3-Ingredient Banana Pancakes

Maybe the world needs more banana pancakes. Yes, that’s just what we’re missing. Yes, that’s what I’m telling myself right now. This thirteen-year-old (!) recipe website already…

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3-ingredient banana pancake recipe

Maybe the world needs more banana pancakes. Yes, that’s just what we’re missing. Yes, that’s what I’m telling myself right now. This thirteen-year-old (!) recipe website already has several banana pancake recipes, each wonderful in its own way, and here I am with another.

My whole wheat banana pancakes are so nice and fluffy. My banana oat pancakes are tender and flavorful with oatmeal-like interiors. This blender oatmeal pancake recipe yields an all-around great pancake that’s less banana-y than the others. I even have banana waffle recipes—whole wheat and oat-based—those are great, too.

These are the banana pancakes I’m making most often at the moment. They are the simplest pancakes by far, with only three ingredients at the core: mashed banana, eggs and whole-grain flour (you have several flour options here). I often add cinnamon and hemp or flaxseeds, but even then, they require fewer ingredients than the rest.

banana pancake ingredients

Nutritionally, these banana pancakes are about as healthy as pancakes can be. They’re significantly lower in carbohydrates than the other recipes, and slightly higher in protein. That’s a win! They don’t taste as much like a treat as the other recipes, but they’re truly very nice.

These pancakes are easy to throw together in the morning while Grace toddles around the kitchen. She loves them and I feel good about them. So, these banana pancakes are definitely baby-friendly and kid-friendly. These simple pancakes are for everyone!

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Seeds & Cheese Crackers

These seeds & cheese crackers are made from two kinds of cheese and five different kinds of seeds, baked to light and crispy perfection. They’d make a unique and delicious addition to any cheese board! If you love the lacy bits of crispy cheese that form on the edges of a grilled cheese sandwich, these […]

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These seeds & cheese crackers are made from two kinds of cheese and five different kinds of seeds, baked to light and crispy perfection. They’d make a unique and delicious addition to any cheese board!

If you love the lacy bits of crispy cheese that form on the edges of a grilled cheese sandwich, these (naturally gluten free) crackers are for you! The addition of five different kinds of seeds makes for a unique textural experience that is deeply satisfying.

Stack of Seeds and Cheese Cracker pieces on a speckled ceramic plate

I was finally able to get out to California to visit my family last month, which was a lovely treat after so many months (er, years?) of not being able to travel.

Granted, I spent most of my time there loafing on my sister’s extremely comfy couch binge watching all the trashy TV that Taylor doesn’t like, which is pretty close to what I’d be doing at home. But being able to do so with my sister? Priceless.

One day we had a lovely lunch with my aunt and uncle who I hadn’t seen since… well it’s been so long I can’t even remember now.

Along with a lovely assortment of prepared salads, she set out a spectacular snack plate with a few different kinds of crackers and cheeses. One of those crackers happened to be a cracker made out of cheese, and after one bite I was hooked. I literally could not stop eating them. 

After politely inquiring as to the origins of said crackers (my brain already running through recreation possibilities), my aunt revealed they were called Seeds & Cheese Crackle from Market Hall in downtown Oakland (if you’ve never been, it’s magical; like Disneyland for food lovers).

The ingredients list was short and simple, just seeds and (you guessed it) cheese, and I was certain I’d be able to recreate them at home.

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Simple Strawberry Smoothie

You’re going to love this strawberry smoothie. This recipe is cold, creamy and satisfying, and the nutty strawberry flavor is truly crave-worthy. In their most basic form,…

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simple strawberry smoothie recipe

You’re going to love this strawberry smoothie. This recipe is cold, creamy and satisfying, and the nutty strawberry flavor is truly crave-worthy.

In their most basic form, these strawberry smoothies require just four ingredients—frozen strawberries, frozen bananas, almond milk and almond butter.

This smoothie recipe tastes like a strawberry milkshake, and you can make it for breakfast! I’ll be sipping on these pink drinks all summer, and I hope the recipe becomes a staple in your home as well.

strawberry smoothie ingredients

If you ask me, smoothies should be super simple. I don’t want to pull a bunch of ingredients out of my fridge and pantry every morning just for a smoothie. I am not a morning person! Plus, these smoothies are easy to whip up in the afternoon or after dinner if you get a craving for a sweet treat.

