How to Make PERFECT Silver Dollar {Mini} Pancakes + Fun Ways to Pack them for LUNCH! {Gluten, Dairy, Egg, & Nut Free}

The other night I shared a picture on my Instagram page: I had an idea to make making pancakes even easier (or as I joked, make them even lazier). ;) 
I usually make batches of pancakes or pancakes muffins (aka "puffins") over the weekends so Little Miss can have them ready for breakfast and lunches with a quick reheat.  
I had been toying with the idea in my head for quite sometime now to make them in my Babycakes Whoopie Pie Maker since the cavities are the perfect Silver Dollar Pancake size and thickness.
Well, I finally grabbed the machine and let it do it's thang! The results: PERFECTION. So simple! 
Here's how I did it and some fun ways you can use these cute mini pancakes for lunches and snacks, as well:

For starters, I grabbed my box of 1-2-3-Gluten-Free Buckwheat Pancake Mix. If you've never tried this stuff, or their other mixes, you're missing out! They're amazing. Their facility is gluten, wheat, dairy, casein, peanut, tree nut, soy, & egg free! 

I keep my pancake mix egg and dairy free by making the following substitutions: I use approximately 1-1.5 cups of mix at time -- I use dairy free milk, 1/4 cup of unsweetened applesauce, and 2 TB of ground flax meal. 

If you want a delicious homemade gluten free & vegan pancake recipe, check out my go-to one that I created and shared over on the MOMables blog. 

The Babycakes Whoopie Pie Maker is awesome because I let it heat up while I'm making the batter, then it's ready to go. They only take 2-3 minutes per batch and they're DONE. Twelve perfect Silver Dollar {Mini} Pancakes. Boom! 
The amount I referenced above, the 1-1.5 cups of mix, makes two full batches (and a few stragglers) of the mini pancakes. That's 24-27 perfect mini pancakes in minutes! No flipping, no worrying, done. And clean-up is a breeze. My favorite part!

Little Miss has been enjoying them this week, and so have I. 
A fun way to pack them up for lunch is to add pop sticks! The pancakes are the perfect thickness and fluffy, so the sticks slice perfectly in without weighing it down.
To add some additional fun, we did a whole stick theme in her Planetbox. Included were strawberry pops, oven roasted chicken breast roll-up lollipops, carrot sticks, and in the small dipper was some syrup for dunking her pancakes.

Something we've made before that Little Miss loves are SunButter & Jelly Pancake Sandwiches. She loves having these mini sandwich bites in her lunchbox this week. 
I kept them together by using flat toothpicks - plus they added a little "cuteness" to each mini sammie.

Also packed were organic carrot sticks and organic pear slices in her EasyLunchboxes container. 

You can also use these pancakes to make Pizza Bites! Top with whatever is your or your kiddos favorites - sauce, cheese shreds, a slice of pepperoni. Just put it in the toaster oven until "melty" and enjoy! Great for an appetizer or snack too. 

Since I don't eat dairy either, (I've mentioned this before but) one of my favorite ways to top pizzas is with non-dairy cream cheese spread. I plop is on normally like it were fresh mozzarella. It becomes soft and creamy when warmed and adds a layer of richness. 
Since these guys were for me ;) I also added fresh spinach and packed it with fresh berries on the side.

What are some other fun ways you could pack these little guys for lunches?