Buckwheat Banana Camp Cakes

by Lacey Dumler

Camping season isn’t over yet, and while it’s fun to peruse the dehydrated food section at your local out-door store, I find it much more satisfying (and affordable) to take home-made, whole foods on the the trail.  This buckwheat pancake mix accompanied Philippe and I on a 9 day canoe-camping trip through Parc de la Vérendrye last month and it did not disappoint.  One batch makes 4-5 hearty pancakes.  We would have one or two for breakfast (when we weren’t having oatmeal), then smear the left-overs with peanut butter for an easy lunch.

I highly recommend adding the dehydrated banana strips for flavour, texture, and potassium too.  Just be sure that you get dehydrated, unsulphured bananas, not sweetened banana chips.  You should be able to find them at most health food stores.  We were lucky enough to be canoeing through blueberry country, so we had a few days of blueberry pancakes as well.

As you can see, pictures from the trip are few and not of the highest quality.  We only had a 24 shot, disposable Kodak with us, but I have to say – I liked it that way.  It was nice to take a break from documenting experience, and just have the experience. We did 132 kilometers through lakes, rivers and streams with some seriously burly, mud-up-to-your-knees-with-a-canoe-on-your-head portages.  Our butts and faces were bitten by mosquitoes in equal measure.  Our feet were never dry.  We had to pack out our toilet paper.  It was dirty and buggy and hard at times, and it was one of the best trips of my life. We had no watch, no cell phone, no GPS.  We had no where to be, and no one to please.  It was just us, a map, a royalex canoe, and a camp stove that tried to kill us every time we used it.  It was beautiful, and I can’t wait to go back.  I pray that I will be able to go back – that it will still be there.  Human “development” is creeping in and we heard the menacing hum of clear-cutting loggers for at least a 16km stretch of the Chochocouane.  There was an eerie lack of wild life.  But I digress, you were here for a pancake recipe, no?

 

Mix together in a quart sized ziplock bag:
1.5 cups buckwheat pancake mix*
2 tbsp of your favourite sugar (optional)
2 Tbsp chia seeds
Pack separately:
Banana strips or fruit of choice
A small container of maple syrup or honey – I recommend small nalgene bottles, they’re cheap and guaranteed not to spill.
  • When you’re ready to prepare, add 1.5 cups of water to your bag and mix well.
  • Pour into a hot camp skillet and lay banana pieces on top.  Cook until the top is bubbly and then flip.  The second side usually takes a quarter of the time the first side took.
* Obviously, using pancake mix is a shortcut as the baking soda and salt are already added.  If you would prefer to use straight up buckwheat flour, just add 1 tbsp baking powder and 1/4 tsp salt.
Here’s a money shot of the blueberry version, made at home with blueberries we brought back:
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