Happy Sunday football! Let’s all celebrate today’s Chargers win by singing the awesomely manly fight song! San Diego Super Chaaaaargers! Man, that song gets me pumped up in like a prance around the house and make pancakes kind of way.

This weekend has been full of food already. I have to tell y’all about this Japanese restaurant called Raku where you can eat your menu! What? Thanks crazy talk. But yes, it happened and it was awesome. For dinner I had tofu (what they said was the freshest tofu we would ever taste and I’m pretty sure they were right), cucumber salad, grilled tomatoes, crispy asparagus and sake. The rest of the table got parts of animals that I’ve never seen before…when all that came out I just drank more sake. After dinner, we walked to the dessert-only restaurant extension called Sweets Raku. Once they took our order, they poured srawberry sauce on our plates and we were instructed to dip & eat our menus. Also, the menu ring was hard candy. #MindBlown

Cucumber Salad at Raku

Grilled Tomatoes at Raku

Sake FTW at Raku

Edible menus at Sweets Raku

The cutest sugar dish ever at Sweets Raku

Not to get weird, BUT the most eventful part of my Raku night involved the bathrooms. I noticed there was a control panel by the toilet with all kinds of fun looking graphics. Naturally, I pushed all the buttons at once and you can imagine what happened next. I should have expected it, but I was so surprised I jumped up and water sprayed all over the bathroom before I had a chance to push the “off” button. Typical Friday! Of course there was a line of people waiting to use the restroom after me and they 100% know what I did. Awkward. Don’t tell my coworkers. Coworkers – don’t read this.

Ever notice how Groupon makes you buy things you don’t need? I got this pancake pan so this week’s only logical recipe is banana pancakes. Actually I got a pack of 2 pans…who needs 2?? A quick note about this recipe – the idea is to make a healthier pancake by including more banana and less flour in the batter. That being said, they will come out a bit less “fluffy” than you’re probably used to, but still delish!

I’m now the proud owner of 2 of these bad boys!

Banana Pancakes with PB Sauce

Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 10 minutes
Total time: 15 minutes
Makes: About 6 pancakes

Ingredients for the banana pancakes:

• 2 ripe bananas
• 1 egg replacer or 1 “flax egg” (1 tbsp flax + 3 tbsp. warm water, mixed or blended together in advance)
• 1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 tbsp coconut flour
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• Pinch nutmeg
• Pinch salt
• Cooking spray (I used coconut oil spray)

Ingredients for the PB sauce:

• 1 1/4 cup brown rice syrup
• 3/4 cup unsalted peanut butter
• Pinch salt (omit if you use pre-salted peanut butter)

Directions:

For the banana pancakes:

1. In a large mixing bowl, mash up the bananas using a fork.
2. Add the wet ingredients (“egg”, almond milk & vanilla) and mix until smooth.
3. In a separate bowl, mix together the dry ingredients (coconut flour, cinnamon, baking powder, nutmeg & salt).
4. Slowly add  the dry ingredients to the wet, while mixing to combine.
5. Heat a saucepan over medium heat and add cooking spray. Pour about 1/4 cup of batter on the pan for each pancake and cook for a few minutes on each side, or until lightly browned.

For the PB sauce:

1. Heat a saucepan over med-low heat and add the brown rice syrup & salt (if using unsalted peanut butter.)
2. Once the brown rice syrup has melted, add the peanut butter and mix until combined.
3. Serve the banana pancakes straight out of the pan, topped with the PB sauce & sliced fresh bananas, if desired.