Vegan Banana-Orange Pancakes

I’ve got another tasty Sunday morning recipe for you all! Vegan pancakes. Super easy to make and incredibly delicious. For an extra special Sunday breakfast treat, you can try adding some chocolate chips to the batter as well. Of course, if you use milk chocolate chips then the recipe will no longer be vegan-friendly. My suggestion would be to look for some vegan dark chocolate. Yum!

Also, don’t forget about the SlimKicker giveaway contest that’s happening right now! Just to remind you all, SlimKicker is looking for new suggestions for healthy challenges to add to their app. Simply comment on last week’s post with your suggestion. SlimKicker will select their favourite and the winner will receive a free digital kitchen scale! You’d better hurry with your submissions, because the contest ends this Wednesday!

Vegan Banana-Orange Pancakes

Yields about 6-8 pancakes (I made 4 medium-sized pancakes and 4 smaller pancakes with chocolate chips)

Ingredients:

1 cup flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 banana, mashed

1 1/4 cups vanilla soy milk

1 tbsp sweetener (I used maple syrup. You could also use honey, stevia, sugar, etc.)

1-2 tsp orange zest

Directions:

1. Sift the flour and baking powder together in a large bowl.

2. In a small bowl, mash the banana with a fork and add 1/4 cup of the soy milk, mixing together until there are no lumps. Add the banana mixture, maple syrup, and remaining soy milk to the dry mix and stir together until just mixed.

3. Portion out about 3/4 to 1 cup of batter onto a hot non-stick pan. The pan will be hot enough when you flick a bit of water onto it and it sizzles. When the centre of the batter starts of bubble, flip the pancake over and cook the other side until golden brown. Repeat until the batter is gone! I ate my pancakes with some orange slices and a slight drizzling of maple syrup. Enjoy :)

Raspberry Banana Smoothie

I love having smoothies for breakfast. They’re just so quick and easy to make, and are a great way to load up on extra fruits and veggies. I still have yet to try making a green smoothie with spinach. Perhaps sometime next week, as Mama Earth’s next delivery is supposed to include loose spinach and fresh plums!

Raspberry Banana Smoothie

Ingredients:

1 organic banana

1 organic valencia orange

1 cup frozen organic raspberries (fresh are fine too, or any other kind of berry! I prefer to use frozen so that the smoothie turns out somewhat chilled.)

1 cup vanilla soy milk

1 tbsp flax seeds

Simply blend together and enjoy! :) Yields about 2.5 – 3 cups.

Flourless Chocolate Banana Honey [Walnut] Cake

I hope everyone has been enjoying the long weekend! Yesterday I had an Easter potluck with some friends. My boyfriend and I had volunteered to bring a veggie tray and some sort of dessert, but then we were faced with a few issues: a nut allergy, someone that’s lactose intolerant, and another that couldn’t eat gluten. My initial thought was to play it safe and just bring fruit for dessert, but that would be the lazy way out! Instead, I took the time to search for a recipe that sounded good and appeared somewhat easy to make (I’ve never made a lactose or gluten-free dessert before!). I stumbled across this one on Gluten Free Easily (GFE). The recipe calls for walnuts, but I had to leave them out so as not to cause an unwanted allergic reaction!

 

Unfortunately my boyfriend accidentally poked a hole in the cake when he was taking it out of the oven, but we came up with a creative solution to cover it up – banana slices! You can only kind of see it in the picture..

I’m not the biggest fan of chocolate cake (it’s all about vanilla!!), but this actually turned out pretty good! It was very moist and kind of tasted like a combination of brownies and banana bread. Anyways, I’m off to a family get-together now! Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Be Well xo

Whole Wheat Cinnamon Banana Pancakes

Nothing beats lazy Sunday mornings with delicious homemade pancakes and coffee!  I made this tasty dish this morning for my boyfriend.  With lots of fresh fruit and a few substitutions, this recipe can be reeeeeeasonably healthy ;)

Whole Wheat Cinnamon Banana Pancakes

Ingredients:

1 cup  of milk (choose 1% or skim as a lower fat option)

1/2 tbsp of honey (optional)

1 large egg white

1 tbsp melted butter or non-hydrogenated margarine

1 cup of whole wheat flour (or half whole wheat, half all-purpose)

1 tbsp sugar (use a bit less if you are adding the honey)

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

pinch of salt (eliminate if you are trying to cut down on sodium)

2 ripe bananas, sliced (set 1/3 cup aside for garnishing)

1 cup fresh fruit (I used strawberries, raspberries and blackberries)

Directions:

1. Pour the milk, honey, egg white and melted butter into a small bowl. Stir with a fork or whisk.

2. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.

3. Make a “well” in the dry ingredients and pour in the milk mixture.  Add the sliced bananas (set 1/3 cup aside for garnishing) and stir until just combined.  Don’t worry about getting all the lumps out – overmixing can result in tough pancakes.

4. Heat a large non-stick skillet over medium heat. Ladle the batter onto the skillet and cook the pancakes for a few minutes, until the bottoms are golden and bubbles appear on the surface. When the surface gets bubbly, flip the pancakes with a spatula and cook for another minute or two, or until they are golden on the other side.

5. Serve the pancakes topped with the remaining banana slices and fresh fruit.  Drizzle with a little bit of maple syrup if you like, but if you are trying to cut calories this can be left out - the fruit adds a lot of sweetness and moisture to the pancakes already!

Yeilds 4 large pancakes (MORE than enough for 2 people to share!)