Banana Pancakes

It's funny that living twenty minutes away from DC, I hardly ever go downtown to sight see or explore. I've only been to a handful of museums and that was when I was in elementary school and we were forced to go on field trips. When I got older, I guess the luxury of having the city within driving distance made everything unappealing.  I'm embarrassed to say I can't even drive around the city without getting extremely lost. But that is all going to change this year.

Case in point, the other weekend Chris and I met up with his sister and her boyfriend to go to the Holocaust Museum in DC. If you've never been, I highly suggest you go. After our tour, we went to a nearby restaurant called The Founding Farmers. Just like the museums, we hardly ever take trips to DC to go to restaurants either. And there are so many excellent ones. The Founding Farmers has a farmhouse style menu and has such a great selection that I was shocked I had never been there before, let alone heard of it.

Along with museums, I'm going to be visiting a lot more restaurants in DC this year. With gems like this one hiding out, I think that's a must.

On the menu were a few different flavors of pancakes, such as carrot cake, blueberry and red velvet. Although those really sparked my interest, the bananas foster pancakes were the ones that really caught my eye. The following weekend I decided to make some banana pancakes of my own, and they were SO good. It's crazy how a little mashed up banana can alter something into a fun and tasty breakfast. I was also able to make these healthier by using Splenda and light coconut milk in place of the heavier ingredients, so that's always a plus. Enjoy!

Printable Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tbsp. white sugar (I used the Splenda sugar blend)
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 cup milk (I used light coconut milk)
• 2 tbsp. vegetable oil
• 2 ripe bananas, mashed
• 1 tbsp. butter
• Extra banana, sliced, for garnish (optional)
• Powdered sugar, sprinkled on top (optional)

Combine flour, white sugar, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl, mix together egg, milk, vegetable oil and bananas.

Stir flour mixture into banana mixture; batter will be slightly lumpy.

Heat a griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Add butter and turn the pan until melted. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake. Cook until pancakes are golden brown on both sides; serve hot with banana garnishes and powdered sugar.

Source: Adapted from All Recipes