar
18. lox
19. blueberries
20. fruit compote
21. vanilla ice cream
22. dulce de leche
23. peanut butter
24. baked apple slices
25. poached egg
26. yogurt
27. raisins
28. toasted macadamia nuts
29. cream cheese
30. honey
31. marshmallow cream
32. crumbled graham crackers
33. cottage cheese
34. avocado slices
35. grilled ham
36. candied ginger
37. nut butter
38. apple sauce
39. corn syrup
40. ricotta
41. raspberries
42. canned pears
43. lemon curd
44. mango coulis
45. pineapple slices
46. grilled spam
47. hot fudge
48. rhubarb sauce
49. candied nuts
50. chopped candy

…and now go check out my chocolate chip pancake recipe if you need some inspiration for where to put all these amazing options for toppings.