Whole-Wheat Banana Pancakes

When my family first started our clean eating diet, it was a big adjustment.  We tried our best to take baby steps, but there were a lot of foods that were staples in our diets that were highly processed. A big part of our success was finding alternatives to these staples that we enjoyed just as much. I found that the best way to make sure that what we were eating was unprocessed was to make foods from scratch in my own kitchen.

Now, my kids LOVED Eggo waffles and pancakes.  They ate them every morning for breakfast.  Did you know that, in addition to preservatives,  Eggo waffles have Yellow food dye in them? I can’t understand why a waffle would need food coloring. So I went to 100 Days of Real Food for help. I found a bunch of breakfast alternatives but our favorite quickly became whole-wheat banana pancakes.  

These pancakes are made with all natural ingredients like whole-wheat flour, and fresh bananas.  And unlike other made-from-scratch pancake recipes, they contain much less butter and don’t call for any refined white sugar (instead, honey is used).  

When topping these pancakes, be sure to use real maple syrup. And don’t trust what the label tells you! if you check the list of ingredients, it should list only one ingredient: 100% pure maple syrup.  Otherwise you are likely to be covering your pancakes in high fructose corn syrup!

Whole Wheat Banana Pancakes

2 cups whole-wheat flour (I use King Arthur brand, which can be found in the baking aisle)

2 tsp baking powder

1 ½  tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

2 tbsp butter, melted

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 ¾ cups milk

1 tbsp honey

2 ripe bananas (the browner the better!), mashed

maple syrup

In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  Set aside.  In a separate bowl, combine the butter, eggs, milk and honey.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until just combined (a few lumps are ok). Stir in the mashed bananas.  Butter a griddle or saute pan.  Add the batter using a ladle.  Once the pancakes start to bubble around the edges, flip and cook on the other side.  Serve with 100% pure maple syrup.  

These pancakes are also delicious with peanut butter! I make a big batch on Saturday and keep the leftovers in the fridge for the rest of the week.  We just pop one in the toaster and it’s ready!