Pancakes for the weekend

I love my morning bowl of oats topped with banana and a bit of granola, but on weekends I want a more indulgent breakfast. My problem is that said indulgent breakfasts generally make me feel ill. Later in the day I can eat sweets and rich foods happily for hours on end, but not for breakfast. So I’ve invented oatmeal pancakes that, topped with banana and granola, are nearly identical ingredient-wise to my usual oatmeal breakfast. But they look different! And they taste good too.

Breakfast in the morning sun

Oatmeal pancakes

These pancakes aren’t very sweet since banana is the only sweetener. If you can handle sweet things in the morning, add a few teaspoons of sugar or syrup of your choice to the batter.

Serves 2

2/3 c rolled oats

1 ripe banana

1 large egg

1tsp vanilla essence

¾ tsp baking soda

¼ tsp cinnamon

Pinch salt

Butter or cooking spray

In a food processor, grind the oatmeal down for a few minutes. It doesn’t have to get as fine as flour, just break down the flakes a bit. Add the remaining ingredients, except the butter or cooking spray, and blend in the food processor for a minute or two until smooth and creamy.

Place a pan over medium heat and allow to heat thoroughly. Once hot, melt a little butter in the pan, or spray with cooking spray, and spoon pancake batter into the pan. I make six smallish pancakes out of the batter in three batches, since the small ones are easier to flip and my pan is quite small. You can of course make however many you like, of whatever size. It all depends on how good you are at flipping, and how big your pan is.

Let the pancakes cook on one side with a lid covering the pan until the edges are nicely set, then flip over and cook uncovered till they feel springy and are cooked through.

I eat the pancakes with sliced banana, a bit of golden syrup, and a sprinkling of homemade granola.