Recipe: Skinny Chocolate Banana Pancakes

One of my favourite things to do while cooking is using up leftovers or food that's 5 to death. This recipe uses bananas - I hate it when they're old and bruised, but they work perfectly for pancakes! This clean eating breakfast treat is gluten-free, dairy-free and sugar-free, and the baking powder makes them super light and fluffy! :)

Skinny Chocolate Banana Pancakes
Makes: 7 pancakes

Ingredients:

• 1 banana
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup natural peanut butter
• 1 tbs raw cacao powder
• 1 or 2 tbs maple syrup*
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp coconut oil for frying

Optional extras:
Cinnamon
Raisins
Nuts
Dark chocolate chunks
Raspberries

Method:

1. Cut your banana into slices and add to a medium-sized bowl. Mash the pieces with the back of a fork until there are no big pieces left.
2. Add the egg, peanut butter, cacao powder, maple syrup, vanilla, and baking powder to the bowl and whisk everything together. 
3. Stir in any optional extras (I added cinnamon, chopped pecan nuts, and dark chocolate chunks - yum!)
4. Add the coconut oil to a large frying pan on medium heat. Spoon a heaped tablespoon of batter onto your pan (mine fit three at once)
5. Cook for two minutes on each side or, flip over once little bubbles start to form on the surface of the batter.

Notes:
*This depends on how sweet you want your pancakes. I like mine sweet so I used two teaspoons.

Old Habits

Sometimes I feel like I haven't learnt anything. I've lost almost 30kgs. I've changed my eating habits. I eat more veggies now. I eat seeded bread. I eat BEANS (13-year-old me would have shuddered at the thought) And yet... I still find myself making some of the bad decisions I've always done.

Today, after a big helping of dinner, I ate chocolate chips right out the box. Chocolate chips! It's not even a dessert! It's for baking damnit, not for stuffing in your face at hyper speed. To my knowledge there was no good reason for this shameful binge - I'm not upset, I didn't have a bad day, I don't think I was even craving sweets. It was just there and I had it.

Perhaps sometimes, when we're not vigilant, we fall back into our old habits. My old habit is being a Constant Craver and I just want to eat non-stop. There's something ridiculously familiar and comforting about that motion of hand-to-mouth. Then, once I've stopped, I get another familiar feeling - one of disappointment and shame. I get so mad at myself because, even though I've lost all this weight, I've still got this great big belly I'm trying to get rid of. They say abs are made in the kitchen, not the gym - well I've eaten the whole damn kitchen, now what?

As always, I think the only thing to do is pick yourself back up, shake off the dust (and cookie crumbs) and start over.