Banana Oatmeal Pancakes

For breakfast this morning Pipkin and his little brother Pipsqueak whipped up this quick and easy batch of pancakes. These pancakes are made from scratch with staples from your pantry: rolled oats, flour, salt and baking soda. The addition of the bananas makes these pancakes really moist and surprisingly fluffy! This is also tasty with the addition of cocoa powder, but you can omit it and it will still be delicious.

These are fancy enough for a weekend brunch with friends, but why confine yourself to breakfast and brunch? These are perfect for dinner, too. Pancakes, anytime!

You can print the recipe by clicking here.

Banana Oatmeal Pancakes

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups almond milk
1 cup rolled oats
2 bananas, roughly chopped
3 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa (optional)
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp + 1 tsp baking powder

Toppings:
Maple Syrup
Bananas, sliced
Blueberries
Confectioners' sugar

Preparation:

In a food processor, puree the almond milk and rolled oats until smooth.

Add bananas, flour, cocoa, salt and baking powder, and pulse a few seconds more. (Don't overmix the batter!) Let batter rest for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Mist with cooking spray or grease lightly with butter. Reduce heat to medium-low and add 1/4 cup scoops of batter onto the skillet. Cook until air bubbles appear and the underside is golden brown, about 4-5 minutes. Flip and cook another 4-5 minutes.

Top with sliced bananas, blueberries, confectioners' sugar or maple syrup.

Enjoy!

Yields: One dozen pancakes

No Bones About It

Labbits are mostly vegetarian. Mostly.

Recipe Redux: Poppy Seed Banana Muffins

When Pipkin blushes, even his ears get a little pink.

Pipkin got to work this morning baking one of his favorite easy breakfast items — the banana poppy seed bread in muffin form. He's made that banana bread so many times he's got the recipe memorized. Or, so he thought. After he popped the muffin trays into the oven, he happened to peek at the blog entry and realized he forgot to put in baking powder! No wonder his banana bread had come out so flat last time! He thought that the squishy sides of his silicone bread pan spread out the loaf and that's why it didn't grow tall. Nope. Turns out he forgot to put in baking powder. Funny thing is, he posed in a picture with the baking powder. See?

Not pictured: flour, which is very important.

Quick like a labbit, he got the muffins out of the oven, poured the batter back into his mixing bowl, and added a teaspoon of baking powder before spooning the batter into the muffin tray and popping it back into the oven. Phew! No one wants flat muffins, right?

And not to worry, Pipkin has corrected the error on the banana bread entry, and he's included this recipe remix on that same page, so you too can make these easy muffins for breakfast. Pipkin's a little embarrassed now, but he hopes you'll forgive him. Labbits make mistakes just like everyone else.

Labbits Like: Banana Poppy Seed Bread With Orange Zest

The labbits prefer their bananas bright and yellow and without brown spots. When bananas get really ripe, they make banana bread! This version skips the walnuts (which some of the labbits are allergic to) and adds poppy seeds and orange zest, to fancy pants it up.

Banana bread is a quick and easy bread to make, and doesn't require kneading or even anything more than a fork to mash and mix. It's a perfect Sunday morning kind of bread.

If you prefer your banana bread in muffin format, that's easily doable, and even quicker to come out of the oven. Look for the recipe remix down below, and print both versions here.

Banana Bread, pre-bake.

Banana Poppy Seed Bread With Orange Zest

Not pictured: flour, which is very important!

Ingredients:
2 ripe bananas, peeled
1 egg
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter, softened
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 Tbsp poppy seeds
Zest of one medium orange (about 2 tsp)
Vegetable oil and flour for the bread pan


Preparation:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Lightly grease and flour a bread pan and set aside. 

In a small bowl, mash the banana with a fork until smooth (a few lumps are ok). Add egg, sugar and butter and mix well.

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, salt, baking powder, poppy seeds and orange zest. Add banana mixture and mix until evenly moist. Pour into the prepared bread pan and bake 50 - 60 minutes or until loaf is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.



*RECIPE REMIX!*
For muffins: Spoon batter into a prepared muffin tray and bake 25 - 30 minutes or until tops of muffins are golden brown.

Allow to cool in the pan 5 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool further. Serve at room temperature.

