I’ve been enjoying having a backyard full of wildlife during my stay in Knoxville. I’m reminded how many pretty and bright colored birds there are, and have even seen a few hummingbirds and wild turkeys! But the best part of all was spying on some baby bluebirds.

They are almost ready to start flying! I hope I get to see them test out their wings, but with my luck I will be at work when they decide to fly away from home. In the meantime, they are the mascots today for this post because just like these little bluebirds, the berries in these pancakes have something in common – blue-ness! Yes I just blew your mind relating bluebirds to pancakes.

Before I talk about blueberries though, allow to me rant about buttermilk. It is annoying because most recipes don’t even use up the smallest containers, leaving you with a random amount to figure out a purpose. Which typically results in a purpose-less journey down the drain (I have the same problem with heavy cream). So I decided to skip out on the buttermilk in these pancakes and use a combination of 0% blueberry Chobani Greek yogurt and milk. It is Chobani week after all!

The addition of the blueberry Greek yogurt not only added more blueberry flavor, but created very fluffy pancakes. And in case that isn’t good enough for you, how about a vanilla maple glaze on top? I think these pancakes might tempt those little birds to start flying sooner so that they can dig their beaks into them.

Don’t forget to enter my Chobani giveaway HERE!

BLUEBERRY WALNUT OATMEAL PANCAKES WITH VANILLA MAPLE GLAZE

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

1 cup old fashioned oats

2/3 cup 0% Blueberry Chobani Greek yogurt (vanilla or plain works too)

2/3 cup milk, divided

2 eggs + 2 egg whites

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 Tbsp sugar

1 tsp molasses

1 cup flour

1-1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1-1/2 cups blueberries

3/4 cup walnuts, chopped

2 Tbsp canola oil

Directions:

1. Pour the oats into a medium bowl and stir together with the yogurt and 1/3 cup milk. Let this sit for at least 1 hour or overnight, if you can, to let the oats soften.
2. In a large bowl, beat the eggs and egg whites for 2 minutes until they are light and a little frothy.
3. Add the milk, vanilla, sugar, and molasses to the eggs and mix together for a minute.
4. Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into the egg mixture.
5. Pour the oat and yogurt mix into the egg and flour mix and gently stir.
6. Dump the blueberries and walnuts into the batter and fold them in gently, so you don’t burst any berries.
7. Stir in the oil.
8. Heat a griddle or large skillet over medium-high heat.
9. Scoop 1/3 cup of batter for each pancake and cook 2-3 minutes on each side or until they’re golden brown.
10. Serve warm with butter and vanilla maple glaze.

VANILLA MAPLE GLAZE

Makes about 1 cup

Ingredients:

1/2 cup maple syrup

1 cup powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla bean paste (or extract)

Splash of milk

Directions:

1. In a medium bowl, mix the maple syrup and powdered sugar together.
2. Stir in the vanilla bean paste and a splash of milk, if the glaze is too thick to drizzle off the end of a spoon. Add more milk if you want it a little thinner or another spoonful of powdered sugar to thicken it up until you have the texture you want.
3. Drizzle over your pancakes before serving.

Source: Adapted slightly from Bran Appetit.

Disclosure: I was sent six 16 oz. tubs of blended Chobani Greek yogurt. I was not compensated for this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.