Banana Nut Pancakes

 

You know how it's called comfort food because it's meant to be comforting and yummy and feel-good? Well you also know comfort food is a big no no when you're trying to stay healthy and keep your bikini from being your worst nightmare. I am always trying to find ways to make compromises so I can keep my bikini body AND my insatiable appetite in sync. So, here is another recipe that is guaranteed to make you happy (so long as you like bananas.)

A friend of mine recently posted a recipe on Facebook about having made pancakes using only two ingredients: one banana and two eggs. (Hey Alice!) Naturally, I was slightly skeptical and also very intrigued, so I had to make them. 

Roy's birthday was this past Sunday, and since we have his kids with us this summer, I thought it'd be nice to treat them all to some yummy cinnamon roll pancakes; a recipe I found on Pinterest. (When I told Roy about them, he said: "They're not just sin. They're the express train to hell pancakes.") Now, that recipe is absolutely deliciously disastrous for your waist as well as most of your internal organs, but hey, you gotta live a little. I informed the kids that had they known me during "Flabby Gabby Days," we'd all be well on our way into daily diabetic shocks. But since Flabby Gabby turned into Skinny Minnie, thankfully that won't be happening. Once in awhile however, I allow them all to indulge, and I thought Roy's birthday would be the perfect opportunity. I won't be going into the cinnamon roll pancakes, but I will post a lovely photo of them and all their cinnamony glory. Yummo.

Roy's Birthday Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

For myself though, I thought it'd be a great opportunity to try out those banana pancakes Alice posted. It was simple enough. I threw a super ripe banana into the Vitamix along with two eggs, blended, and poured the batter into the skillet. I'll say it was a bit of a nightmare to flip the banana pancakes, but I managed to do it, and we all nommed on our breakfast happily. While I ate, I imagined all the ways I could improve the two-ingredient recipe, and this morning I tested out my plan.

I blended a banana and two eggs, and then added some cinnamon and nutmeg to the blender. Once it was blended, I added about a quarter of a cup of raw walnuts, and pulsed a few times to chop up the walnuts but not puree. Then, remembering the difficulty I had flipping the pancakes on Sunday, I made small silver-dollar-sized pancakes. They sizzled and bubbled, and flipped relatively easily with my spatula. The smell was amazing, and it smelled like a fresh baked banana nut loaf coming out of the oven. Mmmm mmmmm. I used a little bit of agave as my maple syrup stand-in because I didn't have any maple syrup (we didn't buy any for the cinnamon roll pancakes because they didn't require any since they're topped with a cream cheese icing). The result was amazeballs. Truly, amazingly delicious. And zero guilt. AND zero bloat! I ate a plateful of these delicious pancakes and didn't feel like I needed a nap afterward. And no, it didn't taste like a banana omelet. The egg and banana mixture make that fluffy consistency you get with regular flour pancakes, and neither flavor overpowers the other. The ratio of one banana to two eggs is perfect. I do wish they wouldn't fall apart quite so easily, but that's why I recommend making smaller pancakes. Plus, they look so cute and it's the perfect bite-size pancake.

Perfect silver-dollar-sized pancakes

I hope you enjoy these as much as I did. Kudos to Alice for posting on her Facebook wall about these. I'd otherwise have never found out about them! Let me know if you think of some other flavor enhancers for these bad boys. I am definitely going to be playing around with a blueberry pancake idea shortly. I'll keep you posted!

Til next time!

-Kale Queen

Chocolate Banana Crepes with Strawberry Peanut Butter Cream

Yes, this was my breakfast. No, I will not have to make an appointment at the gym to burn off 1000 calories or mope around the house that my thighs will inflate from such a carb loaded breakfast. Ya know why? Because these are guilt free, sugar free, flour free, thigh-inflating free scrumptious crepes! No I'm not lying to you. There were no magical fairies with pixie dust harmed in the making of this dish. Have I captured your attention? Well alright then!

