Happy Pancake Day! Clean, Low GI Recipe

Ohhhh pancakes.

After discussing my deep and complicated love/not so love affair with bread in the last post, along comes pancake day. Flour, flour everywhere… We just cannot get away from the white stuff. This has all appeared just a bit too quickly while I’m still shifting the final remains of the Christmas waistline (yesIknowit’sMarch), and oh… what’s that mischievous little fella I see around the corner? Hi there, Easter.

AHHHH GADDDD.

No holiday is really ever a healthy holiday – which is a whole load of fun for us type 1s – but as holidays go, this one is up there among the rest as pretty big on the glutton front. I remember being a kid at school and the boys running into the playground the day after pancake day to boast about how many they’d managed to wolf down before they were forced to surrender on account of either Mum splattering herself with hot batter and halting all pancake proceedings, or else a younger sibling being sick on the kitchen table having overdone it on the Nutella front trying to keep up with said older and greedier bro – it was a challenge not to be taken lightly. And in a household with two brothers, I got in my Being Greedy practice from an early age; something I’ve honed and perfected over the years. Muhaha.

But given my much healthier outlook these days which, for the most part, avoids white flour (again, see previous post about the power your humble loaf rather tragically holds over me), traditional pancakes are not the best option for those trying to keep the waistline in check. And the blood sugars come to that – this is a pretty intense fast-acting carbs situation we’re dealing with. But FEAR NOT!! Since taking a sharp deviation into eating clean and concerning myself with fuelling my masquerading-as-an-athlete bod (long gone) with foods that are satisfying, nutrient dense, but untampered with; these gluten-free, low-GI, completely natural and thus wholly heavenly pancakes have become one of my greatest ‘indulgences’ after a long weekend bike ride where I come back ravenous to the point I’m ready to eat the entire contents of not only my cupboard, but all of my housemates’ cupboards in one sitting. These bad boys are thick, gloopy, warming, filling and just sweet enough. Oh, and they’re unlikely to make your tummy angry. Bonus. I’ve added extra protein for the post-exercise muscle repair, but this can be eliminated completely if you’re not fussed. The oats give it bulk, but again you can play with the quantities if you fancy a lower-carb batter (but then the protein becomes more of a necessity). I’d also bet a few dollops of Nutella that you won’t be able to eat as many as your normal flour-egg-milk-sugar coma-inducing equivalent.

The below creation is the result of wanting to play with my new blender (errmmm… since when was I someone who spent monies on kitchen appliances please?), spending too much time on Instagram looking at dribble-inducing pictures of food, and the dangerous combination of a being both a little over-excited and exceptionally hungry one Sunday morning. Enjoy!

Super Duper Heavenly Pancakes

(Serves one hungry greedy missus)

PANCAKES

35g oats

1 egg

1 banana

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 scoop vanilla protein powder (I use Sunwarrior raw vegan vanilla)

100ml almond milk (or normal milk)

1 tsp plain non-fat yoghurt

Superfood fans – add 1 tsp maca and 1 tsp cacao nibs for an extra leap-out-of-bed-kinda-kick (optional)

TOPPING

You can go for your life on toppings front with whatever you fancy, but this is my fave:

25g frozen berries

2tsp plain non-fat yoghurt

almond flakes

So…

Whizz the pancake ingredients together in a blender.

Heat some spray oil or coconut oil in a pan and get it good and hot. Turn the pan down to medium.

Pour in a dollop of the batter and cook until the sides turn golden brown. Flip and cook the other side.

Repeat…

Repeat…

Repeat. Make yourself a gleaming stack of heavenly pancake goodness.

Blitz the berries in the microwave for 30 seconds until they’re hot and gooey.

Chuck onto the pancake stack.

Spoon over a little more yoghurt, and sprinkle with the almond flakes.

PUT YOUR FACE IN IT.