Bistro OneSix

a pancake balancing act

Poor pancakes. They seem to have a bad wrap for folks dieting or trying to eat healthy. In general I try not to make any sweeping bans on whole categories of food. I’m a firm believer of everything in moderation (including moderation at some times) because I just can’t imagine giving up the joy of a steaming stack of pancakes eaten in comfy clothes with a cup of really good coffee on a relaxed weekend morning.

It’s really just a matter of  finding the right balance of delicious and nutritious. Lucky for me, there’s a few such options in my recipe box (like Quinoa Banana Pancakes) including these Fruit & Nut Pancakes. I made them one cold day over Thanksgiving break when my husband’s teenage daughter was visiting and they were a hit. A few weeks later I went back to make them again and I couldn’t find the recipe anywhere. I torn apart the house looking for the magazine and when I couldn’t locate it, I scoured the internet (because really, can’t everything be found on the web?) but since I couldn’t remember the exact name of the recipe, I was coming up with lots of things that were close, but never an exact match.

Months went by and one day during a deep clean of the kitchen, a photocopied version of the recipe fell out of a book. The first thing that came to mind was that I knew what I was having for breakfast the next day. Closely behind that was that I wanted to do a blog to share the yumminess with all of you of course, but admittedly also so that I would never misplace it again.


Fruit & Nut Pancakes
Author: 
Serves: Eight 5″ pancakes – 4 servings
 
Ingredients
  • 1 cup whole-wheat flour
  • ½ cup rolled oats
  • ¼ cup sliced almonds, crushed walnuts or crushed pecans
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp cinnamon
  • 2 medium bananas
  • 1 cup nonfat or almond milk (more if you prefer a thinner batter)
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp almond extract
  • 1 cup mixed berries (frozen or fresh)
  • Vegetable oil cooking spray
Instructions
  1. In a bowl, combine first 5 ingredients. Mash bananas in another bowl and mix with milk, egg and almond extract. Pour liquid ingredients into dry ingredients; stir until smooth. Add berries.
  2. Warm a skillet over medium heat; coat with cooking spray. Measure 1⁄4 cup batter; pour onto skillet. Spread the batter out thinly to assure that they cook through. Cook until golden brown, 2 to 3 minutes per side. Repeat until batter is gone.
Nutrition Information
Serving size: 2 pancakes Calories: 330 Fat: 8g Saturated fat: 1g Carbohydrates: 57g Fiber: 8g Protein: 11g
3.2.2708

I like to top my pancakes with a dollop of Greek yogurt, a light drizzle of real maple syrup and a few fresh berries.  Delicious and guilt free. Seems like the perfect balance to me!