It's the first weekend of the New Year and I wanted to make something fun and light in the kitchen. 🙂 I love getting healthy stuff in the toddler most mornings and what can be more fun then chocolate pancakes!

Actually, I can't lie. I was the one who wanted them. When I asked he said...

"I don't like chocolate pancakes. I only like regular pancakes."

Ahhhh what does he know. He's three. Plus he's never even had chocolate pancakes. I made them anyway because once I got them in my head I couldn't get them out. 🙂

Now, let me warn ya. My idea wasn't to make an overly sweet cake. Actually I purposely kept them a bit bland knowing I'd be topping them. See, my theory is by not presenting overly sweet things to the toddler he won't get that taste for it. Just like salt, if you don't eat sweet stuff every day then when you do you really only need a little bit to satisfy the craving. It's also like milk. When we were kids we drank whole and I remember skim being, well, yucky. Then slowly we started shifting to skim and now I think whole is gross. It's all in what you are used to.

Sorry, I got off track didn't I? Anyway, I am very happy with my first attempt at these. I took my old Quick Whole Grain Banana Pancakes and just modified slightly. And added a topping of course! Here's how I made them this morning.

Ingredients

1 overripe banana
1 egg
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ cup (75g) fat free yogurt
¼ cup water
(water and yogurt can be replaced with ½ cup (4oz) skim milk)
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder (20g)
½ cup (60g) whole wheat flour (I used whole wheat white)
pinch of powder sugar for presentation (optional)

Instructions

Mash the banana in a medium bowl. Add the egg, vanilla, yogurt, and water. Whisk until a bit frothy and smooth.

In a smaller bowl mix the flour, baking soda, baking powder and cocoa powder. Sift it into the banana mixture. Mix until just blended. It will be thick.

Plop with a tablespoon and smooth the batter into small cakes in a non-stick skillet or griddle over medium heat sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Cook about 1-2 minutes a side, bubbles will form when ready to flip.

Easy Blueberry Topping

Ingredients

1 cup frozen blueberries
1 tablespoon whole wheat flour
½ teaspoon stevia (or your sweetener of choice)

Instructions

Place all ingredients in a small pan over medium heat. Stir frequently. once blueberries thaw and mixture gets thick add a tablespoon of water. Stir to incorporate. Keep warm over low hear adding water if it gets too thick before serving.

Here's the toddler chowing down on the cake while watching Lazy Town. He didn't want anything to do with my topping so he ate them plain like cookies. Notice I have to now take pictures in his natural habitat as he's not as easily amused as he once was. 🙂

To serve place 2-3 cakes on a small plate and top with a dollop of the blueberries. Now, I actually got 10 cakes out of the batter but I can see others getting 8. I make them quite small. So I'm basing the nutritional info on 4 servings. That would be 2 cakes each if you got 8 cakes. What you see pictured is a little less then a serving.

📖 Recipe