Paleo banana flax pancakes

This was breakfast this morning. It’s by far my kids’ favourite breakfast. It’s easy to make and I can eat it without guilt because it’s not only gluten-free, it’s grain-free, dairy-free (if you use coconut oil rather than ghee) and free of refined sugar. Personally, I eat them with almond butter rather than maple syrup, though my kids (of course) go for the maple syrup. Either way, they’re delicious.

Flourless banana oatmeal pancakes

A friend of mine recently shared a recipe for flourless banana pancakes and I was so excited, I immediately tried it out. The recipe called only for one mashed banana and two eggs, mixed together and fried like a pancake. It did work, rather to my amazement, and my kids loved them, but the resulting “pancakes” were very light, difficult to flip, and not really pancakey enough for me.

I wanted to improve on the recipe without adding, well, flour. Even gluten-free flour makes a mess and I wanted to pancakes that were easy and quick enough to make on a weekday morning, with minimal clean-up. I also wanted to make something satisfying but healthy that my kids would still like. That’s how I came to add oatmeal and flaxseed.

Boxty blinis with smoked salmon and parsley sauce

Until this weekend, I didn’t know what boxty was. When I learned how many different variations there were of what used to be an Irish peasant food but which can now, depending on how you dress it up, turn gourmet, I couldn’t decide what I most wanted to make. So I made three different versions: boxty pancakes, boxty blinis, and boiled boxty. I liked them all but this one, with the addition of non-traditional Parmesan and chives, might be my personal favourite. We had it for Sunday lunch and I can hardly imagine a more perfect lunch/brunch food, though I would happily eat it for supper too.