Vegan Banana Pancakes

I'm a creature of habit. There, I said it. I need to have pancakes for breakfast every Friday-Monday morning or else I can't function. It's a serious condition, yet one that's easily curable.

For quite a while, I would wake up on the weekends, immediately starting to make these pancakes (minus the blueberries). These were a good option because they instilled portion control and didn't make me feel super unhealthy eating them. Understandably so, Lauren started to tire of eating the same exact thing all the time, so she started making banana pancakes from the "Thug Kitchen" cookbook instead. While these tasted amazing, the recipe made a huge batch and we both always overstuffed ourselves. The ingredients weren't that bad, but I definitely shouldn't be eating these pancakes four times a week. I dabbled in the overnight oats pancakes, but one morning they went horribly wrong and Lauren has since been turned off from them. I still wanted my weekend pancakes, but I couldn't be feeling like cement after breakfast all the time.

Every week we buy bananas because Lauren likes to add them to her oatmeal. I on the other hand will not eat a plain banana and will run away from anything that tastes/smells like them. Lauren won't eat bananas if they have any brown spots on them, which means that by the end of the week we have several ripe bananas that need to be used. You think we would've learned our lesson by now and simply cut back on the number of bananas we buy. Of course we could bake muffins or bread every weekend (the banana bread recipe in "Thug Kitchen" is amazing!), but I end up eating way more than my half of the share, and I don't need to be doing that either. So when life gives you ripe bananas, make pancakes!

Makes 2 six-inch pancakes:
Ingredients:
- Between 1/2 - 1 ripe banana
- 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
- 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
- pinch of salt
- 1/3 cup old fashioned oats
- 1/2 tbsp. canola oil
- 3/4 cup water
- chocolate chips (optional)*

Mash the banana in a bowl with a fork. I prefer an entire banana, while Lauren likes only half of one. The amount of banana you choose to use won't change the quantity of the remaining ingredients. Using more banana just makes larger, slightly fluffier pancakes.

Start heating a large frying pan on medium heat on the stove.

Add the rest of the ingredients to the bowl and mix well.

Pour half of the batter into the pan and spread with a spatula so that the pancake is about 1/4 inch thick.

When the top gets all bubbly, flip the pancake over and continue to cook for another 2 minutes or so.

Serve the finished pancake with your favorite pancake toppings. For me, that's always almond butter and maple syrup!

*I like my chocolate chips thrown into the batter with all of the other ingredients, while Lauren prefers to place hers directly onto her pancake once it's flipped.