Happy almost Memorial Day, Paleo Comfort Foods’ friends! Just when we would like to think life might be slowing down, it never does. From trying to get our freezer fixed to little things like – oh, I don’t know – moving our entire gym, life has continued to be running full steam ahead. For those of you who workout at a CrossFit gym, if your owners ever say they need help moving those rubber mats on the floor, know that you need not workout that day. Moving those mats is plenty workout enough! Fortunately for us, we have an amazing base of clients who helped to make the move possible and a ton of fun. You can check out pics of our crew and our new space on Facebook by going here!

While the gym consumed about 100% of our time these past few weeks, that didn’t mean other stuff stopped cooking. We surpassed 10,ooo likes on Facebook, grew our Twitter followers to almost 8000, and we just realized we’ve now spent more than 300 days as one of the top 100 cookbooks of every cookbook on Amazon! We have all of you to thank – especially for those reviews you’ve posted (on your own blogs, on Amazon, on Barnes & Noble) and for sharing info on our book with others. We are so incredibly grateful.

Though we’ve been somewhat of stress cases (if you ever think about moving your entire house and business within the same few months of each other, come talk to me first so I can talk you out of it!), we still managed to grocery shop, cook up a few meals, and devise some newish recipes.

One of these happened kind of on accident. I realized the bananas I bought in the throes of our moving had gotten way brown. Which – for those of you who have the book – you know that in my mind the only appropriate use is for banana bread. I decided to first blend up the bananas, eggs and coconut oil with our immersion blender, and I realized the consistency was not unlike a pancake batter. So I tweaked our existing banana bread recipe – adding in more oil and some additional water – and voila! Pancakes were born. Not drab, thin, boring pancakes. Fluffy, tasty, banana-y pancakes. Now, these wouldn’t be something I suggest as your everyday staple. But for a once-in-a-while pancake treat, these sure are tasty!

Some folks asked (when I posted a sneak peek on Facebook) for a nut-free alternative. I’m anxiously awaiting a shipment of plantain and sweet potato flour, and I’m sure you could try these with coconut flour. That said, you’d want to DRASTICALLY reduce the amount of flour if using coconut. We’re talking maybe start with 1/3 or 1/2 cup and go from there.

Banana Bread Pancakes! Note that these are quite larger than 3-4 inches in diameter.

These things are so sweet on their own that I’m pretty sure all you’ll want to do is top with some fresh fruit, grassfed butter, or better yet – some coconut butter! No maple syrup needed for these!

Banana Bread Pancakes
Yield: About 16-20 pancakes, about 3-4 inches in diameter

Ingredients:
3 really ripe (so super brown they are almost black!) medium-sized bananas
1/3 c. coconut oil, melted
4 large eggs
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
2 1/2 c. almond flour (we prefer the Honeyville brand – both for price and texture)
2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt (optional)
1 tablespoon cinnamon (more if you really love your cinnamon flavor)
1/3 – 1/2 c. water (more or less, depending on how thick/thin you like your pancakes)

Instructions:
1. In a large sized bowl, mash the bananas with a fork, potato masher or immersion blender until the desired consistency is achieved (if you prefer chunks of banana in your pancakes, don’t overdo the mashing!). Mix in the coconut oil, eggs and vanilla, and combine all together until blended evenly.
2. In a separate bowl, mix together the almond flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.
3. Combine the dry ingredients with the wet, until everything is fully mixed in and no streaks of flour remain.
4. Begin by adding in 1/3 c. of the water, to check the consistency of your batter. If your batter needs to be thinned out some more, add in more water (note: if you overdo it on the water, simply add in a bit more almond flour to get back to the consistency you like).
5. Preheat your skillet or griddle over medium heat (note: it make take some time for you to figure out the right temperature on your stove/griddle to get these right. Too hot and you’ll get a very dark pancake – almost burnt – but that is not ready to be flipped over yet). If yours is a non-stick surface, chances are that you won’t need to use any butter/coconut oil to grease the pan. However, always better to err on the side of caution, and add a little fat to your pan once it’s hot.
6. Using a measuring cup, pour the desired amount of batter into you pan for the appropriately-sized pancakes (we used 1/4 c. measuring cup).
7. When the top surface has a good amount of bubbles (usually about 5 or so minutes later), and the edges are starting to look almost cooked through (no longer wet looking), using your spatula, aggressively get under that pancake, and flip it over. Cook for another 4-5 minutes or until the pancake is cooked through and golden brown on both sides.
8. Serve hot and enjoy!

What recipes have you discovered by accident? I’m anxious to try these with some fresh blueberries from our garden (hoping they produce some good blueberries this year!).