Recipe Sunday (Finally!)

Evan and I absolutely adore the bulk foods section of just about any store. It usually has a lot of items that you can't find elsewhere, and it is so much more cost effective. However, the bulk foods section at WinCo Foods tops them all. WinCo carries in bulk everything from gummy candies to spices and even honey! So, you can imagine our delight when we discovered some gluten free options there.

First, there are almonds. Don't get me wrong, we love our Trader Joe's pre-made almond meal, but being that Spokane doesn't have a Trader Joe's yet, we sometimes have to make our own. So, we can buy extremely large quantities of almonds (not an inexpensive nut, as I'm sure you know) for an excellent price. Plus, almonds have a lot of gluten-free calories, which are great for Evan who is trying (as always) to gain weight. You can imagine that it would be hard not to be underweight with Crohn's.

Recently, we discovered that WinCo carries bulk rice flour. This flour is very fine and has a really nice texture. We decided to buy some because we thought we could find a good pancake recipe using the rice flour. Sure enough we did! By way of a Google search, we found this recipe for AMAZING banana pancakes. The pancakes turned out thick and moist. But, they weren't fluffy like your average Krusteaz pancake. No, they were dense and sort of chewy. Evan said he used less water because he sweetened them with honey, but when you make them, be sure to use the whole cup of water so that they turn out a little less thick.

Anyway here is the recipe!

Ingredients:

1 cup rice flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp honey (you can use sugar instead if you like, but honey is best for the Crohn's diet)
1 pinch of nutmeg
1 pinch of cinnamon (use slightly more than the nutmeg)
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 cup water
1 ripe to overripe banana

Preparation:

Preheat griddle or pan to about 300-350 degrees/medium-high heat
Mix all dry ingredients together
Mash the banana with the water and oil, then add to the dry ingredient mixture
Stir well to combine (we like to use our hand held mixer for this)
Pour batter onto griddle to make pancakes of desired size. Cook until brown on both sides.
Serve hot with whatever toppings you like (they are utterly delicious with honey!)

(recipe taken and modified from http://www.grouprecipes.com/25531/gluten-free-banana-pancakes.html)