Banana Buckwheat Flax Pancakes with Pecans

Yes, pancakes.  These fall more into the fruit and whole grains for breakfast category than veggies for dinner, but people have been asking about breakfast, especially for kids, and this puts a pretty good spin on the old classic.  Pancakes are typically problematic with the refined white flour, dairy, eggs, sugar, and additives and preservatives.  This version is pure whole, lightly refined, plant food, and they are delicious!

Banana Buckwheat Flax Pancakes cooked with Pecans and topped with Blueberries

Serves: 6
Prep Time: 10 min
Cook Time: 20 min

Ingredients:

2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup buckwheat flour 
1 cup freshly ground flax seed
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3 cups nut/soy/seed milk (we use homemade hemp milk, or whatever we have on-hand)
1 cup applesauce
2 mashed bananas 
1/4 cup water (adjust to achieve a good batter consistency)

Optional:

Pecans or walnuts to cook into the pancaked
Frozen blueberries, raspberries, diced apples, sliced bananas, or any other fruit for toppings

Instructions:

Combine the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl and mix.  Mash 2 bananas really well with a fork until they become soft like the applesauce.  Add the mashed banana and other wet ingredients on top of the dry ingredients and whisk to mix thoroughly.  

Preheat a large pan or skillet on the stove.  Lightly coat the pan with a spritz/spray oil to avoid sticking.  Ladle the batter into the pan to make whatever size and shape pancakes you like.  Add nuts and another dash of cinnamon if you like. Once they start to cook around the edges and bubble in the middle, flip them over and finish cooking on the other side.  

Server warm topped with warmed frozen or fresh fruit.  I like to heat frozen berries until they get soft and juicy like a fruity syrup, or dice fresh apples and bananas to put on top.  Now you have a delicious and healthy breakfast that will fuel you up and start your day off right!

The dry ingredients.  Clockwise whole wheat flour, buckwheat flour, ground flax seed, baking powder, cinnamon, and baking soda.

The wet ingredients.  Nut/soy/seed mild, mashed bananas, applesauce, and water.

A pancake that's ready to be flipped

Ready to go, eat it up!

A quick and easy lunch

We have been posting some complex recipes recently.   While they are totally delicious and worth the effort, especially when entertaining around the holidays, they can't really be thrown together without doing some up-front planning, specialty shopping, and taking the time to prepare the dishes.  To switch things up a bit, I want to share with you what I had for lunch today.

A sunshine burger sandwich, with a side salad, baby carrots, and black beans

While there isn't a specific recipe, I will explain what it all is, and how I brought it all together into a quick, nutritious and very satisfying lunch.

Everything I pulled out of the fridge, freezer, and pantry

Serves: 1

Prep time: 11 minutes (I timed myself, without rushing or leaving a mess)

Ingredients:

2 slices of Ezekiel 4:9 Sesame Sprouted Whole Grain Bread
1 Sunshine burger
1 cup of black beans
2 tablespoons of salsa
10 baby carrots
1 tomato
1/2 an avocado
1/2 romain lettuce heart
mustard to taste

Instructions:

Put one cup of black beans and two tablespoons of salsa into a small pot and heat on medium high.  I used black beans that I had previously prepared in the pressure cooker, and keep in that big jar in the fridge, but half a can of black beans would work just as well.  While black beans typically taste fine on their own, I wanted to spice them up a bit today and adding low or no-salt salsa while reheating them is a simple way to do that.  It also sneaks a few more veggies into your lunch.

Heat the sunshine burger, either on the stove, in the microwave, or in a toaster oven.  Today I heated mine on the stove, other times I'll start it in the microwave for 40 seconds and then finish it in the toaster with the Ezekiel bread to keep it from getting soggy.

Lightly toast two slices of Ezekiel bread, being careful not to make it too crunchy or dark.

Peel off two leaves of lettuce to use on your sandwich, and chop some more and put it on your plate to start the salad.  Cut three slices of tomato, and dice the rest and put it on top of the lettuce.  Cut and slice half the avocado putting half of the slices on top of your salad and leaving the rest for your sandwich.

By this time the beans should be boiling, the bread should be toasted, and the sunshine burger should be flipped and almost done.  Assemble your sandwich, and put it on your plate next to the salad and add some baby carrots.  Put the beans in a bowl, pour yourself a glass of water, and sit down and enjoy your quick, easy, nutritious, and delicious lunch!  That's all there is to it.

A Sunshine burger with lettuce, tomato, avocado, and mustard on Ezekiel toast 

Black beans with salsa

Lentil Shepherd's pie

Dr. Fuhrman emailed out this recipe in his newsletter and I was really excited to try it!  When the weather gets cold, I really enjoy really hot, comfort food and I think this recipe satisfies both while being totally plant based.  His recipe can be found here.

Serves: 6
Prep Time: 30 - 45 min (this took me a while the first time, but will be faster as I make it more often)
Cook Time: about 60 min (including time to cook lentils)

Ingredients:

1 bulb garlic
1 medium head cauliflower, cut into chunks
1/2 cup raw cashew butter
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
1/4 teaspoon black pepper, divided
1/4 cup soy, hemp or almond milk, if needed to adjust consistency
1 1/2 cups dry lentils
1 large onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 large carrots, diced
2 ribs celery, diced
10 ounces mushrooms, sliced
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 cup low sodium or no-salt-added vegetable broth
1 teaspoon dried rosemary or 2 teaspoons fresh rosemary, chopped
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme or 1 teaspoon fresh thyme, chopped


Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Bring lentils and 3 cups water to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until lentils have absorbed all liquid and are soft, about 30 minutes. Set aside.  If you are trying to speed up this recipe, canned lentils can also be used, but try to get unsalted lentils.

While lentils are cooking, roast unpeeled garlic for about 25 minutes or until soft.  I like to chop off a small portion of the non-stemmed side of the garlic, wrap it in foil, and place the garlic right on the rack in the oven.  I absolutely love roasted garlic and I think it adds lots of flavor, but if you are trying to speed up the recipe, maybe for a weeknight meal, I think this step could be skipped.  If you do choose to roast the garlic, when it's cool enough to handle, squeeze out the soft cooked garlic, removing and discarding the skins and set aside.

Steam chopped cauliflower for about 8 to 10 minutes or until tender. Place in a high-powered blender along with roasted garlic, cashew butter, nutritional yeast and 1/8 teaspoon of the black pepper and blend until smooth, adding a splash of non-dairy milk if needed to adjust consistency.  I did end up adding some non-dairy milk, but afterwards I think I would have like have the cauliflower mash more chunky and would probably add less next time around.  I wouldn't blend as much as I did either too keep it more chunky, but this you can adjust based on your preference.  I also didn't have cashew butter, so I blended some raw cashews ahead of time to make my own cashew butter.  Once the mash is blended, set aside.

Heat 2-3 tablespoons water in a large saute pan, add carrots and celery and cook for 5 minutes, then add onions and garlic and cook until vegetables are tender. Add the mushrooms and cook for an additional 5 minutes. Stir in tomato paste. Add the lentils, rosemary, thyme, remaining black pepper and 1/2 cup of the vegetable broth. Simmer for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add remaining vegetable broth as needed; mixture should be moist but not runny.  Everything is starting to smell delicious at this point!

Place the lentil mixture in a large casserole dish and spread mashed cauliflower evenly over the top. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes or until the cauliflower starts to brown.

Enjoy!  We loved this recipe and all four of us almost ate the entire thing for dinner one night!