Over the last 150 years or so, Valentine’s Day has become synonymous with flowers, chocolates and sweets. What better way to show someone you love them than with confectionary treats, right? Well, aside from the mountains of data suggesting sugar is a bigger threat to our health than we ever could have imagined, gone are the days that I personally can scarf down a box of chocolates without repercussions.
I’m the first to admit, I haven’t been able to avoid all added sugars like I had hoped at the beginning of the year. And as Valentine’s Day rapidly approaches, I’m quite nervous I’ll be able to steer clear of all the chocolate since I’m a legit sugar addict. Having said that, I’ve made huge strides in staying away from as much added sugar as possible over the last month and I’m quite proud of myself.
To satiate my sweet tooth and still celebrate Valentine’s Day with my family, my goal is to make healthful swaps for traditionally sweet foods. No, I didn’t recreate chocolate. But I did create an amazing pancake recipe to leave your sweeties and you full, happy, and healthy!
These sugar-free Valentine’s Day pancakes from scratch are perfect for a Val Day treat. Why? Because they’re sweetened with strawberries and as we all know, red is the color of loooooove.
Make these ‘cakes for your sweetie and serve ’em breakfast-in-bed style for a simple, healthy way to say “I love you.” Enjoy!
Heart Healthy Valentine’s Day Pancakes
Ingredients
- 2 C whole wheat flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 Tbsp baking powder
- 1 C unsweetened coconut milk
- 2 eggs, room temperature and lightly beaten
- 2 Tbsp butter, melted then cooled
- 1 tsp almond extract
- 2 C strawberry applesauce
- 1 C fresh or frozen strawberries, quartered and sliced (thaw if using frozen)
Directions
Mix dry ingredients together in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together coconut milk, eggs, butter, and almond extract. Combine with dry ingredients. A thick dough should form. Once the dough forms, stir in applesauce strawberries. Whisk well to combine. Stir in strawberries. Let batter sit for about 5 minutes and heat a non-stick skillet over medium heat.
When skillet is ready, scoop 1/4 – 1/2 C of batter at a time and cook pancakes 4-5 minutes per side. You’ll know they are ready to be flipped when the outside edges begin to bubble. Be careful not to burn.
Serve hot.
You can enjoy these Valentine’s Day pancakes any day of the year — if strawberries aren’t your thing, you can easily swap the flavors of applesauce and toss in some blueberries, cherries, or whatever your taste buds fancy.
It’s easy to make healthful swaps when the options are readily available. If you’re trying to stay sugar-free and you find it difficult, my biggest piece of advice to you is to ditch the sweets you currently have in your home and replace them with healthy choices such as fresh fruits and vegetables.
xo
TALK TO ME!
What’s your favorite healthy sweet treat?
Do you have a kitchen hack to limit sugar intake in your house?
Loading InLinkz ...Linking up with Confessions of a Mother Runner and A Whisk and Two Wands for Meatless Monday, and Marathons and Motivation for Fitness & Food.
29 Comments
I often use vanilla extra or vanilla flavored protein powder, and then I don’t have to use as much added sugar. But natural fruit is a perfect substitute!
Yes, true. Speaking of… have you ever tried vanilla extract by itself? Ick… No good!
I like the almond extract in there! Yum thanks for linking up today
It gives it a little extra flavor 🙂
These look and sound delicious! I love that they’re made without extra sugar!
I’m trying to avoid sugar like the plague so any little bit helps!
What yummy pancakes! I love the healthy mix in the ingredients! THanks for hosting!
Thank you! And thanks for linking up.
I love the addition of the strawberry applesauce. I would never think to add that!
It’s pretty tasty 🙂
Oh I love these- they look delish and perfect for V-Day!
Thank you!
My favorite healthy sweet treat is probably the chocolate nut butter filled Clif bars. I do enjoy dessert though and just made some vegan shortbread bars covered in dark chocolate. Not healthy, but dessert isn’t supposed to be right?
To limit sugar, I eat a bigger dinner, so I’m not as hungry for dessert. This sometimes works, other times, I’m not so great at it haha
Haha, I try to do the eating a big dinner thing, too. Sometimes it works… usually not. 😉
This sounds delicious! I’ve been trying to avoid processed sugar as well and it’s definitely hard. It’s easier in Summer when so much good produce is in season. I’ve been trying to use fruit for my sweet fix but it’s just not as tasty in Winter.
I agree. Chocolate rules winter. 😉 Though I’ve found dates to be a pretty amazing substitute.
These are so cute!
Thanks!
I love the strawberry twist on these! I will have to find some strawberry apple sauce (which I think my youngest would love) to make these. Happy Meatless Monday!
Forgot to add I tried to link up again but for the 4th week I cannot it gives me an error for back linking. I double check it every time but his time went and cut and paste from your blog and tried again and still got it. I’m not sure what has changed since I’m using the same one I’ve used for months.
What the heck?? I’m so sorry this keeps happening. This happened to me several times on someone else’s linkup. It was frustrating but eventually worked.
My kids LOVE strawberry applesauce.
These sound great– and I love that they’re sugar-free!
Thank you!
I’m not a pancake fan… but I could really go for these!
I love all breakfast food. I don’t discriminate!
This looks like such a wonderful Valentine’s Treat! Thanks for linking up at Sunday Fitness & Food 🙂
Thank you!
[…] Not into sugar? Check out last week’s recipe for Heart Healthy Valentine’s Day Pancakes! […]