Happy and Healthy at Home: Can You Have Delicious Fluffy Pancakes that are Healthy Too?

Delicious, Fluffy Pancakes that are healthy too? YES PLEASE!!

...And, yes, they can easily be gluten and sugar free.

Main Ingredients...Oats and Plain Greek Yogurt!

These are weird Sunday mornings, aren't they? If you're like us, and normally used to heading out the door to church with the family on Sunday mornings, mixing up home-made pancakes is not usually on the radar for a busy morning!

However, with our 'new normal' for the present including pulling up our Virtual Church Service (Visit Our Church Website Here!) and sitting on the couch with our Bibles instead, I am trying to find ways to help Sundays still feel special for my kids. Gotta find ways to make-up for the lack of socialization with friends whom they are missing!

Since we are ALL home ALL of the time...I am looking for any little ways to make 'being home' still a special and fun place to be. It is challenging, isn't it? But, I still LOVE home! I love my peeps that call this home, so I am determined to keep looking for ideas to keep it special!

One way to make my family feel 'special and different' can be in mixing up the menu a bit. But...that doesn't have to mean eating tons of junk food as a 'treat.' (News Flash--all those 'treats' are NOT usually a treat for us as parents or for their bodies when they have the emotional / physical crash of repercussions that follow...especially those little people!)

So, while I am VERY ready to have our busy Sunday mornings back--we miss our FBC Family!!--why not plan to have some pancakes on Sunday morning? Special and Different for us! (Plus Dad doesn't have to leave so early for church sermon and building prep, so he gets to sit down and eat with us too! Fun!)

Here is the recipe and a few photos. Enjoy! And, please come back to share if you made this recipe! ...a picture and a few tips of how yours turned out and any addition / substitution you tried! (very easy to make gluten-free and sugar-free) I cannot take credit for the recipe, but I have used it for quite a while, so I am not sure where I got it from! I have just tweaked it to make it my own.

Healthy, Fluffy Delicious Pancake Recipe...

Ingredients:
**Note: This recipe does not have a super large yield--enough for our family of 5 to have 2 pancakes each. So if your family is wishing to wolf-down large amounts, you may want to up by a half recipe or double.
1 Cup of Oat Flour
1/4 Cup Organic All-purpose Flour
(You can make any flour substitution, I just like the addition of the 1/4 c. for gluten structure, fluffier!)
1 Tsp. Baking Powder
1/2 Tsp. Baking Soda
1/2 Tsp. Salt
1 Tsp. Cinnamon
3 Tbsp. Raw Organic Cane Sugar (Use any granulated sugar substitute)
1 Cup Plain Greek Yogurt (My FAVORITE brand for consistency pictured below!)
1 Tsp. Pure Vanilla Extract
2 Eggs (Lightly Beaten)
2 Tbsp. Milk of Choice (I use Organic Grassfed Whole Milk)

Instructions:
- In a large bowl, mix together, greek yogurt, beaten eggs and vanilla. Whisk till smooth
- In blender, pulse oats till they turn to flour.
- In a small bowl, combine oat flour, all-purpose flour (or your substitution), raw cane sugar (or your substitute), baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Whisk till fully combined.
- *Add milk 1 Tbsp. at a time till you like the consistency.
- Heat your griddle and skillet, when hot, coat the surface with butter (or coconut oil)
- Dollop batter on and spread slightly Let cook 3-4 minutes on first side (or till golden)
- Flip and do 2-3 minutes on the other side (or till golden)
- Serve while warm and top with Pure Organic Maple Syrup...and Fresh fruit if desired!

Tips:
*You probably could just do all oat flour, but I feel like that small addition of all-purpose adds a gluten structure so you get more a rise = fluffier pancakes.)
*You can easily substitute any granulated sweetener option you prefer that is measured as sugar.
*See my photo below for the consistency I look for, and remember different flour substitutions will change your consistency. Some flours are more dense and may require more milk to be added. But, also remember that the more liquid you add, the heavier your batter will be and the smaller the rise. So, I recommend using less dense flour options for this recipe.
*Coconut oil would be a lighter option to grease your griddle or skillet, but I use butter, because...BUTTER!
*Are there other weird people out there (like *someone* in my home) who like peanut butter on their pancakes? Eeeww! Not me!
*There are a LOT of healthy pancake recipes out there, believe me, I have tried most of them! I do like one other applesauce pancake recipe, maybe I will share another time. But, hands down, this one is my FAVE. It's so fluffy and delicious every time! Enjoy your pancake mornings...or mix it up...Pancakes with fresh fruit for supper. Fun!

My favorite Greek Yogurt brand, the consistency is perfection...