Pancakes were my constant food craving when I was pregnant with Hann. We have a word for this in the Philippines - Pinag-lihi. When a child is pinag-lihi with a certain food, he/she is said to grow up with an inexplicable liking to that food.

Indeed, my kid requests for pancakes every now and then. 

I stick to the basic DIY pancake recipe and add some fruits whenever ingredients are available, but I also keep a package of instant pancake mix in the pantry in case of emergency. I find Maya pancake mix the best tasting among the local ones (the others to vanilla-y for me).

In this recipe, I used fresh bananas and strawberry preserves from Good Shepherd Baguio. Fresh strawberries are hard to come by here in the tropics, so we treasure even the preserved ones. 

Cooking pancakes on a stovetop is tricky. They say the first pancake from a batch will always be the ugliest one. You'll know what I'm talking about when you've tried cooking a few batches of pancakes yourself.

Anyway, I wish I can get me one of these pancake makers:

Oh, here is the recipe:

Strawberry-Banana Pancakes

Prep time: 10 min | Cook time: 10 min | Total time: 20 min

Ingredients:
1.5 cups flour
1 cup milk
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 medium egg
1 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp oil (anything but margarine or butter)
pinch of salt
1 medium banana - mashed with a fork
couple drops of lemon juice to prevent banana from browning (optional)
2 tbsp strawberry preserves, mashed
-
confectioner's sugar
butter
maple syrup

Instructions:

1. Combine dry ingredients and sift.
2. If you are using powdered milk, sift together with flour and add water later (in step 4).
3. In a separate bowl, beat egg slightly.
4. Add oil and milk.
5. Fold in dry ingredients and mix with a wire whisk or fork until slightly lumpy.
6. Drop mashed fruits into the batter.
7. Lightly oil a nonstick pan before cooking pancakes. No need to add more oil after your first pancake is cooked.
8. Dust with confectioner's sugar and serve with butter and maple syrup.