Recipe #14: Banana Pancakes

Banana Pancakes - before & after

Sometimes, a girl's just gotta have pancakes with lots of syrup!  There are some awesome low carb pancake recipes out there.  This is my version.  I wrote it for my friend who gave me a giant bunch of bananas left over from fresh fruit Friday at school.  :-)  

The addition of ground flaxseed gives these pancakes an omega-3 fatty acid punch which has a myriad of health benefits.  And if you use omega-3 enriched eggs, even better!  Unlike omega-6 fatty acids, which are so easy to come by in the typical American diet, omega-3s are sometimes neglected, especially if one does not like seafood or cannot eat walnuts.  These fatty acids are termed 'essential' because our bodies cannot manufacture them; they must be absorbed from our diet.  Omega-3s reduce inflammation, benefit heart health as well as joint health, and even contribute to proper blood clotting and brain function.  http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/omega-3/  So, eat up!

2 frozen bananas, defrosted
3 jumbo eggs or 4 large eggs
2 tbsp ground flaxseed
dash of cinnamon

Squeeze out the banana from its skin into a large bowl, being careful to get the 'tail' out, which is hard & unappetizing.  :-P  The bananas are so mushy at this point that you don't have to do any work of mashing them.  They slip right out of the skin, and you only have to use your whisk to break them up while mixing in all the remaining ingredients.  It's that easy.  Cook the batter as you would normal pancakes.  I use a cast iron skillet with olive oil. Instead of forming bubbles when the pancakes are ready to flip, this pancake will get slightly dry and browned at the edges.  Makes ~8 pancakes.  Enjoy with your favorite low carb syrup or with a dusting of xylitol powder.  I like to use a touch of agave nectar.

Inspiration recipe: http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/originals/06/20/ec/0620ec30a89e904eae2ce55ac080ab25.jpg

Recipe #13: Cranberry Cherry Almond Muffins

Cranberry Cherry Almond Muffins - before & after

It's been a while since my last posting.  In the interim, we went through an unrelated cancer surgery & treatment with my mom and a series of shoulder surgeries & treatments for my husband...three deaths in the family, one of which was related to diabetes.  Then a friend's news of health challenges.  All this together woke me up again.  Or rather, it all restoked the fire of looking after my own health.

I'll get back on the wagon with this recipe for cranberry cherry almond muffins.  Cranberries are well known anecdotally to benefit your bladder & kidneys.  Additionally, they have a two-fold benefit in fighting cancer.  Cranberries have been shown to decrease DNA damage to start with, which is the defect that can lead to the formation of cancer cells of all types.  Then once cancer is started, substances in cranberries can help decrease cancer proliferation while supporting healthy cell function.  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nalini-chilkov/cranberries-health_b_2308526.html   Cherries similarly fight cancer cell proliferation while decreasing inflammation and supporting healthy cell function.  http://www.aicr.org/foods-that-fight-cancer/tab-content/cherries-research.html

Readers of my blog may notice that this recipe includes coconut sugar rather than an artificial sweetener.  I've been personally moving away from artificial non-caloric sweeteners and trying out natural alternatives that are either no calorie or low glycemic.  You could very easily, though, sub in Splenda for the coconut sugar and reduce the stevia & monkfruit packets to 3 each.

Don't have cranberries or cherries?  Toss in a cup of frozen blueberries!   These tiny, brightly colored fruits are now famous for their many health benefits.  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23387969

Dry:

2   cups almond flour

¼ cup ground flaxseed

1/3 cup coconut sugar

4 packets monkfruit

4 packets stevia

2 tsp baking powder

Wet:

1/3  cup water

1/4 cup dried chopped cranberries reconstituted in the water

2/3 cup chopped frozen cherries

3 jumbo eggs or 4 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp almond extract

1 stick salted butter melted and cooled slightly

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Line 1-12 muffin pan with paper liners or grease an 8"x8" square pan with butter. 

In a large bowl, mix the dry ingredients.  Use a spoon to pulverize any baking powder clumps.  Add the wet ingredients save for the butter.  Mix until combined.  Then drizzle the melted butter into the batter while stirring to prevent the hot butter from cooking the raw eggs.

Pour batter into the muffin tin/pan.  Bake for 16 minutes until golden brown and an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 15-20 minutes.  Have them as is or serve with more butter or Melt organic buttery spread if you like!  :-D