In today’s post: Tired of trying to convince your kids to eat oatmeal? Try making instant oatmeal pancakes instead – blend oatmeal packets with just a few ingredients for delicious flavored pancakes everyone will love.
Easy Oatmeal Alternative
I’d love it if my kids ate oatmeal every day for breakfast – even instant oatmeal packets have more fiber and protein that other breakfast options. But it’s been a struggle getting them excited about a bowl of oatmeal. I get it, I’m not a fan of the texture of oatmeal myself.
But these oatmeal pancakes are a breakfast game changer! They’re easy to make using instant oatmeal packets, and a two pancake serving has four grams of fiber and eight grams of protein. Compared to traditional pancakes made with flour, which have no fiber and very little protein, this is a win. It’s one of my new favorite pancake recipes.
And the best part is: they’re really good! I tried this super simple recipe with a couple different flavors of oatmeal packets and apple cinnamon was my favorite. You get plenty of sweetness from the instant oatmeal packet, so there’s no need to add any additional sugar, and the apple cinnamon flavor was delicious on it’s own without syrup.
Fluffy Oatmeal Pancake Ingredients
You only need five simple ingredients for these easy pancakes:
- Instant Oatmeal Packets: Starting with oatmeal packets makes these pancakes super easy. There’s no need to measure out rolled oats and salt and baking soda and sugar, etc. The packet contains all your dry ingredients except baking powder. I used Quaker brand instant oatmeal, but any brand should work. Pick your favorite flavor!
- Egg
- Milk: I used 2% milk but I believe you could substitute almond milk if you want to make this dairy free.
- Vinegar or Lemon juice: you’ll use a teaspoon of either vinegar or lemon juice to turn your milk into buttermilk. This is important for flavor and because the acid will react with the baking powder for fluffy, delicious pancakes. If you happen to have buttermilk on hand, just use that instead of making your own.
- Baking Powder
That’s it! Just five simple ingredients you probably have in your pantry and fridge already. They all go in a blender to get processed nice and smooth so the texture is much like that of a traditional pancake. I don’t think this recipe requires any extra flavoring, but feel free to add vanilla extract or cinnamon if you’d like.
Add-ons for Oatmeal Pancake Recipes
Honestly, because these pancakes start with flavored oatmeal packets, they taste pretty darn good just plain or with a little butter. But if you’d like to make them even more special, give one of these topping options a try:
- real maple syrup
- sliced bananas and peanut butter (melt the peanut butter in the microwave first!)
- blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, or any other berry
- Greek yogurt: a berry flavor is really nice
- chocolate chips: if you’d like to add a couple, drop them on top of the pancake once you’ve poured the batter out onto a griddle
Instant Oatmeal Pancakes
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup Milk
- 1 teaspoon Vinegar or Lemon Juice
- 2 Instant Oatmeal Packets 1.5 oz packets
- 1 Egg
- 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
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Instructions
- Place on teaspoon vinegar or lemon juice in a quarter cup measuring cup, then fill the measuring cup up with milk. Gently stir and allow it to sit for about five minutes. It will get clumpy looking, that's just fine – you are making buttermilk here. Meanwhile preheat a griddle to about 300 degrees F or preheat a skillet or pan over medium heat.
- Place the buttermilk, egg, oatmeal packets and baking powder into a blender and process until smooth (or use a food processor). If mixture seems thin, let it sit about 5 minutes and it will thicken up.
- Pour out four pancakes (about 4 inches each) onto a griddle and cook until bubbles form and pop and the underside seems done, about 2-3 minutes. Flip the pancake and cook for 2-3 more minutes until cooked through.
Tips
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Deane Ford says
Can I add boxed pancake mix to this too
Autumn says
You don’t need to but you probably can – just make sure to add more liquid to compensate!
Marty says
Can I use this recipe to make in a Belgian waffle iron?
Autumn says
I haven’t tried it, but it should work. I would probably add a small amount of vegetable oil to the batter however; waffle recipes almost always include a little more oil than pancake recipes.
Marcella says
excellent! Thanks Autumn
Julie Payne says
Quick question: does the batter get tough being mixed so much or does it matter since it’s oats instead of flour?
Autumn says
Good question – it does not get tough because oats don’t have gluten in them!
Wendi Dwyer says
I’m in Scotland- and oatmeal is a food basic here. Porridge, bread, a coating for frying fish. I prefer the natural oats with a little salt- and then any other your flavour you want- or fruit compote. Raspberries are Traditional.
Some prefer it just salted.
Biscuits called oatcakes are great with cheese- or you can crumble them into your soup.
There is even an oatmeal soup called Boyndie Broth!
https://hamlynsoats.co.uk/recipes/boyndie-broth-oatmeal-soup/