Pancakes, Pudding & Doughnuts - Oh My! 3 Easy Vegetarian Breakfast Recipes (Gluten-free & Vegan)

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Today I'm going to share three incredible breakfasts you can easily make at home without a million ingredients and with very little cooking skills required. When I'd rather eat dessert than breakfast -- but I don't want a sugar crash later -- here's what I make:

Banana Pancakes with ragi flour and flax seeds

Cinnamon Chinese Doughnuts to Dip in Chocolate Soymilk

"Mango-Lassi" Style Chia-Seed Pudding (My Raw Heaven)

Are you ready for this?

As you can probably tell:

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Now it's pancake time! (Quick shoutout to @ardas who begged for this recipe & inspired me to include it)

My Recipe for Banana Pancakes with Ragi Flour and Flax Seeds (wheat & gluten-free)

I discovered "ragi," or finger-millet flour, for the first time on my travels in India. Now I love wheat-free stuff because it's easier for me to digest, and ragi is a super-versatile flour. You can use any flour of your choice here, but I just love ragi's hearty flavor -- plus, ragi flour is SO healthy! It's got lots of calcium, iron and amino acids, according to NDTV.com.

This recipe makes about 4 pancakes -- Good for 2 people, shown here for vegetarians.

If you're vegan, use the baking powder and vegan maple syrup instead of honey.

Ingredients:

• 240 g (or 2 cups) of ragi flour
• 180 g (or 1.5 cups) of water
• 1 tsp. baking powder (or 1/8 tsp. baking soda mixed with 60 g. -- 0.5 cup -- honey)
• 2 heaping tbsp. ground flax seed mixed with water for egg substitute
• sliced bananas for the topping

Now here's how it goes:

1. First, make your "flax eggs." Put the ground flax seed in a tiny dish and start adding water a little at a time while stirring. Mix it quickly with a fork for a couple of minutes. You'll end up adding 3 times as much water, around 6 tbsp. You'll know when you added enough water because it will start to become thick and "stretchy." Now put it down and leave it alone to thicken more.

2. Mix the ragi flour with baking powder. Now I often run out of baking powder. It's just that one thing you always forget at the store, you know? That's why I invented a cool substitute that makes the pancakes fluffy. Instead of baking powder, you can mix 1/8 tsp. baking soda with 60 g. -- 0.5 cup -- honey in a separate tiny dish. It bubbles up beautifully, and then you just toss it into the batter - voila!

3. Now while stirring, gradually pour in the water, egg substitute and baking powder substitute if you didn't use baking powder. Stir until well-mixed.

4. I prefer to fry my pancakes in ghee (clarified butter), but you could use butter or vegan butter if you like.

5. Serve with sliced bananas on top and drizzle some honey on them for the best mouthwatering topping ever!

But wait ... there's more.

Source via Giphy

(This next one was inspired by a recommendation from @sweetsssj, & I'm so grateful!)

My Recipe for Finger-Lickin' Chinese Doughnuts with Oat Flour & Chia Seeds (vegan, wheat & gluten-free)

If you want to indulge & have it in the more traditional way, you could always throw in an egg instead of the chia seeds.

(Serves 2 people - Prepare it before bed & fry them up the next morning.)

I love this one because it's super healthy; the overnight fermentation of the dough makes it easy on the stomach and more low-fat.

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp. ground chia seeds (mixed with 3 tbsp. water to create egg substitute)
• 120 g (or 1 cup) oat flour (which is just throwing oats in a grinder, so that's super easy!)
• 1 tsp. baking powder (or my new alternative: 1/4 tsp. baking soda + 1.5 tsp. apple cider vinegar)
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. natural sugar (I prefer natural, unprocessed brown cane sugar)
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 cup of water
• coconut oil
• cinnamon & sugar topping (honey optional - but awesome)
• Chocolate soy milk (for dipping)

1. Mix up your chia-seed egg substitute, which works just like I described with flax seeds earlier. Set aside.

2. In a separate bowl, stir up your oat flour, baking soda, sugar, salt & baking powder or alternative. Gradually pour in water and keep stirring until it's well-mixed.

3. Add your "chia-seed egg" and stir until it's nice and doughy. It should form a nice big , sticky ball that's a little wet because the chia seeds will soak up water overnight a little.

4. Cover the bowl with a towel and let it sit on the counter overnight to ferment.

5. In the morning, pull out a cutting board. Sprinkle it with more oat flour or a starch like arrowroot powder, and powder your hands well too. Then have lots of fun making cute shapes & balls out of the dough! Fry them in about an inch-high of coconut oil in your wok or deep pan. Turn them over for about 3 minutes to cook on each side.

6. When you scoop them out, roll them in a plate of cinnamon and sugar to coat them. Then pour on the honey or vegan maple syrup and enjoy! Traditionally, the Chinese dip them in soy milk -- of course, I prefer chocolate soy milk.

For the grand finale...

My Mango Lassi Chia-Seed Pudding (Raw, Vegan and Amazing)

This is also an overnight recipe if you want it to be super healthy because then your body gets the full benefit of the soaked chia seeds. But if you're in a hurry, just soak the seeds for at least 20 minutes.

-Thanks to @rieki for the encouragement to delve into more fun experimenting with chia-seed pudding!

(Serves 2 hungry people or 3 people as a side dish)

Ingredients:

• 120 g (or 1 cup) ground chia seeds, soaked overnight (but no more than 9 hours in a hot climate unless you keep in a fridge)
• 480 g (or 4 cups) water
• 2 mangos
• 30 ml. (or around one oz.) virgin coconut oil
• 1 big scoop vanilla whey-protein powder
• 1/2 tsp. cardamom powder
• 3/4 tsp. cinnamon powder
• 2 tbsp. honey or vegan liquid sweetener of choice like agave nectar

1. Mix the ground chia seeds with water and let it sit, covered, on your counter overnight. It will become like jell-O.

2. Put your chia jell-o in the blender with all the other ingredients.

3. Blend it.

4. Pour into bowls and savor spoonfuls of heaven.

Why Else Are These Breakfasts Awesome -- Besides The Taste?

Surprise! Eating healthy isn't really that hard, and you're not stuck with boring, tasteless food if you leave out dairy and eggs! Just put in a little time, and you can enjoy something that tastes amazing with the people you love right at home -- and these foods are easier to digest too, so they'll even make you feel better. I know from experience that when I feel more tired, dull and heavy I feel after eating, then I just loved up on heavily processed, unhealthy foods that take longer to digest. (Psst... "longer to digest" means "more likely to make me fat" too)

Everyone in my place was thrilled with these tasty breakfast bites, and I get requests for these recipes often because a lot of people don't realize how easy and simple they really are to make.

If you guys like these, please let me know because I'm happy to share more that I created!