sneaky healthy pancakes with maple bananas

I thought it was probably about time I posted a recipe, since I purport to be a food writer. Oh, and I just figured out how to get photos onto the blog :). 

My middle daughter once described everyone in our house - Mattie is good at drawing and science, Simon is good at thinking and playing games, Harry is good at saying 'is there wifi?' and baby river is good at pooping, and mummy is good at healthy stuff. Not fun, playing games, or braiding hair. No. I get 'healthy stuff'. I don't think she meant it as a bad thing though. My obsession with healthy food (punctuated with the odd chocolate bar and take away, and liberally sprinkled with red wine, I might add) has led my middle child to loving some pretty unusual stuff for a six year old. So when I ask her if she wants a treat, she might say 'crackers and blue cheese', or 'sardine and lentil stew' (I know - thats a weird one even for us) or she most often says "healthy pancakes mummy". In fact when asked what my signature dish was by colleagues, my husband named these pancakes too. Not great for an aspiring cook, but they are pretty good. Perfect for lazy sunday mornings with the papers and everyone in their pyjamas till lunchtime. The picture below is of the cheats version I make sometimes midweek, if we have stale white bread left over.

Pancakes with maple bananas

Choose a large-ish mug, and fill it to the brim with self raising flour, and chuck this in a bowl, add two eggs and mix with a whisk. Pour whole milk/almond milk to the brim of the same mug and slowly add this to the mix while stirring. Then add one grated apple/carrot/pear/beetroot - if you're feeling its a purple sort of day.. add a tablespoon of chia seeds and linseeds, or any other seeds you fancy, or grated coconut, some almond butter, mashed banana... the options are pretty much endless. The 'healthy' bit of these pancakes is in what you can disguise within them to make children eat what would otherwise seem too worthy. Once the mix is well combined, heat a little butter in a frying pan and dollop the mixture in. These pancakes are similar to drop scones in that they get quite fluffy and rise, not like the wafer thin crepes. While these are cooking, or once you have cooked most of them off, thickly slice a couple of bananas and fry these around the edge of the pan. They will caramelise quite quickly so keep an eye on them.

Once everything is cooked drizzle with maple syrup, et voila! 

Chia eggy bread

As above, but without the faff of making batter: whisk a couple of eggs (or just egg whites if you're being super diety) add a tablespoon of chia seeds, dip the slices of stale bread in for a few minutes, then cook as above.