Healthy Pancakes
These quick, easy, and delicious Healthy Pancakes are high in protein, fiber, and omega 3s… the perfect fuel to start the day!
Are Pancakes Healthy?
I nicknamed this recipe Brain Booster Pancakes. They have everything your child needs to focus and be ready for a successful school day. The protein and fiber will help keep your child feeling full! Studies show that omega 3s can improve mental skills, like thinking, remembering, and learning.
These pancakes are also gluten-free (just make sure to get gluten-free oats) and refined sugar-free! It only takes a few minutes to throw all the ingredients into the blender! Quick, easy, and healthy … It doesn’t get much better than that!
So the answer is.. yes! Pancakes can be an incredibly healthy breakfast option if made with the right ingredients.
Ingredients for Healthy Pancakes:
- almond milk– I always have unsweetened vanilla almond milk on hand, so that’s what we used. You can use whatever milk you have on hand here
- oats– I use regular rolled oats. Oats are one of the most beneficial grains you can eat, and add vitamins, minerals, fiber and antioxidants to these pancakes
- flaxseed– add protein, fiber, and omega 3 fatty acids
- banana– adds natural sweetness, potassium, and vitamin B6
- honey– adds a touch of sweetness
- vanilla & cinnamon– adds yummy flavor to our pancakes
- sea salt– enhances the flavor of the pancakes
- baking powder– makes our pancakes light and fluffy
- eggs– add protein and structure to the pancakes
- coconut oil– adds fatty acid that can improve cognitive function
- blueberries– high in fiber, vitamin C, and vitamin K
How to Make Healthy Pancakes:
- Blend the almond milk, oats, flaxseed, banana, honey, vanilla, cinnamon, salt and baking powder until smooth and the oats are finally ground.
- Add eggs and pulse until combined.
- Heat coconut oil over medium heat in a large skillet.
- Pour batter onto hot pan; top each pancake with a few blueberries before flipping.
- Serve with additional blueberries, yogurt, and a drizzle of maple syrup if desired.
How to Store Leftover Healthy Pancakes:
These pancakes freeze great- so when I’m whipping up a batch I like to double it so we can have a stash in the freezer.
To Freeze: allow your pancakes to cool completely on a wire rack. Lay the pancakes in a single layer on a parchment lined sheet pan. Once frozen, add the pancakes to a ziplock freezer bag.
To Reheat: put your frozen pancakes in the toaster, or reheat in the microwave in 20 second increments until warm.
More Pancake Recipes You’ll Love:
- Sweet Spinach Pancakes
- Sweet Potato Pancakes
- Fruit & Veggie Sheet Pan Pancakes
- Cottage Cheese Protein Pancakes
- German Pancakes
Healthy Pancakes
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cup almond milk, unsweetened
- 1 3/4 cup oats, dry
- 1/4 cup flaxseed, ground
- 1 medium banana
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 large egg
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil
Instructions
- Place all ingredients, except eggs, coconut oil and blueberries into a good quality blender. Blend until oats are ground and everything is mixed well.
- Add eggs and pulse until incorporated.
- Heat a griddle over medium heat and melt a teaspoon or two of coconut oil or butter. Pour about 1/4 cup of batter onto the griddle for each pancakes. Cook until browned on each side (about 2 minutes on each side).
- Serve warm with maple syrup and fresh fruit if desired. Enjoy!
Nutrition
www.superhealthykids.com
Natalie Monson
I'm a registered dietitian, mom of 4, avid lover of food and strong promoter of healthy habits. Here you will find lots of delicious recipes full of fruits and veggies, tips for getting your kids to eat better and become intuitive eaters and lots of resources for feeding your family.
Learn More about Natalie
Is it possible to omit the banana in this recipe? One of my kids will not eat bananas and can detect them in anything! 🙂
Hey Stephanie!! I’ve never tried them without the banana, but you may be able to replace the banana with 1/3 cup of apple sauce. Hopefully that would give you the same texture and added sweetness. Come back and let us know if you try it!
