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!

Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

This recipe is slightly modified from a recipe I found from Vegan Lunchbox blogger Jennifer Schmoo (recipe here).  It's a great recipe for around the holidays and a real crowd pleaser!  It is fairly easy too, the only time consuming part is separating the leaves of cabbage.

Makes: 10 cabbage rolls
Prep Time: 45 min (not including cooking the rice)
Cook Time: 50 min

Ingredients:

1 cup walnuts
1 cup cooked brown rice
1 cup canned or cooked garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup oat bran
1/2 tsp marjoram
1/4 tsp thyme
1/4 tsp onion powder
2 tbsp Braggs liquid aminos or low sodium soy sauce 
2 tbsp Dijon mustard
10 cabbage leaves for stuffing and extra leaves for chopping
1 jar tomato sauce (I like Muir Glen Roasted Garlic)
pepper to taste


Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350°F and bring a large pot of water to a boil.

While the water is boiling, separate the cabbage leaves.  To make this easier, try to buy a cabbage that has very green outside leaves.  This means the cabbage is fresh and it will be much easier to peel back the leaves.  If the leaves rip while while peeling off the cabbage, don't worry, you can still use them and just patch it up with an extra leaf.

Next, make the cabbage stuffing.  Use a food processor with the metal blade to chop the walnuts into tiny pieces.  Pour the the walnuts into a large bowl and set aside for later.

Then, process the garbanzo beans and brown rice with the food processor until a course mash forms as shown below.  

Add the mash to the walnuts and then add the oat bran, marjoram, thyme, onion powder, liquid aminos and mustard.  This is the fun part!  Mash the mixture together with your hands until it is all mixed together and will stick together.  Divide the filling mixture into ten equal pieces and make a tiny loaf out of each.  Set aside until we are ready to stuff the cabbage. 

Add the cabbage leaves to the boiling water and cook for 3 to 5 minutes.  They shouldn't be cooked all the way through, but should be soft enough to roll them.  Drain the leaves thoroughly.
 
Next, get your pan ready for the cabbage by adding enough tomato sauce to just cover the bottom of the pan.

Place a cabbage leaf on a cutting board and add a loaf to one edge of the leaf and roll it up.  Fold in the edges as you go like you would a burrito.  If the cabbage leaf has a tough stem, you can cut it out before rolling and just overlap the remaining leaf.  Also, if there is a rip, just add another smaller leaf to patch it.  Add the cabbage roll to the pan seam side down.  Repeat the process with the rest of the loafs and leaves.

Chop up the remaining cabbage leaves and pieces you have left over and sprinkle over and around the cabbage rolls in your pan.  Pour the remaining tomato sauce over the cabbage rolls.  Season with pepper to taste.

Bake the rolls for 45 to 50 minutes, until slightly brown on top and enjoy!

These went over really well this holiday with my kids.  They also taste better if they are reheated for the second time, so I tend to make a double batch so we have leftovers.  If you are reheating them in the pan, it works well to add some water to the pan so the cabbage rolls stay moist.  We have eaten them all up this week, but I am now wishing that we had more!!

Banana Oat Bars

These banana oat bars are so good and you don't have to feel bad about eating them! Ev helped me make this batch. Here is a link to the recipe:

http://www.recipezaar.com/Dr-Fuhrmans-Yummy-Quick-Easy-BananaOat-Bars-223077

We used the optional apple sauce and sprinkled the top with some pumpkin spice! Yum!