Last night, after yet another Pinterest fueled evening, I stumbled upon a magnificent blog, The Rawtarian, and found a super easy, two ingredient recipe for dehydrated banana crepes. The making of the crepes took about two minutes and fifteen seconds, and I was back to Pinterest before the couch cushions had time to cool off from my warm butt.

The recipe was simple: Blend 8 ripe bananas with 1/2 cup of water, pour mixture on teflex sheet of a dehydrator tray, dehydrate. The first hour, you dehydrate at 125º F, and then you lower the temperature to 105º F for about 8 hours.

crepe puddles going into the dehydrator

I, of course, have a hard time following recipes to a T, and didn't want to make quite a large batch, so I blended two bananas with a splash of chocolate coconut water. I added in a small scoop of chia seeds, turned on the blender for another two seconds to mix in the chia seeds, and then poured out the mixture in seven small circular puddles on the sheets. I used a plastic spatula to even out the puddles and make a consistent thinness. I have no idea how thin they were but my guess is they were only a 1/16th of an inch. You know what? Scrap that. Just thin it out. We're making crepes here!



Chocolate coconut water is my new favorite thing. It's like non-toxic Yoo Hoo

The crepes were dehydrating for an hour at 125º, and when my timer went off, I turned down the heat to 105º. I watched over them every few hours, and when I was able to peel them off the sheet, I did so carefully, flipped them, and continued dehydrating. I made sure they weren't getting too dry, and finally removed the crepes when they were solidified, pliable and still somewhat sticky. Then, I placed a crepe on a ceramic plate, and layered the seven crepes between pieces of Saran Wrap so they wouldn't be one congealed mess when I was ready to eat them. Viola, and into the fridge they went until morning.

As someone who comes from a Russian family, crepes were often served at breakfast time when I was a kid. They're called blini, and they are conventionally made with eggs and flour. Once they're ready to be eaten, they're topped with sour cream and jam, and then rolled up using the teeth of a fork. Crepes were my breakfast of choice, and as a kid, I didn't have to worry about calorie count and carbs. As an adult whose thighs inflate just from SMELLING bread, crepes have since exited my breakfast menu, and are left at simply being a fond memory.

So naturally, I was super excited to make raw crepes, and of course had no intention other than eating them the way I always have, albeit with minor modifications.

This morning, I removed the crepes from the fridge, along with my tub of Greek yogurt, and grabbed a bag of frozen strawberries from the freezer.

The Greek yogurt would be my stand-in for sour cream, and I had to figure out a way to make the jam. I scooped up 1/4 cup of frozen strawberries and tossed them in the Vitamix, added a splash of water and about 1/2 - 1 TBS PB2, my favorite non-butter peanut butter. Blend blend blend, and I had myself a strawberry peanut butter creamy sauce. It definitely wasn't the consistency of jam, so I'll have to work on that, but it was still really yummy. I grabbed a banana crepe which had time to warm up some from the fridge, scooped on a heaping teaspoon of Greek yogurt, and poured the strawberry cream sauce on top. Then, I rolled it by hand, crepe style.

This is definitely something you don't want to eat with your hands (like I did with the first one before I grabbed a knife and fork) because it's going to be a sticky mess. The banana crepe was very much like a fruit roll-up, sticky and sweet, so the crepe held together effortlessly. The taste was amazing. The chocolate banana flavor went so well with the strawberry peanut butter, and the Greek yogurt was a perfect player in this sweet flavor combination.

I gobbled down two crepes, and an hour later ate a crepe by itself, in all its fruit roll-up glory.

This recipe can easily be modified to a vegan recipe by switching out the Greek yogurt for a vegan alternative, like cashew cream or nut butters. I'm not a vegan though so my personal recipes will probably never exclude meat and dairy, and I'm not a raw eater so I will always have recipes with non-raw ingredients. Not every single recipe but, you know... Some.

I will definitely be making these crepes again with different flavors. Roy is not a fan of the banana, so I will have to figure out a different flavor for him. I'll keep you posted about my picky eater. For now, I can't say I'm too disheartened; it just means I don't have to share! Mwahahahaha

I hope you enjoy these as much as I did!

Love always

-Kale Queen