Banana-Raspberry Pancakes

Pancakes are a weekly ritual around here. J is the pancake master, and over the years he has perfected his own recipe. Recently we started adding bananas, and they are amazing. With the banana and wholewheat flour, they’re also really filling, which isn’t the case for most carb-loaded breakfasts. I asked him for the recipe to share with you and was amazed to find out they have no sugar in them. Of course J and I douse them in (REAL! ALWAYS!) maple syrup, but P often eats them plain. They’re also one of the few things M will eat lots of, so I have frozen a bunch between sheets of wax paper so we can send them to daycare when she starts in 3 weeks… (AAAH!)

2 eggs
1 1/4 c milk
1/4 c yoghurt
1 1/4 c unbleached white flour
1/4 whole wheat flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
dash of salt
3/4 banana mushed up
handful of crushed frozen raspberries (optional)

Mix the wet ingredients in one bowl, then add in the dry ingredients. Grease your pan, ladle in your pancakes and flip away.

Raspberry Chocolate Smoothie

This was going to be a photo of an amazing drink I recently discovered, but by the time I got around to taking a photo – it was gone.

So these days chocolate is practically health food, right? So why not have it for breakfast? I couldn’t believe adding cocoa to a smoothie hadn’t occurred to me before, but here’s how I made it.

1 c plain yoghurt (not French vanilla!)
1/2 c frozen or fresh raspberries
1 heaping tbsp of unsweetened cocoa
optional – add some coconut milk to water it down

Blend. (I used my Braun handheld). Sweeten if desired. The raspberries are probably sweet enough, but I threw in a bit of Agave nectar because, well, I have a huge container of it I’m trying to get through and I like the way it mixes into drinks. I know there is controversy about whether agave nectar is any better than refined sugar, but I like the consistency. A touch of maple syrup would work nicely too.