Winter Storms and Simple Vegan Pancakes

So this is our third day with no power. The excitement has worn off for The Sprouts. But the downed trees (see pic!!) have been removed from the nearby roads, so we ventured out to the local Tully's Coffee which actually has power - AND free Internet (as well as the best coffee in the WORLD in my opinion) but I digress...

So we're sitting here with our laptops crackling, our cellphones charging (borrowing yet another outlet from the kind Tully's folk) and soy Peppermint Mochas (cocoa for Little Sprout of course) warming us.

We're also lucky in so many other ways - no trees fell on our house, (that's a big thing, since I'm surrounded by huge evergreens - see above pic) and since we use gas for cooking and hot water, even with no lights or heat, we can still cook and bathe - I figure with warm meals and showers we can weather just about anything a little longer.

Nothing clever as far as recipes today. Here's the pancakes I made for breakfast - sorry the picture isn't at all glamorous. Probably the simplest vegan pancake recipe out there and pretty much fool-proof. I'm posting it here (with permission) just as it's written by my friend, Froggy, from my fave website Veggieboards.com .

Easy Basic Vegan Pancakes

Dry Ingredients:
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour or 1/2 whole wheat and 1/2 white
1 tablespoon baking powder (aluminum-free recommended)
1/2 teaspoon salt
Liquids:
3/4 cup milk (rice or soy milk should work just fine -- almond milk works well)
1/4 cup applesauce

Instructions:
Combine dry ingredients well in a bowl. In another container, combine the applesauce and milk. Pour the liquids into the dry ingredients and combine till all the flour is a very moist btter consistancy but still a little lumpy.
Heat up a pan -- I recommend an iron skillet with some spray oil on it -- and get it good and hot. Have a plate ready to catch completed pancakes.

Take a 1/4 cup measure (like the one you used for the applesauce) and scoop up some batter and pour into the pan. You should hear it sizzle. (Don't pour any more in!) Wait until the pancake becomes bubbly and the bubbles look like they might want to stay, then turn the pancake over. Cook the other side for 30-45 seconds.

Put the completed pancake onto the plate and repeat the great batter pouring process until you run out of batter.