Just because it's a cheat day doesn't mean it can't still be healthy.

It's been an incredibly long time since I have had pancakes.  When I think about it, I don't think I've enjoyed some of those bad boys since Montreal.  This makes me a bit sad considering pancakes are one of my all-time favourite foods, especially breakfast foods.  I am the biggest fan of cake, I would love if I could have a piece of cake for every meal instead of real food, but that's just not what my body needs, so pancakes are my way of having a little bit of "cake" in a healthy way for breakfast.

My mom and her boyfriend have been on vacation at a chalet for the past nine days, and to be quite franc I've been using up the remaining foods that were left... let me tell you I'm down to the bare minimum and thank heavens they are coming back on Sunday (yes, I have been that lazy/cheap to go out to the grocery store).  Thankfully, there has been ample food up until about two days ago, and now I'm left with condiments and well, not so much else, however I was still able to make pancakes, a beautiful protein-filled broccoli salad and even pistachio pudding for dessert!

With all that being said, my mom left about five million apples (wow, do I seriously exaggerate that much?  Wow).  Anywho, I've had ample apples left in the fridge, and seeing as I wanted to leave my remaining frozen banana for my after-work out smoothie I needed to figure out something else to come up with to fuel before I hit up the gym for yoga/boot camp class.  As I was perusing Katie's blog because I knew she had single serving pancake recipes, I found one for apple pie pancakes, perfect or what?!  Seeing as I still have quite a few apples left I figured this would be awesome.  And let me tell you these pancakes are divine, and it's not just because I'm a pancake lover to the max, or because I haven't tasted any on my tongue for a long time, it incorporated so many flavours that I absolutely love and it was just a perfect fall-holiday medley of flavours.

By steeping the gingerbread tea bag in the coconut milk, the addition of extra cinnamon (since we all know how much I love fall flavours), and the pieces of chopped apple, oh my word.  I am not a fan of pies, not in the least (cake > pie), and apple pie, ehhhh... but I love the flavours that are incorporated in an apple pie (really, I just strongly dislike the pastry that a pie has, but I love the insteriors), and so this pancake was right up my alley, especially when filled with hazelnut peanut butter + apple butter and topped with slivered almonds.  Yes, today may be my "cheat" day, but it doesn't mean I need to cheat by going into my cupboard and diving into the container of chocolate covered raisins, or opening the freezer door and noming down on some candy cane ice cream that I hadn't finished before deciding I would make this year about throwing away the junk.

Yes these pancakes definitely were pure perfection, oh goodness gracious.  I will certainly be keeping this recipe on hand, and will be making these as soon as possible!

Apple Pie Pancakes


Recipe inspired from here

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup flour (I used whole wheat)
• 2 tbsp oats
• 1 apple finely chopped (or 1/2 cup as suggested, I used one whole medium apple)
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 2/3 tsp baking powder
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup coconut milk (or other non-dairy milk)
• 1 gingerbread tea bag
• Hazelnut peanut butter + apple butter - to fill the pancakes
• Slivered almonds - to top

Directions:


In a small pot over high heat, bring your milk and tea bag to a boil.  Let steep for seven minutes for full flavour.


Combine your dry ingredients in a bowl, then add wet.  Mix, but do not over-mix.  Cook on an oiled (or sprayed) pan, on low-medium, flipping each pancake once.

(Check out those apple chunks, yummm!)

How do you like to spice up your pancakes?