Well Christmas 2014 is long gone…moving on to 2015! We had a wonderful Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We were lucky enough to see my cousins from Wichita this year along with their 18 month old daughter, Brystol. She was born 3 weeks before our wedding and was teeny tiny! Now she is the most adorable little girl…so cute. We also got to spoil Donny’s nieces and nephews over the holidays, which is always fun. Apparently the theme for 2014 Christmas was Frozen, as in the movie. I love that movie along with about every child in the world. Santa got Donny’s 3 ½ year old niece Carlie a Frozen karaoke machine that plays three different Frozen songs. Awesome. We had a small Edson concert. We don’t sing on key, but boy do we sing loud!
For New Year’s Eve we are going to cook a dinner for some family friends. Our friends Cody & McKenzie help us out with catering other dinners and so we are cooking a five-course meal for McKenzie’s mom and a big group of her friends. We did this last year and it was a blast! I love catering jobs but it is even more fun when it is for people we know and enjoy.
I am honestly lucky that we have plans for New Years Eve because I would not do anything if we didn’t. I would be home and asleep by 9:00pm if we didn’t do this catering gig! How sad….poor 26-year-old Melissa can’t stay up late anymore. I would venture to say that I have a bedtime equivalent to that of an 80 year old. I would also say that I am 100% alright with that.
Now we all tend to eat too much around the holidays, I know I do. I have a sweet tooth and it makes it really difficult to say no to things that I tend to only get once a year…so I don’t say no! I have been fairly good this year, but after New Year’s Eve I would like to go back to some pretty strict clean-eating for a while.
Clean eating doesn’t mean giving up delicious food…it just takes a little more effort to make the right decisions and choices that include clean foods. For example, how about some pancakes for breakfast? I love pancakes. I love breakfast, really. I could eat breakfast foods all day long (actually, now that I think about it I’m not sure why I don’t eat breakfast foods all day…..). Anyway, pancakes can be made clean with a few ingredient swaps. This particular recipe has no added sugar and gets the sweetness from ripe bananas! The key to the strong banana flavor in baking is to have super ripe bananas. I buy a big bunch of bananas almost every time I am at the store. I like to eat a few and then let a few get ripe so that I can use them in smoothies, breads, pancakes, etc.
I usually make one batch of these pancakes if it is just me at home (the recipe makes about 7 pancakes), but I double the recipe if Donny is home because I love leftover pancakes. I roll them up with some almond butter or coconut butter and make a little pancake wrap for a snack. Delicious. You could also make several batches and freeze some for mornings that you don’t have time to make breakfast.
I didn’t add syrup or anything to mine but you could definitely do so. I stuck to my go-to for pancakes…peanut butter! Maple syrup, honey, or agave nectar are all natural sweeteners that you can add to your pancakes. Just watch how much because they are still considered sugar and are still high calorie! Some lower calorie options would be sliced bananas, blueberries, raspberries, unsweetened shredded coconut, etc.
- 2 medium ripe bananas
- 1/2 cup oat flour
- 1 large egg
- 2 large egg whites
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 Tbsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp butter extract (optional)
- Mash ripe bananas in a medium-sized bowl using a fork. Add the egg, egg whites, vanilla extract and butter extract to the mixture and combine. Add the oat flour, baking soda, baking powder, and cinnamon to the batter. Stir until just combined. Heat a griddle or frying pan to 350 degrees. Using a 1/4 c measuring cup, scoop or pour the batter onto the griddle. Cook until each side is browned and cooked through the middle.
- If you do not have oat flour you can make it by putting quick or rolled oats in a food processor and processing until it is a flour consistency.
- If the batter is too runny then add more oat flour. If the batter is too thick then add some milk.
