My heart is heavy this morning. Our little Sketchie cat is going through a surgery right now. It broke my heart saying good-bye this morning. He has no idea what he’s in for, what he will wake up to, and have to recover from. I haven’t written much about Sketchie’s bowel problems (most likely because it doesn’t tie into the topic of food very well!), but our vet suspects that he has Irritable Bowel Disease. Many days he is running to get to his litter box in time. I won’t get into details, but it’s so sad to watch. His problems were there as a kitten and have gotten worse over the years. We’ve tried relentlessly to find a cure for his problems – grain-free food, the raw food diet, single protein food sources, pumpkin, probiotics – you name it, and nothing seemed to help for long and he’s also extremely picky with food so that complicates things too. He has had blood work and stool testing galore! I feel so bad for him because he obviously doesn’t understand what is going on with his body.
Our vet recommended that Sketchie have exploratory surgery where they will take a biopsy of his intestines, examine his organs, and look for anything unusual like cancer. If we just put him on medication it might cover up a serious problem that’s going on, so we decided it was best to know what’s really going on inside him. His recent blood work came back that he has low B12 which could be a result of IBD or it could be due to something more serious like lymphoma. The hardest part about this decision is that we don’t know for sure if it will end up finding a solution to his problem, but we figure it’s worth a shot for his long-term health and happiness. We really don’t know what else to do at this point. One thing is for sure; this wacky, quirky little cat has left such a mark on my heart, I can’t imagine my life without him and I would do anything to help him.
The house feels so empty and quiet this morning (there’s no one rubbing his head on my computer screen right now or meowing at me!), but I know he’s in great hands. And he will be spoiled and taken care of 24/7 when he’s home, so hopefully his recovery goes well. I’ll keep you posted on how he’s doing. Hopefully he doesn’t hate us too much, especially with that cone around his head and mystery incision.
There’s no good way to transition into a pancake recipe today, but let’s just go with it. I need a little comfort food right about now! I made these pancakes for Eric and I after the hockey game on Sunday to celebrate the Olympics. It was an event we looked forward to for weeks and I couldn’t think of a better way to treat ourselves. It’s been a LONG time since I wrote about pancakes on this blog…too long, in fact! Hopefully this makes up for lost time.
Easy Vegan and Gluten-Free Pancakes (Strawberry Shortcake + Whipped Cream)
Yield
9 pancakes
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
These vegan pancakes are made with raw buckwheat flour, rice flour, and arrowroot flour - making them naturally gluten-free - and chopped bananas are folded into the batter to provide a fluffy, pillow-like texture. You can enjoy them plain (they are seriously really good without anything added!), or you can get fancy and serve them with some coconut whipped cream, fresh berries, vegan butter, and/or maple syrup. The sky is the limit, pancake lovers. They are also fantastic with some finely chopped chocolate thrown into the batter or blueberries! You can tell I’ve made this recipe a lot! One word of caution: The combination of gluten-free flour is sensitive to changes. I don’t recommend subbing any of the flours with oat flour, for example - it tends to create a pancake that cracks, sticks to the pan, and falls apart. I don’t have any issues with this recipe when I follow it as written and use a non-stick skillet though. This recipe is adapted from my Vanilla Blueberry Buckwheat pancakes.
Ingredients
- 1 cup raw buckwheat groats, ground into a fine flour
- 1/2 cup brown rice flour
- 2 tablespoons arrowroot powder
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1.5 cups + 3 tablespoons almond milk
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup (or agave nectar)
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 heaping cup diced ripe bananas (about 2 small/medium)
- Coconut Whipped Cream, for garnish
- Chopped Fresh Strawberries, for garnish
Directions
- Preheat a large non-stick skillet over medium heat. A drop of water should sizzle on the skillet when it’s ready.
- In a blender, blend the buckwheat groats on high speed until a fine flour forms. Place into a large bowl. Now whisk in the rest of the dry ingredients (rice flour, arrowroot, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon).
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the almond milk, syrup, and vanilla extract. Pour this onto the dry ingredients and whisk the batter until no clumps remain.
- Dice the banana until it's the size of peas or a bit larger. Fold the diced banana into the batter.
