Vegan Banana Pancakes

I have a blendtec blender and get weekly emails from them with new recipes.  I generally just skip over them but since I have been loving pancakes and the word "vegan" was in the title it caught my attention and I thought I would give this recipe a try.  We loved them and I was surprised at how good this vegan pancake tasted.  Enjoy!

Vegan Banana Pancakes

1 ½ C water
⅓ C raw almonds
2 Tbsp agave or honey
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp kosher or sea salt
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
2 ripe bananas
2 C whole wheat flour
2 ½ tsp baking powder

Directions

Add first 6 ingredients to WildSide Jar and secure lid.  Select “Whole Juice”.  Add remaining ingredients in order listed and secure lid.  Select “Batters”.  Allow batter to rest 5 minutes.  Heat griddle or other pan over medium heat and grease.  Pour approximately ⅓ cup batter onto heated pan and cook until bubbles break the surface of the pancake and the underside is golden brown.  Flip and cook until done.  Repeat with remaining batter.

Cinnamon Jumble/ Snickerdoodle Pancake

This is a recipe from realsustenance.com, a great gluten free, allergen free recipe site.  I changed several things about the recipe but the flavor is the same.  The original recipe can be found here.  You will feel like you are eating a snickerdoodle cookie when you are eating this pancake.  My mom used to make these cookies called "cinnamon jumbles" when we were growing up and these pancakes taste identical to those cookies.  Maybe I love them so much because they bring back a flood of memories when I'm eating them or maybe I love them so much because they just taste so good :) 

Cinnamon Jumble/ Snickerdoodle Pancake

1 cup whole wheat flour (may need up to 1/4 cup more if batter is too runny)

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup almond milk or cows milk

1 egg

2 tablespoons water

3 tablespoons agave nectar (or turbinado or granulated sugar)

2 tablespoons grape seed or coconut oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon almond extract (I have made this recipe with and without this and it tastes great either way)

cinnamon and turbinado or granulated sugar for sprinkling

Directions

Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl then add all of the wet ingredients, stir well and let sit for a few minutes. Heat a skillet up to medium heat place 1/4 cup of the batter onto the skillet.  Sprinkle as much or as little cinnamon onto pancake as you would like.  Sprinkle a little sugar on top for texture.  When bubbles start forming on top sprinkle pancake with a tiny bit more sugar and flip the pancake and cook for another minute or until cooked through. Serve with pure maple syrup, coconut oil, or butter.

Mixed Grains Pancake

I am really loving pancakes these days as you can tell.  I have wanted to incorporate other flours into a batter than just wheat flour but wasn't sure how it would work.  So this week I ground up some millet, oats, and spelt into flour and made a pancake batter out of it.  It was really great and now we have a greater variety of grains in our diet.  I sometimes find it easier to enjoy the various flavors of different grains when you incorporate it into something like a pancake, muffin, bread, etc than just eating it plain.  Enjoy!

Mixed Grains Pancake

1/3 cup spelt flour (may need up to 1/3 cup more if batter is too runny)

1/3 cup millet flour

1/3 cup oat flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons unsweetened coconut shreds

1/2-1 cup chopped strawberries

1 cup almond milk or cows milk
1 egg or 1 egg replacer

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons agave nectar

2 tablespoons coconut oil

Directions

Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl then add all of the wet ingredients, stir well and let sit for a few minutes. Heat a skillet up to medium heat place 1/4 cup of the batter onto the skillet. When bubbles start forming on top flip the pancake and cook for another minute or until cooked through. Serve with pure maple syrup.

Orange Zested Pancakes

I have been wanting to try a pancake recipe like this one for the last week or so but have had no luck finding a recipe so I thought I'd try my own and see how it turned out. It turned out :) This pancake resembles the flavor of an orange roll...Mmm so good! Hope you enjoy!

Orange Zested Pancakes

1 cup whole wheat flour (may need up to 1/4 cup more if batter is too runny)

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

zest of one orange

1/4 cup orange juice

1 cup almond milk or cows milk

1 egg or egg replacer

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons agave nectar

2 tablespoons grape seed oil or alternately olive oil

Directions

Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl then add all of the wet ingredients, stir well and let sit for a few minutes. Heat a skillet up to medium heat place 1/4 cup of the batter onto the skillet. When bubbles start forming on top flip the pancake and cook for another minute or until cooked through. Serve with pure maple syrup.