Yields: One loaf, 12 slices, OR 12 muffins

Labbits Like: Spiced Banana Yogurt Nog

The labbits were very excited to receive a copy of the Kripalu Cookbook in the mail today. It's filled with fantastic vegetarian recipes. If you have ever had the privilege of taking a course or staying at Kripalu, the yoga and health center in the beautiful Berkshires of western Massachusetts, then you have experienced the food first hand, and you know it is first rate! Print the recipe here.

Pipkin slices up the banana, Clover brings the honey and yogurt, and Teddy measures the spices.

The labbits will no doubt share their upcoming adventures in cooking from this cookbook, but today they start off with a quick and easy yogurt drink that Indians call lassi. According to the Kripalu cookbook, lassi is "served with spicy foods, with sweets, or as a small meal." This was a nice mildly spiced creamy and cool drink, and the labbits enjoyed it as an evening nightcap. The labbits may have to put a Vermont spin on it by substituting the honey with maple syrup. Well, dig out your blenders or food processors, and get ready to whip this up!

Spiced Banana Yogurt Nog

Ingredients:
3 1/2 cups plain yogurt
1 banana (optional, or 1/2 cup berries)
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup honey
1 tsp cardamom
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground ginger

Preparation:
In a blender of food processor, blend together all of the ingredients until smooth. Serve immediately.

Yields: About 4 cups.

Labbits Like: Chocolate Banana Mousse

See? Not so tofu-y.

The labbits love chocolate and they love a quick dessert, so when Pipkin came across a recipe called "The World's Fastest Chocolate Mousse" he couldn't resist. Here's the secret: it's made with tofu! No eggs, no added milk or sugar, no thickening agents...just the loveliness that is tofu! You might be shaking your heads right now...pooh poohing the thought of bland, oddly textured, jiggly beige matter, but its - shall we say - tofuness, is the reason why it's great in this dessert. Tofu easily becomes a silky cream base in a food processor, and its tofuness is practically undetectable under the cover of bittersweet chocolate.

Michael Smith's "The World's Fastest Chocolate Mousse", is a basic recipe made up of three things: tofu, chocolate, and vanilla extract, but Smith encourages everyone to make this dish their own. Smith says,

A recipe is merely words on paper; a guideline, a starting point from which to improvise. It cannot pretend to replace the practiced hand and telling glance of a watchful cook. For that reason feel free to stir your own ideas into this dish. When you cook it once, it becomes yours, so personalize it a bit. Add more of an ingredient you like or less of something you don't like. Try substituting one ingredient for another. Remember words have no flavour, you have to add your own!

Since the labbits like bananas and always have plenty around, they decided to slice one up and add it to the mix. Clover, always one to accessorize, added raspberries as a garnish.

So break out your food processor (or blender, or hand mixer!) and whip up this quick dessert. Consider adding in peanut butter, or substituting in almond extract or white chocolate. Top it off with fruit, nuts, shaved chocolate, or whatever you like. Most importantly, don't tell your tofu averse friends it's made with tofu until they've licked their bowls clean. You might just change their minds about tofu! Print the recipe here.

Chocolate Banana Mousse

Ingredients:
8 oz soft tofu, drained, at room temperature
8 oz bittersweet chocolate chips, (or chopped if it's in bar form)
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
1 large banana, sliced
Raspberries, for garnish

Preparation:
Melt chocolate in a stainless steel bowl set in a pot of simmering water on low heat. Chocolate can burn easily so don't cheat by turning up the heat. Low and slow...stir frequently until the chocolate is smooth.

Place the tofu in a food processor and puree until smooth.

So tempting to eat like this!

Add melted chocolate, vanilla extract and sliced banana and puree again until smooth, being sure to stop and scrape down the sides with a spatula.

Pour into serving dishes, top with raspberries and chill until ready to serve.

Serves: 6 labbits

No Beech, No Creek, No Bananas, No Sense.

Pipkin would like to point out that he is on Island Street, and that he doesn't see any beech trees or creeks from where he's standing. It reminds him of the time he went to Banana Republic only to find they do not actually sell any bananas. Good thing he brought his own.

Little Labbits Can Be Mean

Poor Theodore De Coste! Yesterday's briefing from Captain Holly didn't prepare this happy labbit for these little sh*ts. The five labbitlings lured Teddy into the salad spinner with a banana, then taunted him mercilessly while spinning him around. They might be small, but they sure are mean. Except for that one with the carrot nose. He...really never knows what's going on...