Banana breakfast pancakes (Gluten free/grain free/pancake free.)

I feel it's important to make one thing quite clear. I love brunch. Pancakes are incredible. Especially when topped with an entire pig's worth of bacon. However, my ideal brunch doesn't really factor into my healthy eating plans and as I have a gluten intolerant dad and a diabetic boyfriend, when I saw the recipe for "banana pancakes" that had been floating around, I thought I'd give it a try.  It seemed pretty simple- take a very ripe banana and mash it in a bowl, add two eggs and cook on a low heat to create a batch of delicious, lower-carb, gluten-free, healthier "pancakes". What a good idea. I gave it a try- they looked great, they smelt yummy (kind of like plantain chips). I was so pleased. Such a shame they tasted like butt. 

I should mention at this point that I've never liked over-ripe banana, so I shouldn't have expected miracles. After throwing the first batch out, a sulk and a walk along the canal, I made some changes and tried again and it made them taste a lot better. My way of doing it yields a smaller serving size and is a little less sweet, but in my opinion it's much closer to pancakes and doesn't have the overpowering taste of old bananas and hot egg aka butt.

For a one-person serving, you'll need:

1 small not-very-ripe banana

1 medium egg

ground cinnamon

vanilla extract

Peel the banana and cut into small pieces to give yourself a head start on the mashing. Transfer to a small bowl and then mash thoroughly- this was a little tricky as greener bananas are starchier and less squishy than the old (and horrible) bananas most people suggest using. (As I am impatient and don’t have that many kitchen tools, I took a pair of pliers to an old, mismatching fork to create a teeny-tiny masher..!)

Crack two eggs into the bowl and mix well. Add a generous amount of cinnamon and vanilla extract and mix through. Heat your pan on a medium-low heat (If you turn the heat up too high, these will burn on the outside before they’re done inside.) Add the batter to the pan in small “silver dollar” pancake sized circles and wait. Be patient- flip these gently when you start to see little bubbles appear all over the top. Cook until done on both sides and then keep going until all the batter’s gone- you should end up with about five.

I topped mine with a drizzle of honey and frozen raspberries (healthy), but you can add whatever you like (bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon). They don't taste like the world's best pancakes, but they don't taste like butt either. Plus, at a 250 calories/Propoints value of 2 (yes, I do Weightwatchers shut up shut up.) for a whole plate of hot, gluten-free, not-butt pancakes, I can cope with that.

"What's in my..." Wednesday

...I thought I'd get back into actually blogging by a.) using a pre-existing theme and b.) applying a day of the week to it to encourage me to do it more than once and never again.

I know that "What's in my bag" posts are really popular with a lot of people who blog, and I think they're kind of cute insights into people's preferences/lifestyles. So I thought this week I would dump my bag and it's contents all over my bed and write about that. I will openly admit that my bag has been thoroughly cleaned out before university starts next week. Otherwise it would just be "Here is a receipt from McDonalds. Here is a screwed up bit of paper with a rude word drawn on it. Here is an old sweet I never threw out from 2008." and it would be painfully obvious what kind of person I actually am. (Rude/lazy/fond of chips.) So... without further ado...

This is the bag I use for university when I'm not carrying bulky art materials- it's a pale pink leather Zatchel that I got during their almighty 50% off anniversary sale. It's the second largest size and it's just the right size for an A4 ring binder, my iPad, a notebook and all the other useful bits I need. Both the sturdiness and cheapness of the bag please me. Also it's a really nice (almost acceptable) shade of pink- hurray.

Woah, look at that. Artful arranging and little numbers. I'm so proud. The only thing not in the picture is my iPad because we all know what an iPad is/I am listening to podcasts. 

1.) Wallet and Oyster card.

A pretty basic requirement of most bags in London. The oyster card helps me get around and the wallet should be full of £££ but is mainly full of buttons and receipts. My X-Men oyster card case was a very special present and my wallet is from Cath Kidston- in case you can't tell already, I love me a busy pattern.

2.) Student ID/Cath Kidston lanyard

I have a Cath Kidston lanyard because I'm a jerk. If I don't wear it around my neck at all times I lose it in less than 8 seconds and then they won't let me into uni, so it made sense to get one that is pretty/outwardly projects "HEY GUYS? GUYS? GUESS WHO LOVES FLORALS?"

3.) Tangle Teezer

This is one of the small tangle teezers with a cover that protects the bristles/stops hair getting all up in my stuff. I genuinely love these brushes as I'm always a fan of anything that doesn't pull my hair out every time I use it. Not only is it a really great hairbrush, it's leopard print. The classiest of all the animals.

4.) Nintendo 3DS

It plays games. I can play Animal Crossing on it. In 3D. Literally anywhere. 'Nuff said.

5.) iPhone 4S

Mainly used for informing my mum that I'm not dead/instagramming pictures of bacon. Also shrouded in an attractive floral motif.

6.) Shiny New Ringbinder

I bought this from Muji as it seemed like a nice, minimalist folder to put this term's notes in. I promptly decorated it with little dinosaur stickers and musical notes to distract me from the impending doom of dissertation. Haha I added some musical note stickers too so it looks like the dinosaurs are having a disco party hahahahaha oh god.

7.) Pens

Also from Muji because I like how fine and nice the black 0.38 ones are to write with, and I like to underline things in pink and purple.

8.) Cath Kidston notebook

I use this to write big lists of things I should be doing in and then I tend to not do most of those things bar the necessities and draw a picture of a wonky horse instead. All the pages are floral too. Basically, what I'm trying to say is that I really do like florals.

9.) Mirrored sunglasses

I can literally stare at people for hours and hours and they have no way of knowing. (Also they look quite nice.) These cost about £2 and if they ever break, which I think they're close to doing, I will cry.

10.) Handcream, lipstick, pressed powder

I'm trying really hard to carry around less makeup with me as I'm trying to be nicer to my skin. From left to right, I have an "& other stories..." hand cream in Shinjuku Bloom. It's cherry blossom scented and smells really, really fresh. The cream itself is rich-feeling and does the trick. Also it comes in a little paint tube which is just.... gah, adorable. The lipstick is a MAC lustre lipstick in "Patisserie" which is a sheer brownish-rose everyday colour. It wears like any other MAC lustre lipstick, i.e. it needs more frequent application but is much less drying than their matte shades. And finally, Chanel pressed powder in 20 Clair- Translucent, which is a really great pale powder. I will be very sad when it runs out imminently.

So! There are all the nice, clean, shiny things I have put in my bag to make me sassy and wise for the start of the year at uni. I'm sure if we all look in a week's time it'll be full of god knows what. Maybe ham?