Pancake Adventures

Adventures in baking! Pancakes, muffins, cookies...if you can bake it, I will make it! And then blog about it. Send me your recipes!

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Pumpkin Banana Muffins for Two

These muffins are low-calorie, and have no butter, oil or refined sugars. And they taste dense, pumpkiny and delicious!

You’ll need:

1/2 cup flour

1/4 tsp baking soda

Pinch of salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

Pinch of nutmeg, cloves and ginger

1/4 cup canned pumpkin

2 tbsp maple syrup

1/2 banana, mashed

1/2 egg

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

1/8 cup milk of choice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger. In a separate large bowl combine pumpkin, maple syrup, banana, egg, and vanilla until well combined and smooth. Whisk in milk. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Makes two large muffins or four small ones.

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I haven't posted in a while...because I haven't been baking! I've been trying a lifestyle change that involves exercising a lot and eating under 1400 calories per day. I feel great and I love eating healthy! But that doesn't mean I have to give up everything. This delicious breakfast has lots of protein and is under 400 calories!

Whole Wheat Banana Waffle (185 calories) Recipe Here

1 Egg, Over Easy (70 calories)

2 Strips Light Life Soy Bacon (35 calories each)

1 Tablespoon Maple Syrup (50 calories)

Total: 375 calories, and lots of scrumptious!

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Raw, gluten-free vegan carrot cake with macadamia frosting. Sweetened only with dates and maple syrup. Easy to make and delicious! Click here for the recipe.

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Cinnamon Swirl Coffee Cake Muffins. Delicious, spongy, light and moist. The recipe calls for a sugar glaze, but I was making these for breakfast and that seemed like sugar overload. Surprisingly easy recipe, definitely worth your time. Recipe here. 

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Savory Zucchini Waffles topped with Greek yogurt, tomato, avocado, and basil. Delicious!

I used all-purpose instead of whole wheat flour, and omitted the vanilla, and it still came out great!

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I made a peach pie for my boyfriend on his birthday! He hardly ever eats dessert, but on his birthday he always asks me to bake him a pie, and this year he chose peach. Of course it's not peach season, so I had to use frozen peaches, but it still came out great! Recipe here.

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I made these cupcakes for my boyfriend's birthday. He took them to his office to share with his coworkers, and he said they were enjoyed by all! The cupcakes are nice and chocolatey, but it's the frosting that really makes these babies shine. The cupcake is from this recipe, and the the frosting is this recipe. 

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Chocolate Chip Skillet Cookie! Eat it warm, topped with vanilla ice cream.

Recipe here. I made it without the corn starch and with chocolate chips instead of Hershey's Kisses, and it came out great.

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Lemon Bars

Tart and delicious! Recipe here.

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Fudge Brownies with Chocolate Frosting

Brownie Recipe Here. Frosting Recipe Here.

These brownies are dense, dark and delicious. The frosting is great if you don't have any powdered sugar (or want to try something new). I added a little cocoa powder to my frosting, and it turned out great!

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Homemade Cookies for One in a Jar

This year, I was determined to give something crafty to my loved ones. These little jars are perfect! I modified the recipe from Chocolate Covered Katie's Chocolate Chip Cookies for Two.

First, find 4 oz mason jars. I found mine here on Amazon.

Fill a jar with the following layers, in the order below, packing each to make sure they remain visible from outside the jar:

2 tsp Brown Sugar

2 tsp White Sugar

1/8 tsp Salt

1/8 tsp Baking Soda

3-4 tsp Chocolate Chips (I used mini)

3 tbsp + 1 tsp All-purpose Flour

Seal the jar and give it to a loved one, with the following instruction attached:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pour jar into a mixing bowl, mix well, then add:

1 tbsp + 1 tsp vegetable oil

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp milk of choice

Mix well, place in cookie shape on cookie sheets, and bake for 7 to 8 minutes. Makes two regular sized cookies or four small cookies.

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Coconut Cookie Dough Balls

This recipe is from Chocolate-Covered Katie, my new favorite baking site. These cookies are amazing! So healthy, and so yummy! They are vegan, raw, gluten-free and sugar-free, and they taste amazing!

Ingredients:

1 1/3 cups pitted dates

3 tablespoons coconut butter (if you can’t find this at your grocery store, you can make your own!)

Blend everything together in a blender or food processor. Smush into one big ball and then roll into little bite-size balls. Yum!

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Sugar-free, Gluten-free, Dairy-free Fudgy Brownies

Today I made Fudgy Flourless Brownies, with a recipe from Sugar-Free Mom. These brownies are sugar-free, gluten-free, and dairy-free. You can click here for the original recipe, or see below for my slightly altered version.

1 1/4 cups Homemade sugarless chocolate chunks

1 (15 ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained

1/4 cup cocoa powder

2 eggs

1/3 cup olive oil

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 tablespoon of stevia powder (I use truvia)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 8 by 8 baking dish with parchment paper. Spread parchment paper with olive oil (or other non-stick substance). Process all ingredients in a food processor until smooth. Pour onto parchment paper in baking dish and smooth out batter to edges of dish. Bake 30-35 minutes until a toothpick comes out perfectly clean.

It should look like this:

And for the finished product, go here! Also, I put some extra homemade chocolate chunk batter on as a glaze. It makes it messy, but a little sweeter (these brownies are dense and bitter, but delicious!)

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Fudgy Flourless Brownies

These brownies are sugar-free, dairy-free, and gluten-free. They are incredibly dense and rich, and for some reason, they have black beans in them! Don't ask me how. I wouldn't be able to answer you, my mouth is full of brownies ;-) Click on the link above for the recipe from Sugar-Free Mom. Or, I will be the blogging the recipe with my twists soon.

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Homemade Sugarless Chocolate Chunks

Today I made sugarless chocolate chunks! Only three ingredients in these, I got the recipe from Chocolate Covered Katie, here. It's very easy and the chocolate is dark and wonderful. Only make these if you love dark, bitter chocolate. Here's my version:

4 Tablespoons of unrefined coconut oil (melted)

1/2 Cup plus 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder, unsweetened

Stevia powder to taste

Small drop of almond extract (optional)

Combine coconut oil and stevia powder and stir. Add cocoa powder and stir more! Stir a lot. Stir until it is entirely blended. Add the almond extract (and anything else you want to add--nibs? Vanilla?) Pour into a ziploc bag, flatten and freeze. I left mine in the freezer for half an hour, and it came out great. Cut the chocolate bar out of the bag. It should look something like this:

Then, chop them on a cutting board! They come out dark and delicious. Highly recommended for use in sugarless baking.

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Sugarless Oatmeal Banana Cookies!

This recipe is crazy easy and crazy healthy! I found it on VegWeb and modified it out of necessity, and it still came out really well! Here's my modified version (for the original, click on the link above)

2 ripe bananas, smashed

3 tablespoons of flour

2 cups of oatmeal (preferably the quick-cook kind)

A splash of milk of choice (cow, soy, rice, almond...anything!)

Preheat oven to 350. Combine all ingredients in one bowl. Roll dough into small balls and place on non-stick cookie sheet. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes, or until hard. Delicious!

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No-Knead Artisan Bread

I baked some really easy, really delicious bread! It is from this recipe by Natasha's Kitchen. Unlike the last time I embarked on a bread adventure, this bread only has 4 ingredients: water, flour, yeast and salt (plus optional corn meal, to prevent sticking). If you have a lazy weekend afternoon to kill (as I did) it's totally worth it. The bread came out crusty and chewy and delicious!

Also, just FYI, wax paper is not the same thing as parchment paper...don't put wax paper in your oven at 450 degrees, there will be smoke... ;-)