Vegan Alternative to Pancakes Served Alongside an Avocado Chocolate Mousse

Hey guys! I thought I'd start of with a HAPPY EASTER! I hope that you have all spent your day eating eggs and being unable to move, I know I haven't.. the rents forgot to buy us easter eggs :(

So today I've tried something new, a vegan recipe!
Recently I've been trying to cut out most carbs and most dairy products out of my diet, mostly because it doesn't really suit my body and basically I feel fat and bloated all of the time haha. 
So for example, instead of eating bread and pasta, I'll most likely opt for brown rice or quinoa. And instead of drinking milk and eating cheese, I've opted for drinking almond milk and eating goats cheese (it's got half the fat and isn't too harsh on the stomach.) Doing this has actually improved the state of my mind and body so much! I used to feel so tired and bloated all the time, and after going through with this for only a week, sure it's quite difficult to follow along with a vegetarian diet, but I feel a lot lighter. 

So the first recipe I've experimented with is an 'Avocado Chocolate Mousse.' Usually I love a bit of Nutella on my pancakes, however it can get quite heavy and a little too much to start the day with. So I've found an alternative.

Ingredients:

2 large, ripe avocados

2-3 tablespoons of almond milk

2-3 tablespoons of cocoa powder/drinking chocolate

Optional add ins - hazelnuts provide that amazing taste that nutella has, and although I didn't have any to hand, I would definitely recommend adding this in for a richer taste!

(for a richer taste, you can always melt chocolate and add that into the mix as well, alternatively if you'd like to make this extra healthy, you can add in raw cocoa powder and to sweeten, add in 2-3 dates.)

Just pop it all into a blender, blend until smooth and there you have it! All you need to do now is either refrigerate it for later and add a sprinkling of granola over the top and a few raspberries, or eat it as it is!

This next recipe is the perfect accompaniment to the mousse. Its an all vegan, banana pancake! I'm yet to perfect this recipe, as its reaaaally difficult to flip once its in the pan, because I haven't added any egg to it as a binding agent, I've only really used banana and baking powder so it's a little flimsy. I then added a teaspoon of self raising flour on a whim that maybe it would hold the remaining batter together once in the pan, and it worked! 

Ingredients:

1 ripe banana
1 cup of oats - you could use gluten free oats if you'd like
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of bi-carbonate of soda
1 and a 1/4 cup of almond milk
2 tablespoons of honey
1 teaspoon of self raising flour - or however much you'd want to use depending on how difficult the pancake is to flip

Optional add ins - nuts of your choice, chopped berries, chocolate chips

Now all you do is blend the whole mixture together, until completely smooth. If you find that the mixture is slightly too thick, add in some more milk and mix together. I then added in raspberries once I had blended everything together.

Once I had added the berries, I heated a pan up and spread some rapeseed oil over it so that the pancakes don't stick to the pan and create the worst mess imaginable. As soon as the pan has been heated, lower the heat down and then begin to pour the batter onto the pan. The lower the heat (but obviously not ridiculously low) the softer and lighter the pancakes.

Give each side 2-3 minutes to cook, and then flip. Be careful though - it can be a messy job and don't worry if the first one comes out as a total shambles, it took me almost 2 or 3 tries to actually get it right, and like I said, the recipe hasn't been perfected, so if you lot come up with any ways to create a more stable pancake, feel free to message me and let me know!

And there you have it - the pancake may look burnt, but thats just because you've added in banana so its 'caramelised', the inside of the pancake is beautifully light and fluffy, so the exterior is nothing to worry about!

Serve with all of your favourite pancake toppings (mine happens to be peanut butter, avocado mousse and raspberries), and enjoy!

I hope you enjoyed reading this post, my next one shall be an April favourites, which is a whole host of products and general stuffs I have been enjoying throughout this month, both beauty and non beauty!

Jazz x