My kids LOVE pancakes for breakfast, and for a long time I made home-made traditional pancakes (all-purpose flour, milk, eggs, etc.).
When I began learning about nutrition though, I started to experiment with different ‘healthier’ pancake recipes. I am not ashamed to admit my kids are my lab rats. Whenever they approve something, I know the recipe is a winner- especially recipes that have no processed sugar.
This Oatmeal Chocolate Chip recipe is versatile, yummy, and filling because it is high in fiber, and protein. It is also low in the glycemic index if you are using steel cut oats. I love that you can either do regular or gluten free. If you have an egg intolerance or sensitivity, you can use flax eggs as an option as well. These do take a little longer to cook because the batter is denser than traditional pancake batter.
You’ll need to cook each pancake for about 4 minutes on each side or perhaps longer if you are using steel cut oats. If you see the pancake start to darken quickly, turn down the heat. You can easily double up this recipe to make extra pancakes to refrigerate, freeze and then reheat for days when the kids have school or you have less time. An alternative to maple syrup would be raspberry, strawberry, or blueberry puree.
My kids absolutely give these 2 thumbs up.
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Pancakes
What you’ll need:
2 eggs
1 cup of gluten free steel cut oats or rolled oats
1 cup of gluten free flour blend or regular all-purpose flour
2/3 cups of almond milk or sub other milk
2 very ripe large mashed up bananas (the darker the sweeter)
2 teaspoons of baking powder
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
2 tablespoons of almond butter
2 tablespoons of avocado oil or coconut oil
1/2 cup of raw chocolate or non-dairy or semi-sweet baker’s chocolate chopped
Raspberry puree or topping of your choice
What to do:
Pre-heat pancake Griddle 300-325 degrees
In a large bowl mix eggs, bananas, and baking powder well.
Add oil, salt, vanilla, almond butter, and almond milk (or milk of choice) and stir. Stir in oats and flour blend until just combined.
Gently fold in chocolate chips.
Scoop about ¼ cup of batter for each pancake, let cook about 4 minutes on each side checking to see that it doesn’t brown too quickly. Like with regular pancakes, you will see little bubbles start to form in the center and on the edge.