If I wanted to make these vegan, what would you recommend as my egg substitute? Egg replacer, more ground flax, chia seeds, etc?
Thanks!
Hey Mag! It seems like any of those would work fine. I use this flax/water mixture (or chia seeds in the same amounts) to replace eggs all the time and I’m sure it would work great … http://www.feelgreatin8.com/feelgreatblog/how-to-substitute-flaxseed-for-eggs-in/
Do you think this recipe would work to make waffles in a waffle maker? Thanks.
Hey Sarah! I tried it in my waffle makers yesterday and they tasted great, but I had a hard time keeping them from sticking. So yes, but oil your waffle iron well. 🙂
I’m curious about all the warnings I’ve read about not cooking with flax seeds — the heat apparently creates funky unhealthy byproducts. What’s your take on that? And is there an appropriate substitute for this recipe? It looks delicious!
Good question! I’m no expert, but in my research the major opinion seems to be that flaxseed oil should never be heated, but that “when whole or ground flaxseeds are used in baking there is neither oxidative damage to the oils nor degradation of the nutrients.” I hope that helps! 🙂
Could you freeze the pancakes and reheat in the toaster? Mornings are rough in our house and every little shortcut helps. Thanks for all your great ideas.
YES! I always double or triple the recipe and freeze the leftovers. They reheat in the toaster beautifully! 🙂
My batter was thin. Did I do something wrong?
Oh no, sorry about that Jane! It might just be different locations/humidity, I usually have to thin mine a little. Next time just start with 3/4 cup almond milk and add more until you get the right consistency. The batter will also thicken as it sits. I hope that helps!
Hi,
My daughter has a tree nut allergy. Can I replace the almond milk with regular milk? Would that be true for most of your recipes?
Thanks.
Definitely! Great substitute.
These were a success in our home! Substituted cows milk for almond, and wheat bran (1/8th cup) for the flax meal. Told my kids they’re just the same as the pancakes daddy makes (delicious traditional
Homemade) and they ate it up! 4 and 2 year old approved! Thank you!!
I made the today for my 15 month old and she loved them. So did mummy and daddy. Thank you for the receipe.
My 4 year old and 2 year old loved them, and we’ve allowed way too much Halloween candy this week and I thought they might taste too healthy. I did need about an extra 1/4 cup of milk.
Can I use a food processor instead of a blender?
Can you make a whole bunch of them and freeze for later use?
Such a great alternative to box mix. The whole family loved them.
My family love this recipe … it is our new favourite weekend breakfast treat.
Made these this morning and my 6 year old daughter loved them!. She said they were the best pancakes ever. Thank you for the recipe.
How many calories per serving and what is the a serving size
Hi Erica, this recipe makes 12-14 pancakes, and you can find all our nutrition data for our recipes in Prepear, here: https://app.prepear.com/ (It’s free!)
I made these. I changed a lot of stuff – I replaced the flax seeds with chia seeds, added a little over 1/3 cup sugar, added 1/2 cup buttermilk, changed the vanilla from 1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon, and added 1/3 cup flour. I didn’t have bananas, so instead i used 1/4 cup of almond butter. I also replaced the coconut oil with 2 tbs melted butter. I added in some chocolate chips, too. Definitely not the healthiest changes, but tasted great! It seems like a lot of adjustments, but was well worth it. I felt SO energized and healthy in the morning, and it was great! It helped my brain function a lot less groggily, and I think it helped me to well on the test. Crazy but I really think it made a difference! will certainly be making these again!
This is a great recipe!
I am 4 months pregnant and was craving pancakes.
I did make some substitutions because I did not have bananas or flax seeds. I omited the eggs because I ended up using 1/2 cup of chia seeds. I also increased the almond milk to almost 2 cups. I only had quick steel cut oats, so I added the oatmeal and chia seeds to the blender first and ground them up before adding the wet ingredients. Oh and since I didnt have bananas, I added 1/2 tbsp of extra honey. I also added a little nutmeg to help the flavors out. They came out so good! This is now my meal prep breakfast for this week.