Banana Muffins

This is a recipe inspired from Elanaspantry.com.  I changed a few of the ingredients but the bulk of the recipe is the same.  I was looking for something that would be easy for my baby to eat, healthy for my baby to eat, and something that didn't have ingredients in it that he shouldn't have before he is one (honey, nuts, etc).  So I found this recipe tweaked a few ingredients and wa-la!  My baby loves these!  He can't get enough of them and I can't either :) You can add some chocolate chips to them to to make them more dessert-like.  Enjoy!

Banana Muffins

1 ½ cups whole wheat flour
2 tablespoon coconut flour (or coconut shreds)
¼ teaspoon sea salt
¼ teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs
¼ cup grapeseed oil
¼ cup agave nectar
1-2 very ripe bananas (about ¾ to 1 cup mashed)

Directions

In a large bowl, mix together flour, coconut flower/shreds, salt and baking soda
In a smaller bowl, combine eggs, grapeseed oil, and agave and then stir in mashed bananas
Mix wet ingredients into dry
Scoop batter one heaping ¼ cup at a time into lined muffin tins
Bake at 350° for 15-18 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean

Makes about 8 muffins

Cinnamon Bun Muffins

I had some left over almond meal/flour (same thing) in my fridge from the almond milk that I made this week and was wanting to use it up in a muffin recipe.  I found this recipe for a cinnamon roll type muffin at elanaspantry.com, another great site I have just recently discovered.  I wanted the muffin to be sweet and more "dessert like" but didn't want to use any butter or refined sugar in it.  I was excited to find this recipe and even more excited with how well they turned out and even more excited with how much Ryan loved them! (If you know Ryan you know he doesn't like sweet things).  This recipe is definitely a keeper and one I'm so grateful I stumbled across!  I have a feeling it just may become a staple recipe in our home :)

Cinnamon Bun Muffins

Cinnamon Topping:

2 tablespoon agave nectar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon grapeseed oil

To make cinnamon topping, combine agave, cinnamon and oil in a small bowl
Set mixture aside.

Muffin Mixture:

1 cup almond meal/flour (you can make this by grinding almonds up in a food processor to a    sand-like consistency)
2 tablespoons coconut flour (same thing here- you can grind unsweetened coconut flakes in a food processor to a sand-like consistency)
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon sea salt
¼ cup grapeseed oil (can be found at a health food store and isn't very expensive)
¼ cup agave nectar
3 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Combine almond flour, coconut flour, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl
In a large bowl blend together oil, agave, eggs and vanilla
Blend dry ingredients into wet and scoop a scant ¼ cup at a time into lined muffin cups
Spoon topping onto muffins
Bake muffins for 8-12 minutes at 350°
Cool muffins for 2 hours then frost with Creamy Cream Cheese Frosting  (I didn't do this but I'm sure if you did it would be wonderful!)

Makes 9 muffins

*Little side note- I didn't have quite 1 full cup of almond meal/flour so I topped off the measuring cup with fresh ground whole wheat flour and they turned out great.  If you wanted your muffin to be completely gluten-free then you would need to make sure you have enough almond meal/flour for 1 full cup.

**One more thing- if you are using almond meal from making almond milk you will want to run it through a food processor for a few seconds to break up any clumps.

Fresh Fruit Salad & Granola

Happy Valentine's Day!  For breakfast I wanted something fruity and fresh, yet filling and festive for valentines.  So I came up with this idea- A fruit salad that is sweet with some red strawberries for valentines over some homemade granola topped with a yogurt dressing.  It was really tasty and very refreshing.  The nice thing about this is you can use whatever fruit you have on hand. Have a wonderful Valentine's Day!

Fresh Fruit Salad & Granola

1 apple, chopped

1 orange, chopped

1 banana, chopped

1 mango, chopped

1/2 carton of strawberries, chopped

Directions

Combine all chopped fruit in a bowl.  Serve over homemade granola (recipe can be found under label of "granola") and top with yogurt dressing.  Enjoy!

Dressing

1 cup plain Greek yogurt

2-3 teaspoons of lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

2-3 teaspoons honey

Directions

Mix all ingredients together.  Taste and add more honey if needed.

