3-Ingredient Banana Pancakes -- The Decision That Was Exactly as Large as It Needed to Be

The house emptied. Peter left on Saturday — earlier than I wanted, later than he planned. He hugged me at the door and said, "Thanks, Mom." Two words. Heavy as the world. I called him Sunday. He answered. He sounded the same — hollow, hurt, but present. I said, "You can call me anytime. Any time." He said, "I know." He does know. Whether he does it is another matter. Johansson men and their phones. Johansson men and their silences. The first real snow came Monday — eight inches, heavy and wet, the kind that breaks tree branches and power lines and turns the city into a white maze. Paul snow-blowed the driveway. I watched his left hand on the machine — gripping loosely, compensating, doing the work with his right arm mostly. He doesn't mention it. I don't mention it. We are two people not mentioning the thing that is slowly becoming unmissable. The December appointment is in three weeks. Three weeks and we'll know. Or we'll know more. Or we'll know enough to know what we're dealing with. I've been reading — late at night, on my phone, in the bathroom where Paul can't see the screen. Medical journals. Case studies. I'm looking at the thing I won't name, studying it from a distance, the way you might study a storm approaching from the lake. You don't pretend it isn't coming. You learn its shape. I stopped reading on Wednesday. It wasn't helping. It was feeding the fear without giving me anything to do with it. I put the phone down and went to the kitchen and made bread. Again. Bread is my answer to everything, apparently. Mamma would approve. I started the Advent baking this week. Pepparkakor dough, chilling in the fridge. Lussebullar dough, rising on the counter. The house filled with the smell of ginger and cardamom and saffron and the smells said: December. Christmas. Tradition. Normal. The smells were louder than the fear, and I let them be. St. Lucia Day is December 13. Sophie won't be here this year — finals. No Lucia procession. But the buns will be baked and the candles will be lit and the tradition will hold, even in a reduced form, because tradition doesn't require perfection. It requires persistence. I made a Monday dinner: Swedish pancakes with lingonberry jam, because sometimes you eat breakfast for dinner and sometimes dinner for breakfast and the rules are whatever you decide they are when you're fifty-four and worried about everything and standing in a kitchen that smells like cardamom and the only power you have is the power to decide what to eat. Pancakes. I decided on pancakes. The decision was exactly as large as it needed to be.

I didn’t want anything complicated that Monday night — just something warm, something that required my hands to move and my mind to follow. Pancakes felt right the way the bread had felt right earlier in the week: simple, forgiving, mine to decide. These three-ingredient banana pancakes come together in minutes, which is exactly what I needed — a small, certain thing at the end of a week full of uncertainty. I served them with lingonberry jam, the way Mamma always did, and that was enough.

3-Ingredient Banana Pancakes

Prep Time: 5 minutes | Cook Time: 10 minutes | Total Time: 15 minutes | Servings: 2

Ingredients

• 2 ripe bananas, well mashed
• 2 large eggs
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon (optional, but recommended)
• Lingonberry jam or fresh berries, to serve
• Butter or coconut oil, for the pan

Instructions

1. Mash the bananas. In a medium bowl, mash the ripe bananas thoroughly with a fork until smooth with as few lumps as possible.
2. Add the eggs. Crack in both eggs and whisk together with the mashed banana until fully combined. Add cinnamon if using.
3. Heat the pan. Warm a non-stick skillet or griddle over medium-low heat. Add a small pat of butter or a drizzle of coconut oil and let it melt evenly across the surface.
4. Cook the pancakes. Drop the batter by heaping tablespoonfuls onto the pan, forming small rounds about 3 inches wide. Cook for 2—3 minutes until the edges look set and the bottoms are golden, then gently flip and cook another 1—2 minutes.
5. Serve. Stack on a plate and serve warm with lingonberry jam, maple syrup, or fresh berries alongside.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 185 | Protein: 8g | Fat: 6g | Carbs: 27g | Fiber: 3g | Sodium: 75mg