Thank you for developing this recipe!
Delicious & healthy! A great brekkie for the morning rush. Thank you
Have you ever tried making the blended mix the night before as prep? I wonder if the mix would hold until the next day.
Hi Lucce! I don’t recommend making the whole mixture the day before, because the baking soda will lose its power in the fridge overnight (think flat, tough pancakes!) What you can do though, is mix together the dry ingredients the day before, and then you have a quicker time blending up the batter in the morning.
Is it possible to make extra batter and freeze it, the defrost to make the pancakes when you want to?
Hi Anh-Thi, that’s a neat idea but unfortunately I think the baking powder in the recipe would get totally flat during the freezing/defrosting phase (which would translate to flat, dense pancakes!) However, you CAN make extra batter, cook up the extra pancakes, and freeze them that way. They you can just defrost them in your toaster when you’re ready to eat.
What is dry oats ? Rolled one?
Thanks
Hi Honada, yep! Rolled oats are the ones to get.
Hi, these look amazing but what could I replace the oats with (As they are not tolerated well) and it also needs to be gluten free. Thanks so much.
Hi Crystal, I think this recipe would work with gluten-free AP flour.
My dairy free son (and rest of the family!) loved these. Thank you! We didn’t have any flaxseed so had to use chia seeds and flour mix instead but still worked really well and got lots of goodness into everyone!
Perfect pancakes, according to my picky 6 year old! Thanks for the recipe.
Just made these today and they were a hit! Im trying to get my sons to have heartier/healthier breakfasts since one will not eat eggs. This did the trick. I found it easier to use my food processor than the blender.
Super easy and very tasty! Of course it being healthy makes it that much better. Thanks for solving my daily “what to feed my toddler” puzzle.
So glad you loved them!
Great dairy free option and was super yummy!
These were delicious! My husband and toddler devoured them. I don’t have a conventional blender (only an immersion blender) and so through trial and error of doing them in the cuisenart mixer I noticed it works much better if you do the oats on their own first to make more of a flour and then add other ingredients in. Otherwise the oats didn’t break down enough and I had a really thin batter.
So good though!
Hi, this recipe was as tasty as it was easy! I made it exactly as the recipe stated & they were perfect. My 4yr old has particular food preferences & she loved them. I appreciate others comments with the adaptations they’ve tried. This is such a great site – thank you!
My Son is 16 months and he’s been having some tummy issues for a few days and hasn’t ate anything! I made him these pancakes with 1/3 cup applesauce subbed for the banana and he ate two whole pancakes very large ones! I was ecstatic to say the least! I will be freezing the rest. Thank you 😊
These are amazing! Don’t get me wrong, they’re not fluffy buttermilk pancakes. But they’re perfect for freezer breakfasts to just pop in the toaster. I’ve been making these for over a year now for my little ones with just a few changes. I usually just use 1% milk instead of almond milk (just because it’s usually on hand), swap the honey for maple syrup, use unsweetened applesauce for the banana (1/3 cup), and I find they’re way tastier with a thin slice of apple inside (I wash, core, and thin slice some apples with a mandolin. Then so use a 1/3 c cookie scoop, drop half the scoop of batter on the oiled griddle, lightly press an apple slice in the batter and cover it with the rest of what’s in the scoop. Them just cook as usual. And to make life a tad easier, I just spend a day every so often making several batches (each batch is doubled) and just stocking a few bags of pancakes in the freezer.
Great tips! Thanks so much for sharing!!
Thank you so much for this recipe! I sub the flaxseed for chia seed, and honey for maple syrup (because that’s just what I have on hand) and the recipe turns out great!
I like too pour all the batter into a ziptop or piping bag and just pipe the batter onto a pan to make mini silver dollar pancakes with or without blueberries. A bit tedious but easy with two pans.
They’re great for breakfast, but also great as a clean, healthy snack in the car or on a picnic! My kid loves them cold from the fridge. Thanks again!