pancakes

I’m an eggy gal. There’s no denying that. Bagel sandwiches, omelets, and scrambled eggs fill my plate Monday-Friday. Eating eggs at breakfast is one of the only things that keeps me full and my stomach quiet until lunch time rolls around. However, once the weekend rolls around, I love pancakes. Not that Bisquick crap, but big, fluffy, homemade wheat pancakes that sit in my stomach for hours and sing happy songs.

So today, as it snows another foot or two, I decided it was a banana pancake day.

Sometimes pancakes made with wheat flour can have a grainy, chewy texture that bugs people. I took a chance by combining a few different recipes that I found on the internet and luckily they turned out great! They have the appearance and taste of regular pancakes but don’t leave me hungry 30 minutes later. So enjoy your Saturday and think about making these when you wake up tomorrow. Pancakes are God’s way of reminding you that it’s the weekend, and time to take a breath and relax.

Whole Wheat Banana Pancakes

Ingredients

1 cup buttermilk (or 1 cup milk mix with 1 tbsp white wine vinegar or lemon juice)
1 cup whole wheat flour
2-3 ripe bananas, smashed
2 tsp stevia or sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp cinnamon
2 tbsp flax seeds (optional)
2 tbsp chia seeds (optional)
1 egg
2 tbsp melted butter

Steps

In a big bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and cinnamon. Set aside.
In another bowl, whisk together the egg, melted butter, and milk.
Whisk the wet ingredients into the dry ones until just combined. Stir in the bananas until distributed throughout. If you stir too much the pancakes will probably get tough so stop stirring once it all looks combined. Lumps are okay!
Preheat a skillet to medium heat, using Pam or butter to grease it. Once it’s hot, use a big serving spoon and pour the batter in circles on your skillet. Don’t touch until you see bubbles starting to pop–at that point it’s the perfect time to turn them over.
Keep cooking until they look toasty brown on both sides.
Serve with real maple syrup. Every time you use that high-fructose corn syrup junk a small business owner dies.
Enjoy 🙂

Question:

Do you change up your normal breakfast on the weekends?

Saturday was full of birthday shenanigans (the best kind of shenanigans, of course).

Before I went downtown to spend the day with Megan, I hit up my regular 8am spin class and came home to these beauties.

Cherry walnut pancakes a la Dad. We have so many sweet cherries from the farmer’s market so my dad decided to whip these up for breakfast. I ate pancakes on the back porch with my parents and it all made for a beautiful morning.

After some typical Chicago traffic I was in the Lakeview neighborhood and ready to enjoy the day. The weather was perfect, breezy and mid 80s, so Megan and I decided to walk to a coffee shop nearby that I’d heard of.

The Coffee and Tea Exchange has been open in the East Lakeview neighborhood since 1975. They offer tons of freshly roasted coffee from all over the world, all on display in barrels that you are encouraged to observe and smell. They offer every kind of Torani syrup known to man and have daily specials including “Rose latte” along with plenty of other creative concoctions.

After a lonnnnnnnnng decision-making process, I chose salted caramel syrup (next time I’m coming for you, french toast!) I had a salted caramel iced coffee with soy milk. It tasted like a dessert!

Megan picked the rose latte, which I took a curious sip of, and it tasted exactly what you’d think a rose would taste like. It was not overpowering like I’ve found other rose-flavored desserts to be.

We took our coffee to go and walked the streets of East Lakeview. Megan and Christina just moved to the neighborhood so it’s been fun to explore with them. Our walk took us to Wrigley Field, and of course I had to snap a pic.

We grabbed some rental bikes near the lakefront afterwards and took the path from Lincoln Park all the way to Museum Campus, passing Navy Pier and North Avenue beach along the way.

The birthday girl!

Contrary to this picture, the path was packed! It took us an hour to go less than five miles and we spent most of the time dodging runners and walkers, but regardless it was still a beautiful trip along Lake Michigan. The lakefront path is my favorite place in Chicago (although I suppose it’s not really a “place”, but I don’t know if you could find a more beautiful and scenic route in any other city).

When we got back to their apartment I gave Megan her presents.

Blue Moon, cookie cake, and flowers. Such grown-up gifts. I remember when a birthday present meant a Jesse McCartney card and a new t-shirt from Aeropostale.

We were absolutely exhausted from all the walking and biking so we knew we could only order one thing for dinner:

Lou Malnati’s while watch Tosh.0. You could be having the worst day in the world and Tosh.0 will have you rolling on the floor laughing. I loveeeeee that show.

Between the deep dish pizza, cookie cake, and beer, it was a really healthy night 😉

Later we went out for a few hours to celebrate. Even though we couldn’t stop talking about how crazy it is that this year we’re all turning 23 (Megan and I have been best friends since we were 14), we agreed that we’re looking forward to the years to come, when hopefully we get things a little more “figured out” 🙂

I love these girls like sisters and while our birthday celebration was nothing like turning 21 (haha), it was a nice night out with friends.