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!
I hope sketchie will be okay! My cat had this allergy for the longest time and we had no idea what to. He kept getting steroid shots and antibiotics and eventually realized he’s allergic to mainstream proteins like chicken so we switched him to a limited ingredient diet and he’s all better. He’s in my thoughts!
aww, poor Sketchie. Sending positive thoughts and lots of love!
How exciting! As the bananas are diced here and not blended, do you think it would work if I subbed them for something else?
Wishing you and Sketchie the best. He is an adorable cat and obviously well-loved.
Sorry to hear about your baby. :( I’m a lifelong cat lover too, and I couldn’t imagine going through that with my Sophie. I wish him a speedy recovery.
As for the recipe, these pancakes look scrumptious, and as a fellow Canadian, I love seeing the very Canadian colours. :) I’ll probably give them a go next week when the Chilled Chocolate pie (sans strawberry compote — but I’ll definitely make that too next time) is out of the freezer, making me feel less guilty for breakfast involving whip cream within the same day, hehe.
My thoughts are with you and Sketchie today — I hope everything goes well! My boys both suffer from some sort of intestinal issues, and it’s so hard to not be able to explain to your furbabies why they have to eat yucky tasty cat food or make terrifying trips to the vet so often :(
Totally. :( When I bring in Sophie for a shot or something, she just cries and cries the entire way there. It’s really heartbreaking. At least with a kid, you can explain to them, but poor kitties don’t understand which makes it so much scarier for them.
Hi there! I just thought I’d pop in and give an anecdote about our cat’s experience with inflammatory bowel disease. A couple of years ago, our guy suffered through an awful half-year of intestinal distress, with all of the agonizing and unspeakably gross symptoms. We tried everything: numerous dietary changes, probiotics, metronidazole, and even cortico-steroids. Besides awful (and potentially dangerous) doses of steroids, nothing helped.
As a last-ditch effort before going the surgical route, we tried something called Atopica (which is a brand name of cyclosporine). At the time, the drug was only approved for use in dogs, so we had to try it off-label but under the supervision of a vet. The results have been nothing short of amazing. It did nothing for the first two months, but we persisted with treatment. Then, after a few months of treatment, the symptoms began to clear up. It’s now been almost two years, and besides two very short and minor flare-ups, he’s been a 100% normally functioning cat. (As a bonus, it has also massively improved the skin allergies that he has been dealing with since kitten-hood.) It’s been a real wonderdrug for us. I can’t say if it would do the same thing for you, of course. And you might have already tried it. But I thought I’d give you a shout.
I have more details I can share if you’re interested. Feel free to not post this publicly, and also feel free to email me directly if you want to hear more. I know how stressful this must be.
Best,
Dave
Thinking of you and Sketchie today! I hope a solution is found and he goes back to being a happy kitty. I know how precious my kitty is to me so I am sending good vibes you way : )
On another note, I have been LOVING your cookbook and spend whole days cooking from it, I can’t wait to photograph a recipe for the book tour!
Get well soon Sketchie!
Thinking of you and sweet Sketchie.
And looking forward to receiving my book from amazon.com!
(Made the banana bread muffin tops this morning – yum)
Sorry to hear about Sketchie :( Hopefully you will find an answer. Sending him (you & Eric too), happy, healing thoughts!
I can’t wait for your cookbook! Christmas arrives next week ;) SO happy for you!!
Thinking of you and Sketchie!
I’m so sorry with what you are going through with Sketchie… it is never easy when a pet is suffering. I hope everything will be ok.
Those pancakes? They look amazing! And I can’t wait to get my hands on that gorgeous cookbook…
What’s with all the gluten-free recipes lately?
Hi Jay, I’ve been avoiding wheat due to a bad allergic reaction
These look sooo delicious!
Thinking about you and you little cat today. We love our littleman so much and I can’t imagine how you must feel! Hugs!
My cookbook arrived yesterday!!! Waaahooo!! I snuck out (left my 2wk old baby with my parents- ha!) to the bookstore to pick it up and am so glad I did!! It’s beautiful and I cannot wait to make ALL the recipes!! (starting with the chia power bread, on my way to Bulk Barn once my little man wakes up to get the ingredients)
Thank you Angela!!!
ps. thinking of Sketchie…
Thinking of you and Sketchie xx
I made the original version of these just yesterday (the ones with blueberries) though I made them plain and layered them with strawbs and soy yog so they were kind of like this shortcake!
Lovely and tender for a GF pancake :)
Just wanted to let you know I’ve already made 6 recipes from your cookbook! everything is amazing and the photography is gorgeous :) Love the Glo-Bars – perfect snack to pack for work to get me through the day. Also FYI – I saw your books are really nicely displayed at the Yonge/Eglinton Indigo (I feel like if it was me I would want to run around to all the bookstores and check it out lol)
These pancakes look delicious! I need to make them!