Skinny Chocolate Pancakes!!

When I eat anything from Skinny Bitch in the Kitch, I can't help but feel good about it since the recipes are low in sugar, loaded with nutrient-rich food, and made with whole wheat pastry flour. Even though I only use whole wheat pastry flour for everything I bake and I never, ever use white sugar, there's something nice about having Rory and Kim's seal of approval.

I had that good feeling when I ate these Chocolate Pancakes this morning:

The only sweetener in the batter is a couple tablespoons of maple syrup, and as you can see, I've drizzled a little more on top. But maple syrup is vitamin-rich, so I don't feel bad about that. The chocolate part comes from 1/4 cup of cocoa powder. And since I used a non-stick skillet (thanks mom, she gave me one of her gently-used non-stick skillets over Christmas to make room for her new set), I didn't even use any oil to fry these up. There are a couple tablespoons of safflower oil in the batter, but that's good fat.

These were perfect with a couple slices of my Tempeh Bacon and a glass of fresh orange juice. I made a whole batch of mini-pancakes on Sunday night, and I've been re-heating a couple each morning. It's the first time I've pre-made pancakes (got the idea from another blog but I can't remember which one), and they heat up wonderfully in the microwave for about 30 seconds. They taste just as fresh as if they'd just come out of the skillet.