Getting rid of the Monday's

Pancakes are a tradition in our house, on the weekends.  Pancakes pretty much guarantee that all four of us will be around the table at the same time, sharing a meal.  Joe works in the evenings and I'm running around like a crazy person, trying to keep all the plates spinning, so Saturdays and Sundays are pretty important when it comes to family time, particularly meal time.  We did our traditional pancakes together on Saturday and I guess they really stuck with the kids this time, because Charlie asked me for pancakes first thing this morning.  They're easy to throw together and I thought "why not?".  I'm out of eggs and as I started thinking about it, I kind of wanted to avoid another heavy breakfast for them.  It's really a once a week kind of thing.  Yeah, I'm annoying.  And then I was starting to get things together and I thought I'd go crazy and take out all of the dairy products.  Replace the butter with coconut oil and the milk with soy milk.  Now it's healthier AND it's something I can share with niece, who has to eat completely diary free.

I have to say, after making all these changes...these pancakes tasted EXACTLY THE SAME as any other pancake.  Looked the same.  They're the same.  Crazy.

Here's a big tip I've discovered along the way of vegan baking.  Letting your batter for cakes or breads or pancakes, rest for 5 to 10 minutes, after you've mixed the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, will help everything bind together...which is the point of eggs in most baking recipes.  When I first mixed this batter together it was incredibly runny.  After sitting for 5 minutes, it was thick like batter should be. 

Ok, I didn't eat or serve this many pancakes at one time.  That would be ridiculous.  Well, it would be ridiculous for me to SAY I would eat this many pancakes at once.  What I say and what I do, on rare occasion, don't match.  All of that is to say, I would eat 5 pancakes in no time flat.  But here's what's nice about these pancakes - you're cutting out eggs, butter, and milk.  That's a lot of fat you're cutting out.  I did the math and these pancakes are 107 calories a piece.  Add a teaspoon of honey (I hate maple syrup, by the way.  The smell, the taste, all of it.  But you can use it if you're brave), some strawberries and blueberries and it's about the same as a bowl of granola and yogurt.  You could make a big batch, freeze what you don't eat, pop them in the toaster on the morning you wanted one, and boom - you gots pancakes.  It's a nice shake up in your breakfast routine.  

I'm making such a big deal out of the easiest thing in the world to cook.  But it's nice to have a healthy, tasty spin option.

Egg Free, Dairy Free, So Good Pancakes

- 1 cup unbleached all purpose flour

- 1 tsp cinnamon

- 2 tsp baking soda

- 1 cup soy milk

- 1 tsp honey

- 1 tblsp vegetable oil

- 1 tblsp water

- 1 tsp vanilla extract

- 2 tblsp coconut oil

Combine all dry ingredients together and mix slightly.  Add milk, oil, water, and vanilla.  Stir together until just combined, being careful not to over mix (over mixing makes your pancakes flat-so).  It's ok if it's lumpy - it should be!  Set the bowl aside to rest for a few minutes.

Melt the coconut oil on a skillet over medium heat.  Once melted, pour the oil into the batter and stir into batter.  Return the pan to the heat.  Once pan is good and hot, pour about 1/4 cup of batter onto pan and let it cook until bubbles start to form on the surface.  Carefully flip onto other side and let cook until both sides are golden brown and cooked through. 

Add fruit, nuts, or chocolate chips to the batter if you like.  Or split your flours in half, using 1/2 cup white flour, 1/2 cup wheat flour, and have whole wheat pancakes!

Get rid of them Monday's!