In case you were wondering... that was a description of how my day started.
Sleeping in until the alarm went off, laying in bed for another 15 minutes before actually getting up, making these delightful pancakes and still sitting at the kitchen table in my sweats with my coffee as I write this. What a beautiful way to start a Sunday. (Well, minus the fact that it is insanely windy outside..might hinder today's run a bit.. But that is beside the point!)
I've mentioned this before but ever since eliminating gluten, dairy, yeast and a slew of other randoms that I won't get into, my boyfriend and I rarely get to enjoy the same weekend breakfast like we used to. You see, weekend mornings used to consist of massive breakfasts with one of us cooking and the other one constantly making suggestions (okay... maybe just me making suggestions). But now, we each make our own breakfast, still sharing the morning at the kitchen table with our coffee and newspaper, but - it just isn't the same.
I have had this recipe bookmarked for MONTHS now, just waiting for a weekend to make a hardy breakfast while lounging around the house until #sigh# the school work has to get started. Well my friends, today was the day! As I'm getting closer and closer to my college graduation *Ah!* I've been feeling less and less motivated to hit weekends hard with studying and projects. Which is why, as I said, today was the day for these wonderful homemade pancakes - courtesy of Nancy from The Sensitive Pantry.
Nancy has a wealth of recipes that are perfectly catered to the needs of us with food intolerance and sensitivities. Most of her recipes are gluten, egg, dairy and soy free. PERFECT for what I need!
She created these Banana Walnut Oat Pancakes, in which I made only a few minor changes based on what I had in my fridge. Make sure to check out her recipes, they are wonderful!
Here is the recipe with my few changes...
1 tablespoon ground flax mixed with 3 tablespoons hot water
3/4 cups sorghum flour
1/2 cup gluten free rolled oats
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp brown sugar
1/3 c plain soy yogurt + 2/3 c water (whisk until smooth)
1/2 large banana
2 tsp canola oil
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup walnuts (finely chopped)
Mix the flaxseed and hot water and let sit as you assemble the batter. Mix all of the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Combine the soy yogurt and water and whisk until you've reached a smooth consistency (similar to soymilk). Add in your very mashed banana, oil and vanilla and whisk until smooth. Add wet ingredients to the dry mix, add the flaxseed mixture and stir. Fold in the walnuts. The batter is fairly thick at this point - you can either leave as is or add water 1-2 tbsp at a time until you've reached a thinner batter. (*I added about 1/2 c of water total.)
Heat a large skillet over medium heat, adding a little butter to grease the pan. Plop two spoonfulls on top of each other in the pan and smooth out to form a nice 3-inch wide pancake. (I could fit 3 pancakes in my pan at a time with this method.) Continue to do this until you've used all of the batter, making sure to add a little butter to the pan before cooking each new batch. *Nancy's recipe makes 12 three inch pancakes, I ended up with 13 pancakes in total (probably from adding the extra water).
The oats and sorghum flour provide a natural sweetness to these pancakes, while I may be a bit biased towards the sweet scale - they were perfect for me! If you like your pancakes sweeter just be sure to add a healthy dose of pure maple syrup. Yes, that's right, I'm telling you to load it on :)
One sidenote I must mention is that these are not your typical light and fluffy from-the-box pancakes. They are hardy, dense and will fill you up (but of course this is a very good thing!) I found that 3 pancakes was the perfect serving size, leaving me satisfied but not overly stuffed. I topped my yummy pancakes with about 1tbsp pure maple syrup, fresh blackberries, banana chips and a dusting of cinnamon. DELISH!
I highly recommend making these pancakes on your next lazy weekend, or heck, maybe even as a breakfast-for-dinner meal! I have some left over and am fully planning on snacking on them as the day goes on :)
Lastly, I went ahead and calculated the nutrition facts. This time, not so much for you (though I'm sure you are happy to have them!) but for me as I'm really trying to up my calories to gain some weight - hey, I'm training for a half marathon here people! So... here they are...
Nutrition Facts for Nutty Oat Pancakes
per serving: 3 pancakes
239 calories
31g carbohydrates
6.7g protein
4.5g fiber
*with my toppings these come to about: 453 calories, 40g carbs, 7g protein, 5g fiber*
Have a lovely Sunday, smile, be kind and do something amazing!