You can change up the recipe by adding flax or oats for a nutrition boost, or a light drizzle of maple syrup to make them taste even more dessert-like. I’m plenty satisfied with the four-ingredient formula, though, and I think you will be, too!

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How to Make Flax “Eggs”

Let’s talk about flax eggs! We’re living in a strange alternate reality where flaxseed is often easier to find than actual eggs. Flax eggs, made simply with…

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how to make a flax egg

Let’s talk about flax eggs! We’re living in a strange alternate reality where flaxseed is often easier to find than actual eggs. Flax eggs, made simply with ground flaxseed and water, are a pantry-friendly substitute that just might save you a trip to the store. In fact, you can also make chia seed “eggs” using this technique, if you have those on hand.

If you’re vegan or have an egg allergy in your family, you may be well familiar with flax eggs already. I didn’t invent them and I don’t know who did, but I’ve learned a lot about them over the years.

I’ve been guilty of referencing flax eggs as a substitution option without providing more detail. Now, I can link to this page so you’ll know what the heck I’m talking about. Today, you might learn more than you ever wanted to know.

flax egg ingredients

Flax eggs work well when they’re a small component in baked goods, pancakes, and other flour-based recipes. Flax eggs yield a “gluey” substance similar to egg whites, which helps bind ingredients together. They also contain some fat, like real yolks do. As a bonus, they also offer some fiber, which you won’t find in real eggs.

Unfortunately, flax eggs don’t offer as much structural support as real eggs, and they definitely don’t work in egg-focused recipes like scrambled eggs or frittatas.

Flax eggs are an imperfect substitute, but in the right recipe, they can work great!

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Poilane’s Corn Flour Bread

At some point, we’re all going to have to decide on the same measuring system. Maybe we can make it our New Year’s resolution? Most of the world is using the metric system while a few holdouts, namely the United States, Liberia, and Burma, are sticking with other systems of measurement. For the record, I know some very good bakers that use cups and tablespoons,…

At some point, we’re all going to have to decide on the same measuring system. Maybe we can make it our New Year’s resolution? Most of the world is using the metric system while a few holdouts, namely the United States, Liberia, and Burma, are sticking with other systems of measurement. For the record, I know some very good bakers that use cups and tablespoons, and I like them as well.

Anyone who says they aren’t accurate hasn’t encountered a French recipe that calls for un verre de vin de lait (a “wine glass” of milk), a cullière à soupe (a soup spoon) of baking powder, or trois feuilles de gélatine, when every sheet of gelatin I’ve come across is either a different size, weight, or strength. And my wine glasses come in a lot of different sizes, too, although I always seem to reach for the largest ones…but not necessarily for baking.

Although books have been written on the subject, my take is that most Americans like holding measuring spoons and cups. It’s more tactile and visceral, kind of like how many of us holdouts don’t want to make dinner in a machine that will make it for us.

Many of us have fond memories of measuring cups, having seen our parents and grandparents using them, and having them handed down to us, but for recipe writers, metrics really are the way to go. The accuracy issue aside, it’s easy to cut a recipe down, say, 20%, which comes in handy when you’re testing a recipe but find that if you could somehow resize the batter down by 20-percent, it’d fit perfectly in a standard cake pan. Otherwise, you’re stuck telling people to use 3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon of milk, or the 3 tablespoons plus 1/4 teaspoon of heavy cream I saw in a European cookbook that had been translated into English. I don’t know about you, but I’m not measuring out 1/4 teaspoon of cream to make a batch of ice cream.

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Multigrain and Seed Biscotti

I was browsing some older cookbooks recently. There are so many really great new cookbooks that come out every season that it’s easy to forget some of the beloved ones waiting patiently on our shelves, for us to return to them. Before electronics came on the scene, I used to curl up every night under the cover with an actual book or two, before dozing…

I was browsing some older cookbooks recently. There are so many really great new cookbooks that come out every season that it’s easy to forget some of the beloved ones waiting patiently on our shelves, for us to return to them. Before electronics came on the scene, I used to curl up every night under the cover with an actual book or two, before dozing off to bed.

The downside was that I always ended up bookmarking recipes that I wanted to make, and I’d get excited, and start running up and down (in back and forth) in my mind, about how I’m going to gather the ingredients when I wake up the next morning. Recently one that I came across was a recipe for Multigrain Biscotti in a cookbook from the ’90s that had nearly two dozen ingredients in it. But they sounded so good, I made a little (okay…not-so-little) shopping list, for the next day, using that list as a bookmark, planning to make them the next day.

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