Oatmeal Banana Pancakes

I have recently discovered Clean Eating magazine, and love it! (What is eating clean? Look here and here for some tips.) There are some interesting articles and great recipes. I wouldn't say that I've completely converted to clean eating (since my husband still looooves Velveeta), but I've certainly made more of an effort to eat more fruits and vegetables, and make things from scratch so I can control the ingredients. This allows me to make changes such as using whole wheat (often, pastry) flour in place of white flour, and avoid a lot of preservatives and other such junk.


The latest issue of Clean Eating has a ton of recipes that looked great to me, and I decided to dive in over the weekend with oatmeal banana pancakes. Breakfast around here is usually eggs, oatmeal, or a protein bar, but every once in a while, we treat ourselves to pancakes. I was especially intrigued by this recipe because of the substitution for maple syrup. A combination of pomegranate juice and honey sounded delicious! Of course, I forgot to get the juice at the store, so we had to settle for cranberry juice in it's place.

These turned out delicious! The pancakes have a nice little bite from the whole oats, and a light banana flavor that isn't overwhelming. The fruit syrup is SO GOOD and we are definitely making these again!

Oatmeal Banana Pancakes
Source: Clean Eating magazine
Makes 10 to 12 five inch pancakes, or 20 four inch pancakes

For the syrup:
1 cup Pomegranate Juice
2 tablespoons of honey

For the pancakes:
3 medium bananas (I used frozen), plus 1 sliced banana for garnish
1/2 cup low-fat milk
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup rolled oats, ground to a course flour in food processor
1/4 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 tsp kosher salt
2 tsp baking powder
2 egg whites, whipped to soft peaks
Olive Oil cooking spray

Whisk juice and honey together in saucepot. Bring mixture to boil over medium high heat, then drop the heat to medium. Simmer mixture and reduce it to syrup, about 15 minutes. Remove from heat and let syrup cool before using. (Mine thickened as it cooled.)

To make pancakes, add bananas, milk and vanilla to blender and puree until smooth. In large mixing bowl, whisk together ground oats, rolled oats, flour, salt and baking powder. Fold banana puree into dry ingredients to a form a thick batter, taking care not to overwork it. Gently fold in the whipped egg whites into batter. Heat a large nonstick griddle coated with cooking spray over medium heat. Drop 1/4 cup batter for 5-inch pancakes onto griddle. Cook until lightly browned, about 1 1/2 per side. Serve with banana slices and a drizzle of pomegranate syrup.