At My Kitchen Table: Healthy Weekend Brunch Recipes

We've started something of a love affair with brunch in our house over the past few months. These recipes are two of our favourite healthy brunch options: Vanilla and Almond Pancakes and Old School Granola with summer fruit salad. The perfect start to a Saturday morning!

These pancakes are gluten and sugar free but full of sweetness and great flavour as a result of the vanilla and honey. Healthy and tasty - always a winning combo!

You'll need...

Quantities:

• 100g gluten free flour (or plain flour if you prefer)
• 100g ground almonds
• 2 eggs
• 2 tbsp honey
• seeds of 1 vanilla pod
• 1 cup of milk
• a pinch of salt

Method:

1. Combine the flour, almonds and pinch of salt in a bowl.
2. Lightly whisk the eggs and combine with the milk and honey
3. Scrape the vanilla seeds into the wet egg mixture and mix together.
4. Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture and whisk thoroughly.
5. Heat a pan with sunflower oil or coconut oil to a medium heat.
6. Spoon the mixture onto the pan to form your first pancake (small to medium in size) and cook it for approx. 1-2 minutes on each side. You'll know they're ready to be flipped once you see a few bubbles forming and they're golden brown in colour.
7. When each pancake is cooked I just pop them into an oven dish and place them in a heated oven to keep them warm until serving.
8. We normally have these with  berries, yogurt and honey but you can of course pick whatever topping takes your fancy. I actually sprinkled a little (only about half a teaspoon) vanilla sugar over these ones which was pretty delicious! But you can keep them squeaky clean in you prefer.

Granola is making a major come back to the food scene, to my mind granola is a much more interesting use of oats than gloopy porridge. This Old School Granola recipe is the kind of food nostalgia weekends were made for!

You'll need...

Quantities:

• 3 cups of oats
• 2 tbsp coconut oil
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1 tbsp chia seeds
• 1/2 cup pumpkin & sunflower seeds
• 1 tbsp goji berries
• 1 tbsp desiccated coconut
• 2 tbsp raisins

Method:

1. Melt coconut oil in a hot pan and once melted add the honey and oats - and stir well until the oats are fully coated.
2. Place the oats on a tray and toast in an oven at 200°C for approx. 10-15 minutes.
3. Spread the seeds on a separate tray and roast in the oven for approx. 10 mins.
4. Once the oats and seeds are toasted allow them to cool for a few minutes and combine with all of the remaining ingredients.
5. This granola is delicious served fresh with greek yogurt, a selection of fresh fruit and a little drizzle of honey.

Et viola...

I hope these recipes have given you some ideas for a healthy but seriously satisfying weekend brunch...

Enjoy!