Healthy breakfasts are so important and, yet, if you have a busy schedule and limited diet it can be difficult to come up with a reasonable variety 365 days a year—on an on into perpetuity.
If you divide my standard “go to” breakfasts - oatmeal, muffin in a mug, smoothies, scones - into that number you’ll see I’m eating each about 90 times a year. Boring! OK, occasionally I’ll make myself veggies or eat leftovers that might make a passable breakfast food.
Some days I just need something new. I’m all ears if you have some favorite breakfasts to recommend.
Very happily, this weekend I made a batch of these wonderful pancakes. And, there’s a few in the freezer as a test to see how they’ll heat up for a quick weekday morning meal. If that works I can reduce my redundancy to, let’s see, closer to 70 times a year. So much better!
These pancakes are not very sweet. They’re perfect with maple syrup, jam, or just plain.
Banana Walnut Oat Pancakes
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 cup hemp milk
1/2 large or a whole small banana
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
pinch of nutmeg
1 teaspoon brown sugar
2 teaspoons grapeseed oil
1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1/3 cup walnuts
Mix the flax seed and 3 tablespoons warm water together and set aside. It will become somewhat gelatinous.
In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, oats, and baking powder and set it aside.
In a blender mix together all the remaining ingredients except the walnuts. When they’re thoroughly mixed you can drop in the walnuts and pulse it a few times until they’re chopped up a bit. If you don’t want to mess around with a blender you’ll need to mash the banana and whisk it with the milk until smooth. Then whisk in the spices, oil, vanilla, brown sugar and flax gel. Chop the walnuts and stir in.
Pour about half of the wet mixture into the bowl with the flour and oats. Gently begin to stir together. Pour in the remaining wet ingredients and gently mix until everything is fully incorporated. At this point you can assess the texture of the batter. It will be thick. If you prefer thinner batter add some water a few tablespoons at a time until you reach the right consistency.
Heat a lightly oiled griddle or skillet over medium high heat. You’ll know when it’s ready if a drop of water sizzles or dances over the surface. Scoop small ladles of batter onto the griddle, flip when you start to see bubbles forming and the pancake is browned.
Serve warm with banana slices, walnuts and maple syrup!
This recipe makes about 12 three-inch pancakes.
Note: You can probably substitute your favorite GF flour mix for the sorghum, any non-dairy (or dairy if you can have it) milk for hemp milk, and any vegetable oil for the grapeseed oil. Also, I used a very small amount of Earth Balance to grease the griddle and it worked perfectly.
Nancy Kohler