Oatmeal Banana Pancakes

This weekend I wanted my typical oatmeal breakfast in a different form - pancake form! Maybe I was also inspired by Sunday Morning Banana Pancakes ;-) But who doesn't love banana pancakes?!

I made these healthier than your typical flapjack by halving the fat, adding whole grains and oats, and upping the potassium with banana in the batter. I also used maple agave syrup rather than regular-old syrup.

Recipe loosely adapted from Vegan Yum Yum's "Weekend Pancakes Made Easy"
For 2-3 people

Ingredients:

• 1 and 1/2 cups unsweetend vanilla almond milk
• 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 1/2cup regular all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup oats, plus additional 1/4 cup for later
• 1 Tbsp oil (optional: use 1 tsp coconut oil and 2 tsp regular canola oil)
• 1 Tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp maple extract (you can sub for vanilla extract)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 small ripe banana

Steps:

1. Place non-dairy milk in blender, followed by the rest of the ingredients.
2. Blend well; add 1-2 Tbsp of water if too thick. 
3. Heat a little Earth Balance butter or oil on a non-stick pan (I used a flat griddle pan). Add some extra oats to the batter, so that you'll have some whole oats in your pancakes. 
4. Pour sand-dollar sized circles of the batter onto the heated pan. When you see little holes bubble up, time to flip! Allow to become golden brown on each side.
5. Serve with syrup (or maple agave syrup- which, depending on the processing, can have a lower glycemic index than regular maple syrup)
6. Optional: slice another banana and toss in a little pancake batter. Place on the griddle and brown each side. Now you have little banana-cake-lettes to serve with your pancakes!

Notes:
These came out a little dense, but in a yummy way: they were just like my bowls of oatmeal, packed with melty banana flavor and melt-in-your mouth oats. Deeeee-lish! If you want a fluffier pancake, you can omit the banana from the batter - but you will probably need to add in the other Tbsp of oil that I left out.

Enjoy!!