Flipping over fluffy, hearty gluten-free pancakes, compliments of Namaste Foods

Product: Namaste Foods Gluten-Free Waffle and Pancake Mix – $5.99+

I can be pretty particular about certain foods.  And anything pertaining to breakfast…well…that’s my favorite meal of the day, so it needs to impress.  It needs to be good.  I don’t want my breakfast to go to waste.  I live for breakfast.  I sometimes eat breakfast three times in a day.  That’s how much breakfast means to me.

I’m working on clearing out a good bit of my pantry overstock in the gluten-free items I have stockpiled.  And my roommate had a craving.  Pancakes.  Well, we had quite a few pancake mixes kicking around on the shelves, so I grabbed the next one up as far as expiration dates, and it was a company I had yet to try any products from.  Namaste Foods.  Being a yoga enthusiast, I already loved the name of it.

So, I ended up with this gluten-free pancake and waffle mix from Namsate Foods because it was one of the items marked down when my local grocery store decided to put almost all of its gluten-free shelves on closeout and totally freak me out into thinking that I was going to lose a store to get gluten-free foods.  False alarm.  I think they just needed to make room for new items.  These items I bought on the big, panic, closeout are still on the shelves there.  Ah well…worked in my advantage.

Anyway…it was the morning after the Boston Marathon bombing and I was really feeling my fellow runners that morning.  What better way to honor runners than to make one of their favorite carby meals?  Pancakes.  To add to the runnerific awesomeness of pancakes…I thought to make peanut butter and jelly pancakes.  Mine just had to be gluten-free…for the sake of my digestive system.  And this mix made it simple.

Normally, the Namaste Gluten-Free Waffle and Pancake Mix calls for the addition of 2 tablespoons of oil, 2 eggs, and milk or water.  Well, I don’t like to use oil or eggs in my pancakes, so I decided to gamble…and added applesauce and melted peanut butter instead.  I used water to keep the calorie count down with the peanut butter being a big portion of the mix.  I wasn’t sure what this would do to the texture, but I figured gluten-free cooking is all about taking risks anyway.  And pancakes can be saved someway if it turns out to be a bust on the flavor.

That being said, I mixed everything together, added 2 cups of the mix, and blended it all together.  At first the batter was way too thick, so I added a little more water and that helped even out the consistency.  Onto the griddle it went.  And it took a little while to get that crisp, golden layer on one side.  But…it got there.  I didn’t want to turn the heat up, because I tend to burn pancakes that way, but trying to cook them faster.  It’s one of the biggest complaints I have with gluten-free pancakes…getting that perfect golden crust on the outside.  It’s difficult at times.  Anyway…I flipped them and continued to cook the batch, making a total of 8 pancakes with one batch of the batter.  Nice.

Then…to conclude the epic breakfast to honor the Boston Marathon, I spread some organic strawberry preserves across the top of each pancake, drizzled some melted peanut butter over the top, then added a swirl of dark chocolate because…I was upset about the marathon and needed chocolate, then topped each one off with a fresh, organic strawberry.  Work of pancake art, let me tell you.

So, the moment of truth was upon us…how did they taste?  My roommate was the first to dig into the perfect pancake breakfast…and she didn’t have any complaints.  In fact, she hoovered the pancakes down.  It had been a long time since I’d seen her do that with any product.  So, this was a very good sign.  I settled in with my two pancakes and sliced into one.  Oh…oh yes…these were good!

While they didn’t have that perfect golden crust on the outside, the pancakes themselves were fluffy and packed with flavor.  The texture of these pancakes is light and fluffy. But, they are filling.  Just two was all I needed and the breakfast stayed with me all the way to my snack time, about 4 hours later.  I loved that.  It was nice not to eat breakfast and be hungry about an hour or so later.  It was very nice, indeed.  I loved that each bite had a hint of vanilla to it, which I could still taste, even with my toppings and additions.  And the lack of eggs and oil didn’t affect the flavor or texture at all, in my opinion.  This was one of the better pancakes I had made from a gluten-free mix.  I tested the gluten-free pancake gods again later on that day because I needed to make easy pancakes for workout mornings.  I left the eggs and oil out again and substituted pumpkin, then folded in some chocolate chips.  Same thing.  The pancakes were a little more dense this time around, but they cooked all the way through.  They still didn’t get that golden color, but the pumpkin sort of distracts from that anyway.  But yeah…filling…and fantastic.  Loved the flavor, the texture, the chewy nature of the pancakes.  Delicious.  Very pleased with this mix.

The Namaste Foods Waffle and Pancake Mix contains no wheat, gluten, soy, corn, potato, dairy, casein, peanuts or tree nuts.  It is all natural, has no preservatives, and is non-GMO.  LOVING it.  You will recognize all eight ingredients that go into the mix itself, starting with sweet brown rice flour, tapioca flour, arrowroot flour, rice milk powder, cream of tartar, baking soda, salt, and ground vanilla bean.  It’s always a comfort when you can identify what goes into your processed and packaged foods.  I think so anyway.

As I said, this was the first product I tried from Namaste Foods, and now I am eager to try other mixes that they have on the market.  Total win.  Pancake perfection when I needed it most.