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.