Fresh Muesli with Apple and Almonds

I found this recipe at wholeliving.com.  I have come across a few breakfast recipes lately titled "muesli". I didn't know what that was so I looked it up and here is the definition of muesli according to google:   

Muesli- myo͞ozlē ˈmyo͞os-/Noun: A mixture of cereals (esp. rolled oats), dried fruit, and nuts, typically eaten with milk at breakfast.

So I tried my hand at this recipe and it was pretty good.  I'm not a huge lover of yogurt and never have been, so with that said it isn't my favorite. But in an attempt to keep breakfast interesting and keep Ryan from reverting back to those sugary cold cereals we are trying lots of new things :)  The nice thing about this muesli is that it is a good base that you can change very easily to your liking.  If you don't have apples and have some other kind of fruit, add that.  The same goes for the nuts.  This is incredibly easy to prepare and quite nutritious as well.  Since I run in the mornings before Ryan goes to work I will try to do as much preparation for breakfast as possible the night before so that I can make sure I get out for some exercise before he leaves.  This recipe was great because I prepared everything the night before except for chopping up the apple.  This made for a nice healthy, homemade breakfast that I didn't have to get up early to make.  

I didn't do a very good job of allowing you to see what this looks like but it kind of is like a granola and yogurt parfait.  Instead of  laying the apples on top (which I probably should have done for the purpose of the picture) I just mixed them in with the yogurt and oat mixture and then topped with the remaining oats- you get the idea I am sure.

Fresh Muesli with Apple and Almonds

3/4 cup old-fashioned roasted oats

1/4 cup sliced almonds

1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt

1/2 cup milk

1/2 diced apple

2 to 4 tablespoons honey

Directions 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place oats and almonds on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake until almonds are golden brown, 7 to 8 minutes (in my oven it took about double this time 16 or so minutes); let cool to room temperature. In a small bowl, stir together 3/4 cup of toasted oat mixture, yogurt, and milk. Cover and refrigerate until oats are soft, 1 hour or up to overnight (I did mine overnight).

Spoon muesli into two bowls. Top with apple and remaining toasted oat mixture; drizzle with honey

Bluberry Coconut Pancakes

And another recipe from greenshakesandgiggles.com.  I made these this morning and we LOVED them so much! I used to not really like pancakes but I'm turning into a pancake lover.  Or maybe my love for pancakes is stemming from the making a pancake batter with quality ingredients.  Quality fresh ingredients taste SOOO much better than packaged and processed "foods" or like Michael Pollan would say "food like substances".  Anyways, if you make these I know you will love them Mmm...

Blueberry Coconut Pancakes

1 cup whole wheat flour

2 teaspoons baking powder 

1/2 teaspoons sea salt 

2 tablespoons coconut shreds (unsweetened)

2 tablespoons honey 

1 teaspoon vanilla 

1 egg or egg replacer 

1 cup almond milk (vanilla or regular, or if you prefer cows milk you can use that)

2 tablespoons coconut oil 

1/2 - 1 cup blueberries 

Directions

Mix all ingredients into a large bowl.  Mix well until consistency is smooth. 

Pour a scoop of batter (1/4 cup at a time) onto preheated pan at medium heat.  Flip over when batter begins to bubble. Cook on other side until pancake is cooked through.  

Serve with additional fruit or pure maple syrup. 

Makes 7 large pancakes

Poppy Seed Pancakes

This is another recipe I found at 101cookbooks.com.  These were so good!  I absolutely loved the sunflower seeds incorporated into the batter.  On the website there was a recipe for a citrus syrup to go along with the pancakes so I made that but it was pretty bitter so I just used pure maple syrup instead which was wonderful.

Poppy Seed Pancakes

2 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon aluminum-free baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt

1/4 cup poppy seeds
1/2 cup sunflower seeds, toasted until deeply golden
2 1/4 cups organic buttermilk
2 large organic eggs, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons butter, melted 

Directions

To make the pancakes combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, poppy seeds and sunflower seeds in a large bowl. Add the buttermilk, eggs and melted butter. Stir all the ingredients until they are just combined. Don't worry if the batter is a bit lumpy, you don't want to over mix.

Heat your skillet, pan, or griddle to medium-hot and brush it with a bit of butter. Test for the right temperature. If a drop of water dropped onto the pan starts to dance, you are in the ballpark. Pour about 1/3 of a cup of batter into the skillet. Wait until the pancake bottom is deep golden in color, then flip with a spatula and cook the other side until golden and cooked through. Repeat with the remaining batter.

Makes 12 large pancakes