Oatmeal & Banana Pancakes

So, I have been eating pretty healthy lately.  Although I have made a few mistakes (occasional pop being my weakness), I think I have been getting a hang of eating well! I will say, it does take extra time to pack your lunch in the morning and to make some of the food that you need to pack; but it is so worth it!  I have been allowing myself to one "whatever" meal per week and after that meal I usually don't feel all that great.  Eating well and eating good food will make a world of difference.
So, since I have been eating healthy, eggs and fruit has been my breakfast of choice for the past few weeks.  Eggs get old. Fast. Really fast! So I found this pancake recipe online and decided to give it a try - anything but eggs!

1/2 cup instant oatmeal
4 egg whites
1 really, really ripe banana, mashed
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 Tablespoons of applesauce
pinch of salt (I omitted this... kind of by accident) ha!
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 tablespoon of water, milk, or juice - I used milk

The directions are simple: Mix everything together in a bowl and cook up like a pancake!! I tried adding some frozen strawberries on the first pancake, but I was not a fan, probably because I generally do not like frozen strawberries unless they are in smoothie form!

I was a bit skeptical while I was standing there waiting for the batter to cook.  But it was worth a try! Anything but eggs. After about a 7 minute wait - these things are thick - I placed the hot pancake on my plate and dug in!

I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't all that bad!! It was actually pretty good, and a great change from eating eggs!! The only thing that I would tweak a little from last time is that I may add a bit more cinnamon or vanilla.  It was very tempting to put something on them, like syrup, just because that is the norm in eating pancakes.  So because I did not add syrup, I felt like it was lacking that extra kick!  But they were MUCH better than eggs! Ha.
I would love to hear what you think about them! Give them a try and let me know what you think!! Good luck!

Cinnamon Swirl Pancakes

Good Morning people! Summer is BACK! Well, at least for a few days...
So usually I'm a routine-type person; I eat the same thing practically every morning for breakfast (soy milk with Bran cereal and a banana) and usually the same exact thing for lunch everyday as well (Tuna and Natural Cheetos with a greek yogurt), just in case you were wondering, Ha!  I know, it may sound boring to you; but dinner is my mix-up time! This morning however, I was craving something different.  So I decided to try a new recipe!

I originally found this recipe through Pinterest but did not use the whole recipe and tweaked it a bit.  Here is the original recipe that I found, note that their pictures look way better too!  
http://www.number-2-pencil.com/2012/06/25/sour-cream-cinnamon-roll-pancakes-with/ 

Here are the ingredients/directions if you want to try and make them yourself!

Cinnamon Sugar Filling

4 tablespoons of melted butter
1/4 cup of firmly packed dark brown sugar 

2 tablespoons of sugar
1 teaspoon of cinnamon

1. Combine all of the ingredients for the filling in a bowl and mix well.

2. After mixing, pour into a sealable plastic baggie and allow to sit a cool a bit while mixing up the pancake batter.

Pancakes

1 cup of all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons of sugar
2 teaspoons of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt
1 cup of sour cream
1/4 cup of milk
4 tablespoons of melted butter
1 egg, lightly beaten

1. Combine all ingredients for the pancakes in order of the list.

2. Mix very well together.

3. Heat a griddle or non-stick pan on the stove and begin to cook like you would regular pancakes.

4.  Before flipping the pancakes, cut one of the corners of off your cinnamon filling bag and swirl on top of the pancake.  

5.  When you flip over the pancake, the cinnamon filling will cook and harden a bit.

6. Finish cooking thoroughly and enjoy!

Mine definitely did not turn out as pretty as hoped.  But it was the first try and a test!  The flavor of these pancakes were really good, although they were very, very rich!! They were almost too buttery/sugary for me and I could only handle two.  The original recipe calls for a glaze on top, but I couldn't imagine putting anything else sweet on top of these pancakes.  

They were very good overall! I would probably make them again, or I would make the cinnamon glaze and put that into my regular pancake recipe next time I make it.

As for tomorrow's breakfast... Well, I'm sure you can guess what it's going to be! 

Happy Eating!

Favorite Pancakes

I bet every single one of you has a favorite pancake; you know what I'm talking about?... Either it was the time you went out for breakfast and you were absolutely STARVING and demolished a whole stack of pancakes; or maybe you still have those pancakes in mind that your grandmother used to make you when you were little.  Whatever the case, pancakes are next in line to eggs for the top spot on the breakfast food's list!

This is one of my favorite traditional pancake recipes; No weird ingredients are required, they are simple and quick; and pretty good too!  Give them a try and let me know what you think!

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cup flour

3 teaspoons baking powder

1 tablespoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 beaten egg

1 cup milk

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Directions:

1. Mix all of the ingredients together!

2. Cook in a hot, greased pan or pancake griddle as you would with any other pancake recipe!

3. Enjoy!

As I said, simple!  When I make myself pancakes, I like to add chocolate chips or blueberries in mine!  Sometimes I even add both together!  Who wouldn't want to start their day out with chocolate!?

Bon appetit!    

(As you can tell, there is a big blueberry right in the center!)