- Lightly grease skillet (I spray olive oil on it). Scoop a heaping 1/4 cup of batter onto the preheated skillet and quickly spread the batter out into a circle. Cook until some bubbles appear and the edge looks deeper in colour and more firm. Flip and cook for another couple minutes until golden. Adjust heat as needed. Repeat for the other pancakes. I spray the skillet with oil before each pancake is cooked and this seems to work well.
- Stack and serve with Coconut Whipped Cream and fresh chopped strawberries, if desired. Or simply serve with pure maple syrup!
Tip:
- If using frozen blueberries, pour batter onto skillet first and then top with blueberries to prevent bleeding.
- I tried subbing the rice flour for oat flour and the pancakes stuck to the pan, so I would advise against that substitution.
- If at any time your batter is too thick or if you want thinner pancakes, simply thin it out with a splash or two of almond milk.
Nutrition Information
(click to expand)
Lastly, I want to thank all of you who have let me know you received the cookbook a bit early (Indigo is shipping early and stocking the book in some stores, FYI). I’ve received so many tweets from you sharing pictures of the book in your home, recipes you’ve already made, and the like. It’s really brightened up my week and I’m so grateful for your excitement and support. One week from today, the book will be officially released and out in the world. I feel nervous, excited, anxious, scared, and grateful all at once.
Don’t forget, if you haven’t taken advantage of the Bonus Recipe Bundle with 10 bonus recipes you can still do so until next week. Details here.
Now go on and treat yourself to some pancakes!
They’re just absolutely gorgeous! I mean, THIS is breakfast! Who wouldn’t want to wake up for these beauties! pinned
Can I sub 1 cup of buckwheat flour in place of the groats? I figured it would be the same but didn’t know if I would use less. Thanks!
I was thinking this morning that it’s only 1 week until Shrove Tuesday (pancake day) and I need to get a hang of my recipe – this looks like a recipe I’d like to start *testing* every day until then :-)
and GET WELL SOON Sketchie – praying for you. xx
Oh Angela! I am so sorry to here about Sketchie, I hope his surgery goes well and he is back to rubbing his head on your computer screen! Great way to celebrate the defeat against the U.S. I guess were keeping Bieber :)
Yes, please keep him! lol.
Get well Skitchie.
The pancakes look incredible, but I wanted to say that my thoughts are with you and Sketchie! I hope he gets well soon and that your mind finds some ease while he’s in surgery and recovery!
Poor Sketchie… Hope he feels better soon! I have a bengal also, and at one point she would lick herself so much she was going bald! Vet wanted to put her on steroids, but I wasn’t okay with that. We finally switched from dry food to all wet food, and that has made a huge difference. She’s happy, healthy and more playful, and her coat looks great again…and of course shes sitting right in front of me as I type :). Anyways, just wanted to send some love, from my bengal to yours! Hope he recovers quickly!
Also pancakes look delicious! I will be trying these soon!
Thanks Heather. I’m happy to hear that you were able to resolve the issue! Sketchie is an obsessive cleaner, but thankfully no baldness yet. ;) We have tried him on all wet food diet for the past few months and unfortunately he hates it and has lost a lot of weight. I wish there was an easy solution, but it’s trial and error with all things health I guess!
hi i enjoy ur recipes but i just wanted to reccomend a book for ur kitty its by an old herbalist juliette bairacli levy she reccommends a raw all natural diet, no cat food u can find the book online pretty cheap, maybe try switching to raw chicken or lamb they also do great with fish for food my dog and cats are much better since i stopped feeding them yucky pet food, the problem with it is that they use byproducts like adrenaline soaked blood that they wash off the mats in the slaughterhouses and add it to the food thats just one of many problems with premade petfood i hope the book helps your cat as much as its helped my animals i have followed the book word by word and have gotten amazing results, its my bible pretty much!
I can’t imagine not having my Jack Russell, Roxy, in my office with me, occasionally dropping toys at my feet! When my mom and I went to put her beautiful springer spaniel down, we went for pancakes afterwards, so I totally understand the transition and desire for comfort food at this time – I may have to make a stack in solidarity (pancakes for dinner? I think so!). Hoping everything goes well for your gorgeous Sketchie, and praying for wisdom for the docs to get to the source of the problem.
