Whole Wheat Applesauce Cinnamon Quinoa Pancakes

It's really hard to believe after a couple years of making pancakes from scratch, that I used to always buy the mix.  Plain, old, white pancake mix.  Buttermilk if I was feeling fancy.  Heaven forbid I wouldn't have any mix on hand on a Saturday morning...no pancakes for us!

But now, every Saturday I make my favorite  "Fluffy, Filling, Whole Wheat Pancakes"
My kids love them with syrup or warm sliced strawberries or bananas, and I enjoy them with apricot jam.  Lately though, I've been trying to experiment with Quinoa, other than as a side dish or as a salad. I did a Google search for "Quinoa Pancakes" and I found this "Whole Wheat Banana Quinoa Pancakes" recipe by Monique of Ambitious Kitchen.

I didn't have bananas on hand, since I have a houseful of monkeys that go through a bunch in about a day.  So, I tweaked Monique's recipe a bit and this is what I came up with.

Whole Wheat Applesauce Cinnamon Quinoa Pancakes
1 cup cooked quinoa
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1/4 cup skim milk
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon melted butter
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup applesauce

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together quinoa, flour, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt. In another medium bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, vanilla, applesauce, melted butter, and honey until smooth. Add wet mixture to flour mixture and combine.  If batter is too thick simply add a bit more milk; if it's too thin add more flour.
2. Lightly coat a large nonstick skillet or griddle with butter or cooking spray and heat over medium. Drop batter by 1/4 cup onto skillet. I use an ice cream scoop!  Cook until bubbles appear on top, about 2 minutes. Flip cakes and cook until golden brown on underside, 2 minutes. Wipe skillet clean and repeat with more melted butter and remaining batter.

Makes about 10 pancakes.

You can see the quinoa texture to these pancakes - but they still hold together like a fluffy wheat flour pancake.

We had these for supper the other night and I made it a treat for my girls with whipping cream, sliced strawberries, and chocolate sauce.  A bit of a splurge to balance out all that healthiness!  I really enjoyed mine with some plain yogurt & sliced strawberries.  So good!  The girls weren't fooled by the quinoa...you can definitely taste it and the texture is slightly different but nothing shocking.  Just like cornmeal pancakes have a different texture as well.  My eldest said they tasted "nutty" and my middle said they tasted "healthy".  My youngest didn't say much, but she didn't eat all of hers either.  However, they are VERY filling!  Before I started making whole wheat pancakes my kids would go through four.  Now they usually eat two.  They were full after only one quinoa pancake.  I'm sure the mountain of whipped cream had a lot to do with that though.

I'm hungry thinking about this now...good thing I have a few saved in the fridge...I think I'm going to have a snack!