Saturday Mornings are for (Protein) Pancakes
Confession: I have been OBSESSED for WEEKS with this protein pancake recipe I found following one of my Instagram inspirations @jazzythings. (You can also follow her on Facebook - she is so down to earth, positive, silly, and she makes living healthy/happy look EASY!) And it is time I share this gem!
DOUBLE CONFESSION! Being a diabetic, I used to be a carb-a-phobe (is that a real word?…….). I thought carbs were evil and I should never, ever let a crumb of carbohydrate pass my lips or else deem myself a very bad person (and a horrible diabetic at that!).
I have changed that way of thinking (thanks again to experimenting with what my body NEEDS and inspiration from MY coach Daniel Buron). As I have begun to increase the heaviness of my weightlifting program, I have found that, in order to have energy to hoist iron around with the best of them, I need to have some carbs with my protein to keep up my stamina. Now, having said that, I'm not going out and eating tons of pasta or candy bars or pizza (which I admit does sound delicious). I try to stick to a gluten free lifestyle since that's what makes my gut feel happy, so it's oats, quinoa, brown rice, beans, millet, sweet potatoes… and not huge servings either because I don't like having to give myself tooooo much insulin to cover.
So…. back on topic…. since redeeming carbs back to glory in my eyes, I started craving pancakes on a Saturday morning to go with my coffee (TRIPLE CONFESSION: even as a health enthusiast, I love my coffee. I've tried to "give it up", but it brings such pleasure to my life, I decided it was worth the caffeine intake to still enjoy the ritual… at least for now). Saturday morning pancakes reminded me of pastimes of childhood weekend meals where we had time to pull out the griddle and whip up a batch of buttermilk pannie-cakes since we weren't running off to school! Trying to also increase the amount of protein in each meal, I went on a search to find a way to make my pancakes healthy.
And thanks to JazzyThings, I found one that I love! And guess what?!?! It's only THREE ingredients (plus whatever spices you want to jazz it up with)! It's super easy and, with a little practice and playing around, you'll have it down to a science in no time and can even have pancakes during the work week (I could eat them all week, sometimes for dinner!) Here's the basic recipe, but I'll include some helpful tips that I've found through trial and error:
Jazzy Things Protein Pancakes:
Ingredients:
*1/2 cup of rolled oats
*scoop of protein powder
*about 1/4 cup of milk (I use almond milk and I always add an extra splash)
Place all ingredients in a blender and combine until batter is thoroughly mixed. Set griddle (200ish degrees) or pan to low heat (around the 2-3 option on your burner), pour pancake mix, and cook slowly til golden brown. Top with butter, syrup, or nut butter and enjoy!
Helpful hints:
*I like to use a small frying pan (see picture above) as opposed to a griddle, because I find making the batter a little more runny helps it to mix in my ninja single serve blender better. With the pan, it doesn't matter if it's runny, because I can just pour the whole thing in and it goes to the edge of the pan making a perfectly round pancake.
*I use my single serve ninja blender. It's convenient and it makes the perfect size for a filling pancake. Then clean-up is easy peasy since I wash it while the 'cake is bakin'. But any type of blender will work great as long as the "blender" is not your hand and a spoon. ha! (Ya gots to chop up those oats!)
*The type of protein powder you use will determine the flavor and the amount of milk you will need. My favorite powder for this recip is Tera's Whey Organic Vanilla Bourbon because the flavor is amazing! I even made an extra one to eat cold with peanut butter for lunch at work.
I've also tried it with an unflavored BiPro whey and then added cinnamon and also taste-tested a chocolate whey pancake, both of which were pretty good. This is where you really could get creative with flavorings and spices. Maybe a little pumpkin pie spice, nutmeg, vanilla extract, almond extract, stevia for a little sweetness….the sky's the limit!
For those of you who opt out of whey proteins because of intolerances/allergies, I made this with a plant based chocolate protein powder, but had to add more milk because it was too thick and also added a splash of vanilla extract and a 1/2 tbsp of Trader Joe's unsweetened cocoa powder to make the plant protein more palatable.
I think the big key here is to play around with flavors and consistencies. It took me a few tries and ended up with some crumbles instead of pancakes. But don't be shy! I would recommend checking out Jazzy Thing's Facebook page here as she has awesome flavor combinations (and other great recipes), if you want to get fancy with flavored protein powders.
Let me know if you try out this recipe and how it goes for you! I'm always looking for ways to mix it up or helpful tips. Happy Saturday!