Aw, Sketchie! Feel better, buddy! We went through a similar experience last year with our kitty Rambo. He was extremely sick, losing weight, having poo issues; lots of kitty ibd/lymphoma symptoms – after what felt like a million poo tests, an ultrasound found a thickening on his colon so they did exploratory surgery on him too. A biopsy found that it wasn’t cancer, just a very bad infection on his colon, for reasons unknown (we think it was because he’s a jerk and eats paper, but who knows). After a very strong course of antibiotics, Rambo is a big healthy guy again a year later, and continues to be the awesomest. It’s so scary and upsetting though to put them through all this, since they don’t understand and you can’t explain it to them. Every time we got him home from the vet though he was just the biggest pile of love – he missed being home! I hope Sketchie has a good outcome and that he feels better! He’ll be happy to be back home with you :)
P.S. those pancakes look amazing!
Aw that is such a sweet story! I’m so comforted knowing that your surgery helped in the end. Hopefully we will have a success story too! Thanks for sharing.
I was also delighted to receive my book early from indigo! It is very well done. Fabulous pictures and inspiring recipes!
Hoping for a quick recovery for Sketchie!
Thank you Deanne! So happy to hear that and thank you for pre-ordering!
I will be thinking of you and Sketchie all day!
Thank you, that’s really sweet!
I’m sending Sketchie lots of positive thoughts…I know how hard that must be both for him and for you, but hopefully this surgery will provide some helpful answers.
Your pancakes look beautiful! I love it when they can stand all on their own – no toppings required. :)
Angela: Sending you and Sketchie good thoughts. My beloved tabby, who I lost in December, had IBD along with many other things, and my little black cat also has either IBD or intestinal lymphoma (We did the X-rays and saw the thickening, but did not have the biopsy because she is 17 and can’t handle anesthesia), so I can empathize with you. Trust the vets, and I’m sure little Sketchie will be fine. I’ll be thinking about you all today.
Thanks Beth, I appreciate your thoughts. Sounds like your Tabby had a long life filled with love!
Sending get well wishes for Sketchie :) :) :) I love your cookbook. It’s beautiful. I am a bit surprised how small the dessert section is since you’re such a dessert lover. It’s really well done :)
haha well I tried to keep the chapters even at around 10 recipes per chapter (with the exception of the entrees chapter which is around 15 and the pantry staples chapter), so one didnt overwhelm. it would be very easy to do an entire dessert book someday given my love for sweets.
Thanks for ordering!
Your next cookbook ;)
yes, maybe!
Maybe we will have to do a vote :)
Ooh! I L<3VE the idea of an all dessert book! my best guess is… you must already be thinking about one ;) Hoping my cookbook comes this week, too as I can't wait to (gently) tear into it. Best energy and healing vibes to Sketchie – there is no substitute for the love and relationships we develop with the creatures who share our lives. I
Hi Angela,
this looks gorgeous! Do you think that I could sub the flours for an all-purpose flour (like Bobs Mill)?
Thank you!
Hanne
I havent tried it, but I can’t see why not! let us know if you try it
I think all purpose gluten free baking mix would work fine, I’ve used it before. (If you mean Bob’s gluten free, I know they sell other stuff too) If you just used Bob’s gluten free pancake mix that would work fine too, I tend to use that as my go to flour mix as it is a little cheaper than plain gluten free flour mix. (No clue why)
Sending lots of positive thoughts for your beautiful Sketchie. I hope all goes well with the surgery and he’s back to his antics in no time! Also, I am ridiculously excited to receive your cookbook!
I’m so sad to hear about Sketchie :( I look at his pictures often and he is just such an impossibly cute and sweet cat. He is lucky he has such caring owners to look after him. I am sure both his surgery and recovery will go exactly as planned and he will be cured. Things have to get worse before they can get better. And he will absolutely get better!! And of course: Congrats your cookbook. You are inspiring as always, and I CANNOT WAIT to get my copy in the mail :)
Awh I really hope your cat is ok! For those of us without kids they really are comparable in terms of the love we have for them, pets in general I mean. Chin up! And yes…gorgeous pancakes!
Best of luck to Sketchie! I can’t imagine what you must be going through. Stay strong <3