Eating Clean - Blueberry Banana Spinach Pancakes

Happy Sunday (Brunch Day), Kittens!

For a while now, I've been collecting some really fabulous Brunch recipes.  While there are many wonderful things about living alone, one of the drawbacks is pancakes.  Pretty much any recipe will leave you with 10 or 15 pancakes (and I'm certainly not about to cut the recipe in half and go to a bunch of trouble for 5 pancakes), so I've been trying to host more Brunches at  home so that I can try some of the recipes that I've found and have help eating the yield.

A few weeks ago, I planned a morning of yoga and Brunch for my friend Bridget and myself.  And it was fabulous!  After a lot of stretching and sweating and cursing and somewhat inappropriate groaning (we were working places we didn't even know we had), our relaxed, euphoric selves popped a bottle of bubbly and started making the green pancakes that I've been eyeing for a while.

Fascinated by the idea of a green pancake?  You should be!  I start most days with green smoothies, so I know that the mild flavor of spinach can easily be masked by other ingredients.  I almost thought about this pancake recipe as a green smoothie in fluffy, solid form and was intrigued!  These little babies were so good and I wanted to share the recipe that I found at FitSugar with you.  I deviated from the original recipe slightly (the next time I make them, I'll probably even add more blueberries) and decided to pass on the banana cream sauce from the original recipe as I'm more of a maple syrup kinda girl myself, but if you decide to try these tasty little beauties, do whatever feels right to you.

INGREDIENTS:
-1 cup organic raw baby spinach, tightly packed
-1/2 cup organic blueberries
-1 large (very ripe) banana
-1 cup vanilla almond milk
-1 tablespoon pure maple syrup (I might have used a bit more if I'm being honest)
-1 egg
-1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
-2 teaspoons baking powder
-1/2 teaspoon salt
-1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

(I've been eating as clean as possible and incorporate a lot of organic foods for a while now.  While you can make the choice to go that route or not for yourself, the only non-organic ingredients I used in the pancakes were the banana, baking powder, and salt.)

1.  Put the spinach, banana, blueberries, almond milk, and syrup in a blender and puree.

2.  Pour the mixture into a medium bowl and stir in the egg.
3.  In a small bowl, combine the dry ingredients and add to the wet mixture a little bit at a time.  (Or you can be a rebel and simply mix in the dry ingredients without combining them beforehand!)

4.  Place a skillet over medium heat and spray lightly with cooking spray.
5.  Drop 1/4 cup full of batter per pancake onto the skillet and cook as you would a normal pancake (until it starts to bubble and then flip).

 6.  Makes approximately 12 pancakes.

We had a fabulous Brunch with coffee, beautiful mimosas, cheesy scrambled eggs, our fantastic green pancakes, and some fruit!

The pancakes taste a lot like banana bread, so if that sounds appealing, perhaps these super healthy little green babies are for you!  I'm pretty sure that you won't have as fabulous a pancake helper as I did, but you know, Bridget can't come to EVERYONE'S Brunch.  So, you're going to have to find your own helpful friends.

If you're looking for a new pancake to try, you may want to consider this one.  I highly recommend having these with a few mimosas after some really amazing yoga.  It's a fabulous way to spend a Sunday morning!

Namaste, Kittens!
XOXO!!