Steve-Approved Pancakes

I make weird pancakes. So say other people. I like them, however. To me, pancakes are a medium for conveying other things to the mouth without a lot of work and baking. That's something I find ideal, being a reluctant and lazy cook, as well as a fan of instant gratification for wrapping myself around something yummy.

It started years ago with the idea of making banana bread when I was in a hurry to eat. There had to be a simpler way that also didn't take two hours. Pancakes cook quickly. Both start with a basic dough. The main difference would be the addition of mashed bananas and lemon juice, nuts being optional. Mash, stir, and pour. Flip, and eat. The addition of just-add-water mix made it all even simpler.

If banana pancakes were good, how about adding chocolate chips? Blueberries? Peach chunks? Crispy fried bacon crumbles? Combinations thereof?

These met with various success over the years. Depending on how much sweet stuff I added, I mostly skipped syrup. Cheaper and even quicker, without the sticky factor they became finger food. No dishes. Add peanut butter and now it's a sandwich. Nutella is still calling my name from the try-me list... mmmmm.

The kids and Steve have varying tolerance for my variety pancakes. Steve tries to be polite about it, though I think he's decided polite can be defined as leave-more-for-Heather. But that just means exactly that: more for me. Packed in a bread bag and fridged, they last... well... longer than it takes me to finish them off.

Today I tried something completely different. Let's call these serendipity pancakes. Everything happened to be on hand and needing to be used. There were packets of plain oatmeal we had been gifted by visitors who didn't want to take them back home with them. That was several months back. They were calling. A banana was in the freezer, again coming on too long. Blueberries left over from a store sale too good to miss had also shared freezer space and didn't want to share freezer burn as well. Molasses bought with the idea of post-Christmas baked ham and beans still sat unopened. Cinnamon is always bought in bulk in this house, and a large bag of Krusteaz instant pancake mix sat looking for more use before we headed north. For that matter, all the ingredients were. 

Starting with the banana and ending with the blueberries, I threw them all together and fried them up. The idea behind the combination was the memory of the oatmeal raisin cookies Steve had been bringing home these last few weeks. I was thinking something less sugary, more cakey, little work, and no added expense or travel. Plus, the oven's out of commission until it's been thoroughly cleaned, (Don't ask! It wasn't me!) so no cookies.  Pancakes seemed the perfect solution.

Even Steve agreed. He managed three, eaten cookie-like with a watchful eye on where the blueberries were squirting if you bit them in the middle. Let's just say I was glad to still be in my jammies, and even gladder that today's top was purple.   I'm just guessing that two days will see the end of this batch.

If there is a next time, I'm thinking bacon crumbles would be a great addition. Of course, I'd have to go out and actually buy some oatmeal. And one more banana than I would eat before the bunch ripened too much, because freezing makes the mashing so easy. Hmmm, and bacon?