Oatmeal Pancakes For One (No picture)

Who doesn't love pancakes? Especially ones made by your grandmother on her seasoned cast iron skillet. Yum. My favorite part about spending a Saturday night at my grandmother's house was always waking up Sunday morning to a hot pancake breakfast. I haven't had those pancakes in years and she has just recently passed away, but those pancakes will always be a cherished memory.

The problem with pancakes however, is they are high in calories and leave me hungry within hours. Talk about not getting a bang for your buck. So what is a girl to do? Create a pancake of sorts that is healthier and filling while still satisfying her maple syrup soaked plate craving. I mean, if the pancake itself is healthy I get to put extra syrup on top, right?

Around 95% of the time my breakfast is a bowl of cold oatmeal and grape nuts infused with banana. It's delicious and gives me energy after my workouts. But sometimes I want something a little different. About six months ago I went through a phase of trying to put oatmeal in everything. I made savory oats, oat flour bread crumbs, healthy oat flour banana muffins.... You see my love for oatmeal is brand new. It had been absent from my life until I decided to give it another go about a year ago. And oh boy am I happy I did. I love the stuff. As it turns out, I just didn't like the prepackaged, already flavored crap in the boxes they sell at the store that didn't tickle my fancy. I also prefer mine oats thick and cold but this is turning into a rant for a whole other post....


Back to putting oatmeal into everything. I thought to myself, if I can use oatmeal to make muffins, why couldn't I use oatmeal to make pancakes?

Alas, the oatmeal pancake was born!

Google was my first stop and I saw a lot of recipes for "oatmeal pancakes", all of which contained quite a bit of flour (what is wheat doing in an oatmeal pancake, right Alton?). So I set out to see if it was because you just need wheat in order for pancakes to work. I started, of course, using no flour and contemplated grinding oats into oat flour but my favorite characteristic of oatmeal is its texture so I forged ahead with the thick cut oats.

A little trial and error later, I am pretty satisfied with my results. Not only does this recipe leave me full, it's healthy, flavorful, and contains no wheat. And while they might not be my grandmother's pancakes, pouring the syrup on top of my stack still gives me that nostalgic feeling of eating breakfast with my grandma on Sunday mornings.

This recipe makes two pancakes but can simply be doubled, tripled, etc. to fit your needs. They are also Mark AND kid approved. I gave the recipe to Mark's sister and her kids loved them. I stand by my opinion that it's really is all about pouring on the syrup :).

Oatmeal Pancakes For One


Serves 1...duh


Ingredients:


1/2 cup oats (I use thick cut, but any would work)

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon cinnamon optional

1 egg (can sub flax egg, the texture will just be different)

1/4 cup milk or water

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (also good with almond)

Directions:


Spray a skillet lightly with cooking spray and heat on stove over medium heat.

While the skillet is warming combine oats, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon in a bowl.

Add egg, milk, and vanilla. Beat/whisk until well incorporated.

Spoon 1/4 cup of the batter onto skillet and cook for 3-4 minutes.

Flip and cook for another 3-4 minutes.

Repeat with the rest of the batter.

Serve hot with toppings of choice.

Notes:


**Can be made vegan or vegetarian by subbing the egg and using non dairy milk or water.