Spinach Blender Pancakes

Happy Monday Ya’ll,

The family and I enjoyed a nice weekend vacation on the west side of Washington state, or more like a racation. We stayed with family one night and then ventured to Whidbey Island Saturday and enjoyed the scenery and ocean. It’s a nice quaint place.

We also hiked around Snoqualmie Falls on the way to Seattle, then went through the Tulip Festival in the Skagit Valley and saw other sites as well. It was fun and we jammed a lot in in a few days. The main reason for the trip was the Whidbey Island Half Marathon I was running. I had a free race entry and enjoyed the race last year, even with all the hills, we decided to come back. We made it a little mini-vacation too so it wasn’t just all about racing.

It was a nice weekend get-away with a lot of driving and car time, because traffic is more than annoying, but thankfully the kids were troopers. A lot of potty breaks were made with the toddler though 😉

Later this week, I have a educational post on energy and workouts, so stay tuned, and hopefully I’ll get to my race recap as well. First, I wanted to start off with these easy and kid-friendly Spinach Blender Pancakes. These would have been perfect for St. Paddy’s day or even Earth Day. Using spinach to dye the pancakes is a much healthier option then food coloring/dye,  and you can’t taste the spinach. You are getting the fun color for the kids or even adults, with the nutritional benefits from the spinach without changing the taste.

These pancakes are fluffy, and like buttermilk pancakes, but they are vegan and grain free. I love the simple ingredients you’ll need and how easy they are to make. Food coloring is something I steer clear off, because of it’s toxicity. Artificial food coloring is a dangerous additive, and it’s used in many children’s snacks, crackers, and even some juices. It can cause tumors and hypersensitivity reactions.  There’s natural ways to add food coloring and it’s fairly easy to color food natural. From using beets, spinach, or berries. It’s fun and you an add a nutritional boost.

You don’t have to sacrifice anything by adding spinach to your pancakes. The kids will love them!! Tested on my two little ones. They even freeze well and they will keep in the refrigerator for a few days, easily warmed up for breakfast.

I love that the spinach adds vitamin K, iron, vitamin A, magnesium and B vitamins to name a few. It really is a nutritional powerhouse. It is also on the dirty dozen. It’s number two on the dirty dozen list for 2017, so I highly recommend choosing organic spinach. Conventional spinach is grown with pesticides, herbicides and other toxins. It has more pesticide residues by weight than another other produce tested, and one such insecticide is a neurotoxin.

Enjoy these at your next family breakfast or brunch and there’s no need to mention spinach if that scares certain family members. Just say they are green pancakes. Kids loved colored foods. You can add fresh blueberries and strawberries to, or even chocolate chips and top with your favorite pancake toppings. Of course mine are peanut butter or almond butter with maple syrup. You won’t taste the spinach, but you’ll enjoy all the benefits, or at least your body will.