Sweet Potato Pancakes

Life. is. so. crazy.

Eat pancakes, for dinner.

With chocolate chunks.

And coconut butter.

And then get back to your crazy life.

Why is life crazy? Oh, let me count the ways…

I had 7 days, yes 7, off between grad school semesters. And I still had to work, all-day, every day.

Then my (rented) house went on the market, and in the midst of starting up with classes again (3 more credits than past semesters – what.am.i.thinking?) I have to temporarily relocate every few hours, every day.

Including today (I took a “vacation” day to get things done around the house which is now a bust since I can’t).

So I relocated, to the beach… (to read my neuro text, of course.)

And then to the gym.

And then made these before forced to relocate again.

Sweet Potato Pancakes (vegan)

Ingredients:

1/2 c coconut flour

1/2 c unbleached ap flour

1 scoop vanilla protein powder (optional—I used a sample of a vegan protein)

2 T turbinado sugar (this is a raw sugar—you can use brown sugar if you wish)

1/2 t baking powder

1/4 t baking soda

1 1/2 t cinnamon (or pumpkin pie spice if you wish)

1 1/2 c almond coconut milk (I accidentally bought sweetened, if yours is unsweetened you may want to increase sugar by a tablespoon or 2)

1 heaping cup of shredded sweet potato (I shredded mine in the food processor, did you know you could do that? I didn’t. No more hand grating for me!)

oil for pan

coconut butter, for topping (optional—but really not)

vegan chocolate chunks, for topping

maple syrup, for topping

Instructions:

Mix all listed ingredients through the almond milk, create “well” and add sweet potato. Mix thoroughly but don’t over mix (I don’t know why but that’s what the pancake pros say). Batter will be thick. Add additional almond milk by the tablespoon if you prefer working with a thinner batter but it’s not necessary.

Heat oil in your skillet (or whatever you use to cook pancakes) to med-high.

Drop batter by 1/4 c onto heated surface. You may want to use the back of your spoon to flatten a bit as the batter is thick and doesn’t spread on the pan. Cook pancakes until done, not sticking to pan and can be flipped. I usually “eyeball” the doneness of my pancakes but usually a few minutes on each side.

Top with a drizzle of coconut butter, sprinkle of dark chocolate chunks and syrup.

Serves 4.

Bittman’s Spiced Coconut Pancakes

What came to mind when I woke up this morning and there was snow on the ground (and still falling from the sky)?! Get me somewhere warm. Now. 

Well, it’s no surprise that that wasn’t going to happen. Not anytime soon anyway. Next best thing? Bringing a little taste of the tropics to me. Specifically in my kitchen.

Mark Bittman’s Spiced Coconut Pancakes with Tropical Fruit Bananas

adapted from Bon Appetit, January 2011

Ingredients:

• 2.5 C WW Flour
• 1 C unsweetened shredded coconut
• 2 t. baking powder
• 3/4 t. ground nutmeg
• 3/4 t. ground allspice
• 1/4 t. baking soda
• 1 can light unsweetened coconut milk
• 2 T pure Maple Syrup
• 1 T vanilla extract
• oil for cooking
• additional maple syrup for topping
• banana for topping, quartered and sliced
• additional unsweetened shredded coconut for topping

Whisk dry ingredients together in one bowl. In another, whisk together the wet ingredients. Add wet mixture to dry mixture and whisk together until a pourable batter forms.

Heat griddle or skilled over medium heat, brush with oil (I used Canola). Add butter by 1/4 cupful. Cook until small bubbles appear on pancake surface then flip. Heat an addition 2-3 minutes until golden brown.

Top with bananas, coconut and maple syrup.

*Recipe yields about 20 pancakes, I halved it and it worked just fine. Also, Bittman suggests heating oven to 250 degrees and putting cooked pancakes in on a baking sheet to keep them warm, I did this but you can keep them warm anyway you wish.

These were absolutely divine. They were incredibly soft and fluffy and the shredded coconut inside gave them great texture. The original recipe calls for a medley topping of banana, pineapple and mango but I forgot to buy the latter ingredients and honestly, I can’t say I missed them.

I can already tell that there will be many more days I’ll be starting with these babies!

I'm submitting this recipe to Tackling Bittman Recipe Hop Volume 3! hosted by girlichef.

Weekend Wonderful

Last weekend mom made these Mickey Mouse shaped pancakes. Cute, huh? I slathered them up with boysenberry jam and chowed down (ears first of course)!

Keeping with the Saturday morning pancake idea, I whipped up some pancakes yesterday morning.

 

So mine weren’t shaped like Mickey Mouse, but they were yummy. I covered them in a thin layer of raw crunchy almond butter, yum!

These were made with yogurt and came out really light and fluffy!

 

Whole Wheat Yogurt Pancakes

• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour (or whole wheat pastry flour)
• 1/3 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk 
• 1 egg  (or 1/4 cup egg substitute as I used)
• 6 oz. 0% fat Greek yogurt
• 1 tsp splenda granulated
• 1 tsp canola oil
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/8 tsp baking soda
• 1/8 tsp regular salt

Beat egg, add all other ingredients, stir until just combined. Cook 1/4 cup batter servings on a medium hot griddle.

Don’t those look so yummy? What’s in my cup?

Starbucks Summer Blend

 

Puppy napped, per usual, until I woke him up for a walk at the beach. Luckily puppy likes to take walks even more than he likes to nap.

 

 

 

  What a beautiful day!

 

 

In my cup today, Starbucks Mexico Champas. A great start to Sunday. Now I must get ready for a party and then back to prepare for the work week, my vacation’s over :(.