Using What You Have (And Don't Have)- Whole Wheat Banana Pancakes

I have been under the control of a vicious cold bug since last Tuesday. I'm partially to blame, because I have been eating far from healthy lately. In part due to a foot injury which has kept me on my butt as often as possible, and in part due to sheer laziness. Either way, I certainly haven't been helping my immune system along. So this weekend I figured I could use a health food boost. Sure, the boost came in syrup covered form, but are we really going to nit pick? I had to work with what I had because this was a pre-grocery shopping trip meal. So, what did I have? Several bananas nearly beyond the point of usability. What did I not have? Eggs. But I kept coming back to pancakes, which I had been craving for weeks. So, I turned to Google for an egg-less pancake recipe. I came across this recipe on Recipezaar. It had some good reviews so I decided to use it as a starting point and after a few adjustments I was ready to get to flipping some flap jacks!

Whole Wheat Banana Pancakes
Recipe adapted from Recipezaar; Makes 12-16


1 1/3 cups white whole wheat flour
1/3 cup toasted wheat germ
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons sugar
1 1/2 cups soy milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 mashed bananas

• Whisk together the flour, wheat germ, salt, baking powder, cinnamon, and sugar.
• Add to dry ingredients the milk, vanilla and mashed bananas. Mix until just combined.
• Cook by 1/4 cup full on well oiled skillet or griddle over medium/medium-high heat. Serve warm.

My notes: These pancakes didn't come out as sweet as I thought they might. I considered increasing the sugar, as one of the recipe reviewers suggested, but I thought that the very ripe bananas might lend enough sweetness on their own. Next time I'll definitely increase, and might even switch to brown sugar like the Cinnamon-Oat Pancakes that I love. Also, since we're soy milk drinkers around these parts and I was out of eggs this recipe is vegan friendly.