On-the-go breakfast just became kid friendly, mess free, and super delicious with these portable, pack-able, freeze-able gluten free mini pancake muffins!

So close we can almost taste it…

Spring that is! We have had some glimpses of spring teasing us with its promise of more sunshine, and we are soaking in all that we can as we climb out of our winter hibernation! I hope you all have been able to see peeks of spring near you in the last few weeks that I’ve taken off while nursing a broken wrist. Thank you for your patience while I heal – it has been so hard to no be able to type, and I have missed you all! Here’s to plenty of sunshine, and lots of spring and summer recipes on the way to fill your table and nourish your family’s bellies!

Little hands and early mornings…

I’m on the tail end of about 8 years in a row of the toddler and preschool years through 3 different personality kiddos, and dear momma, I have learned so much. While those little guys seem to have early body clocks most days, it always seems like the days that we need to be out the door early are the days that they decide to be pokey in being ready to go for the day…who’s feelin’ me?!

Stop rushing them, and roll with it dear momma

Because it just isn’t worth it. About 2 kiddos into this thing I realized it wasn’t worth fighting. Having some on the go options that pack well for the morning school drop off/carpool/whatever your morning schedule looks like has been a lifesaver for me since my first born started school years ago. Those of you wondering why there are so many breakfast cookies on my blog can now understand how those were born! (Use the search bar up top and search breakfast cookie to see what I mean!). Roll with it and keep your sanity. You can still make healthy, filling breakfasts that can easily pack and travel too.

Saturday pancakes made for a Tuesday morning!

Because most of us don’t have time to mess with fussy 15 ingredient batters, or sit at a griddle flipping pancakes on a school morning! One of my biggest goals with these mini pancakes was less than 10 ingredients. I want even my busy work-outside-of-the-home mommas, and my new-to-real-food-cooking mommas to be able to get these on the breakfast menu weekly and not be intimidated. I’d say these 8 ingredients are pretty simple, and I hope that the fact that they freeze well will also make this a winner for every kind of household schedule.

Freeze-able?!

Absolutely, dear momma! Double up baking the mini muffins for your Saturday or Sunday morning breakfast, and save one of the batches for the middle of the school week! The kids will love the change up, and you will never look back because this freezer batch up business is seriously where it’s at! My freezer routine for these kind of baked goods is to take the freezer bag of muffins out before I go to bed so they thaw over night. Then in the morning just pop them in a cold oven on a sheet tray. I pre-heat the oven to 275 and turn the oven off. They warm up perfectly in the pre-heating time. They do also taste great without being warmed through by the way!

Making these mini pancakes a balanced breakfast

There are so many ways to make this breakfast have a happy balance of macros so the kids are full and focused. On the go ways at that! Please keep in mind every kid is different. Some kids need more of certain macros than others – this is simply some suggestions. Use the shopping cart method and pick and choose what works best for your unique kiddos. Here are some of the other items I serve with the mini pancakes on busy days that my littlest needs to eat in the car/on-the-go:

Plain pancake muffins with hard boiled eggs and glass of raw milk/coconut milk (pack the milk in a thermos if on the go. I used these for travel drinking for my little ones). You can spread butter on the muffins too.
Pancake muffins spread with coconut butter or nut/seed butter of choice, and dish of yogurt. You can add collagen to the yogurt for extra protein too. If doing this to-go, just put the yogurt in a to-go container.
Plain pancake muffins with breakfast meat and a banana. (Bacon, sausage, or even dinner leftovers like chicken or beef – I served my kids meat leftover from dinner for breakfast since infanthood so they really don’t know any differently. If you have little guys at home, start now – it makes life so much easier down the road!)
Plain pancake muffins, raw cheese/goat cheese, and grassfed beef jerky make a great on the go bowl of little bites!
Plain pancake muffins, cubes of avocado, a few almonds, and a clementine make a great on the go bowl of little bites too!

Ingredient Tips

Measure the maple syrup to taste. If you have little ones use that 2 tbsp – they won’t know any differently. If you have older kids, that 4 tbsp will make it tasty to the point they won’t want to dip it in more maple syrup like real pancakes. I have found that when I make them with less syrup with the thought of letting them dip the pancakes in syrup, they use way more syrup than if I just add that extra syrup into the batter and don’t offer the dipping. Do what works for you though!
I’m sure other GF flour blends would work, but I have not tested them. I hear the TJ’s GF mix is very similar to Namaste. Let us know in the comments if you try a different GF flour blend and how it works!
For my grain free friends, my goal with this recipe was super, super simple for even new real foodies to be able to make, which is why I stuck with the simple GF flour blend. I have not tested the recipe with grain free flours, though I think it is definitely do-able. Amounts will need to be adjusted for sure, and you will probably need a couple different types of grain free flours to make it work – if you like playing around with that let us know what you try and what works! I’m sure there are others who will love to learn from you! In the meantime, have you seen the Paleo (grain free) mini banana muffins posted last month?! They are ahhh-mazing!
Egg free friends! If you can’t swap the chicken eggs for duck eggs, go ahead and swap eggs for flax eggs. I think it will work just fine. You may want to add a tbsp of apple cider vinegar to react with the baking powder to help with the rise of the muffin since the eggs not only help bind, but also rise.

My newest kitchen love…

Gah! You guys this mini muffin tin. I swear if I could go back to my really early toddler days with 3 kids under 5 years old, I would totally gift myself one of these! It is such a game changer for little hands. Sure, regular sized muffins are a big hit with little kids, but these mini muffins are easier to eat, less messy, and you have less of a chance of that thing happening where they say they want another muffin, take one bite, and then say they are full…*all the eyerolls* right?! Seriously…you deserve to gift yourself one! I also want to mention that I’ve found this avocado spray to be the best way to grease mini muffin tins – it is way faster and makes clean-up a breeze.

Embrace it, dear momma

I used to hate hearing it, because most toddler days just don’t seem to “go by so quickly”…but it truly does. I am not going to say I miss it, because quite frankly it was exhausting. I also truly did savor my babies, so I’m ready for the next stage! Embrace those quirky little guys with up and down appetites, funky requests, perfectly timed melt-downs, and endless unconditional loved kisses and give them a few mini muffins to make the morning a little easier 🙂