A Pancake to Cheat On

I consider myself a reasonably healthy person but a few months ago I decided that if I was really good all week, I would allow one day per weekend to become my "cheat day."

This basically means I allow myself to eat whatever I want for one whole day and not feel guilty about it- not even a little bit.

My normal routine on weekend cheat days was to make huge sugary breakfasts with lots of chocolate chips and my favorite breakfast food ever- Waffles. But one cheat day morning something changed... 

I went to bed like I usually do, with a heart (and tummy) 100% devoted to having cheat day waffles, like it normally is. But the next morning when I woke up, I just knew that something wasn't right.

I wasn't thinking about waffles.

All I could think about was the smooth surface of the pancakes I used to try to force myself to eat during childhood sleepovers, when friends parents would often ask if I wanted pancakes with my syrup... 

That was a very confusing morning for me to say the least, but I decided to take the Pancake Epiphany and run with it.

I spent the next weekend cheat days mixing and matching pancake recipes from cooking people like Paula Dean and news sources like the New York Times and while experimenting, I quickly discovered 2 things:

1. You are never too old to rediscover something you once wrote off  
2. You haven't truly lived unless you've added a dash of cinnamon and a tiny bit of vanilla extract to your pancake batter. 

Now that I have a few batches of successfully fluffy pancakes behind me and a baking cabinet stocked with enough pancake ingredients to feed a small army of pancake loving children, I've decided to branch out into more "grown up" pancake recipes for my cheat days. I just love how this one incorporates ingredients like protein powder, garbanzo bean flour and chia seeds. And have you seen the final result? If that isn't cheat day worthy, I don't know what is. 

YOU WILL NEED:

3 tbsp garbanzo bean flour

1 scoop vegan vanilla protein powder 

1/2 tsp ginger

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp maca powder

1/8 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp sweetener of choice (stevia, coconut sugar, etc)

1 tsp chia seeds + 1 tbsp non-diary milk of choice 

this forms a chia "egg"

1/4 cup + 2 tbsp non-dairy milk of choice

1/2 tbsp blackstrap molasses

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat a skillet over medium heat, and melt a little coconut oil.

In a small bowl, combine the chia seeds and milk and let it sit for about 10 minutes to gel and form a chia 'egg'.  

In a medium mixing bowl, combine the garbanzo bean flour, protein powder, cinnamon, ginger, maca powder, baking powder and sweetener, then whisk until well combined.

In a smaller bowl, add the milk, vanilla extract, molasses and chia egg and stir with a fork, then add the liquid to the dry ingredients and whisk until combined. There may be some clumps, but the batter should be fairly smooth and pourable.

Turn the heat down to medium-low, and pour about 1/8 cup of the batter onto the pan. Let cook until bubbles form on the top, about 2 minutes, then flip and cook until both sides are nicely browned.

Repeat with the rest of the batter, stack up tall on a plate, top with all the yummy things you love!

Recipe from The Coveteur