Healthy Home | Superfood Valentine's Pancakes!

Happy Valentine's Day lovelies!

I woke up with an idea this morning, and popped out of bed to give a whirl.

I was inspired by the lovely Jennifer of Chronicles of Home and her delish looking pancake recipe. I was eager to try it, but decided to give it a little Valentine's kick, and alter it a bit to make it vegan and as healthy as it could be.

Enter The Healthy Heart Triple Berry Pancake, or as I wanted to call it: "Love in a Pan(Cake)". Spread the love by making these for someone special today, and feel good that you're feeding them something full of superfoods that will make them healthier than they were yesterday. Yesiree, that sounds good to me! If you use the right ingredients this recipe can be VEGAN, GLUTEN FREE, SUGAR FREE, OIL FREE, and 100% HEALTHY FOR YOU full of fiber, antioxidants, protein and nutrients!

These jacks are not going to taste like traditional pancakes, well, because almost every ingredient is different than a traditional pancake. They are dense and hearty, and almost feel like eating a bowl of oatmeal. They taste acceptable on their own, but they really serve the greater purpose of being a fantastically healthy bed for some delicious toppings. I used a quick and easy berry coulis (recipe below) shredded coconut and berries, and on one I even spread a little almond butter. Feel free to load up on the fresh fruit and nut butters and I promise you'll be full til dinner! If you just want to have a tasty and still very healthy pancake that will taste delightful on it's own, I definitely recommend making Jennifer's original recipe over here. I'm sure you could sub some of the bananas for raspberries, or use food colouring to make them a special treat for today!

Healthy Heart (Superfood) Pancakes

Dry:
3/4 cup Power Flour*
1/8 cup walnuts, milled to a powder (this is the "fat" for the recipe, so sub away with other fats like coconut oil etc)
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 tbsp coconut

* You can use whatever flour you like, but my Power Flour is a mix of: Oats, Flaxseed, Chia Seeds, Buckwheat and Quinoa milled in my NutriBullet. You can mill other grains and make your own Power Flour easily!

Wet:
1/2 cup of apple butter or apple sauce (I was out of bananas sadly, but 1/2 cup mashed ripe bananas would be divine)

1 tbsp lemon juice

2 tbsp date paste or agave nectar (or honey or maple syrup)
3/4 cup mixed berries (raspberries, strawberries, blueberries)

1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 water
OPTIONAL: If you want more colourful pancakes, add in some red food colouring. I prefer just to use the berries as colour, but they don't stay as deep a red as one would get from food colouring.

1 flax egg (1 tbsp flax meal (ground flax) mixed with 3 tbsp water, refrigerated for 15 minutes)

Coulis:

1/2 cup mixed berries

1/4 cup apple butter or ripe mashed bananas

1 tbsp date paste or agave nectar (or honey or maple syrup)

As you can see, lots of subs can be made depending on what you have on hand. It's hard to go wrong as long as you're subbing with category (fat for fat, sweet for sweet etc).

Directions:

Place all wet ingredients in blender and pulse to blend.

Place dry ingredients in bowl, mix in wet ingredients and flax egg. Stir, and add more water if needed. 

Consistency will be more or a sticky thick muffin batter than a runny pancake batter.

Pre-heat your skillet over medium heat, oil it, and spoon out your batter. For these pancakes it's better to cook them slower at a lower temp than quick at a high temp, so keep a watchful eye and when they easily slide under a spatula, time to flip them and cook a few more minutes.

The coulis is super easy, just blend it all together, add some water if you would like a runnier consistency. Pour over pancakes, sprinkle with coconut or nuts, and top with fresh fruit.

Makes 3- 4 small pancakes or 2 jumbo pancakes (because they are so dense and filling I suggest going with the smaller!)

And enjoy! Make sure to top off with lots of yummy toppings. I was really sad I had used my last banana yesterday because it would have been so tasty topped with bananas. Next time!