So I'm a HUGE pancake fanatic and love any excuse to have a huge stack for breakfast - or any time of the day to be honest! With Christmas being right around the corner, I of course had to incorporate some festiveness in them.

These pancakes are relatively healthy - I say relatively healthy only because I added a very sweet, dairy-rich vanilla sauce on top. However, you can always leave out the sauce! To achieve the bright, red velvet color, I used a beet root and the end result was just fabulous!

Pancake batter:

- 2 eggs
- 1 large beet root
- 1 cup of raw cacao powder
- 1/2 cup of coconut flour
- 3/4 cup of unsweetened almond milk
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
- 1 small pinch of salt

Vanilla sauce:

- 1/4 cup of coconut milk
- 1/2 cup of organic vanilla powder
- 2 tablespoons of cream cheese
- 1 tablespoon of plain Greek yogurt
- 1 teaspoon of Stevia
- 1/2 teaspoon of powdered sugar

Garnishments:

- Raspberries
- Mint leaves

Directions:

First, you will need to cook your beet root (which I do so by roasting it). To roast your beet, first cut off the leaves and long, pink stems. Next, wash your beet thouroughly - make sure you do so, otherwise your pancakes will end up tasting like straight up dirt (not even kidding). Wrap the root in aluminum foil and bake it for 15 minutes at 400 degrees. Your beet will be ready once it's soft and a little "runny." You can check if it's ready by taking it out of the aluminum foil - BE CAREFUL and please please please open it away from you so the steam doesn't rush in your face - and softly poke a knife into the skin. If it's too firm (seeing as not all ovens cook at the same rate), let it roast for a few minutes longer. Once it's ready, remove the skin and cut the flesh into small slices.

Next whisk all of your wet ingredients together in a bowl. Once you've done so, add your beet slices, your mixture of wet ingredients, and the rest of the dry ingredients in a food processor and pulse until smooth.

Now your batter is ready!

The next step is cooking your pancakes. I use a spoon for precision to dollop my batter on the pan, and normally use anywhere from 2-4 tablespoons, depending on how big I want my pancakes. If you're cooking on low heat, you're going to want to leave your pancake on for at least a minute or two so the first side can fully cook. Cooking on medium-high heat will take less than half of the time for your first side to be done. All stoves cook at different rates, so I would suggest using your spatula to peek underneath so you can check and see once it is ready.

Once your first side is fully cooked, flip it over with a spatula and cook the second side for the same amount of time. Cooking time will also vary depending on how thick and how big you make your pancakes. 

I added a creamy vanilla sauce on top to top off this creation! I had a mega sweet tooth this day, which led to me wanting to add a very sweet, sugary sauce on top. You can always opt this part out or simply use a different alternative.

Add all of your ingredients together in a bowl and whisk them together. Once you have a nice, uniform mixture, heat it up in the microwave for roughly 10-15 seconds.

Now for the fun part! Add your pancake stack to a plate, pour your creamy vanilla sauce over top of the stack, and garnish with any fruit/additional toppings of your choice - here I used raspberries and mint leaves.

Enjoy!