Healthy Protein Pancakes…Yum

I’m not a big pancake person at all, especially the big fluffy pancakes…EH! I’d rather have some nice crispy waffles. Swedish pancakes on the other hand are a different story(maybe my heritage) but with 4 cups of sugar in the recipe I use, I save them for a couple times a year.

Every once in a while I’ll want the sweetness(ok, quite frequently I want something sweet) of pancakes and while trying to eat healthy this can be challenging. Enter the tasty healthy protein pancakes(or waffle)!! Today, it was pancakes.

I have a sweet tooth or 32 of them. Actually it’s 31 I had a wisdom tooth pulled. Healthy eating and sweets don’t always go together as you know. What do you do? Go without, use all the willpower you can muster to pry your fingers off that cookie jar filled with delicious, soft, chocolate chip cookies?

Forget Willpower!

What if there was an easier way? Here’s what I propose…healthy substitutions. It’s very difficult to take something away/go without, and to use willpower to fight off those cravings. As humans we view loss much, much differently than we view gain. For example…How would you feel if you lost $100.00 from your wallet opposed to finding $100.00 on the street? It isn’t just physical, it’s emotional as well.

Let’s look at this scenario: You’re up at 6:00am feed the kids and pets, get ready for work, get stuck in traffic on Randall rd. in Algonquin after dropping the kids off and you’re late for work. Someone doesn’t finish a presentation and blames you. Now you need to drop everything and finish it before the meeting which is in an hour. You’re rushing around trying to finish before the client gets there. In the meeting you’re nervous and it doesn’t help that the client is a close talker. You smell b.o. and that’s when it hits you that you forgot deodorant this morning. Then you pick up the kids, they fight the entire way home and you still have to make dinner.

What are the odds that you are going to have any willpower after a day like that? Probably not very likely. Willpower is a limited resource. For more on willpower being finite, check out this study.

Instead of taking something away which we see as negative, it’s much easier to replace it with a substitute. If I’m training for a show or if I’m just being very strict with my diet, this process is a life and sanity saver. I’ll use healthy protein pancakes in place of cookies or donuts or cake or pie, did I mention donuts? It still gives me my fix of sweet without all the other junk found in the most sweets(I do have a healthy cookie recipe that I’ll share soon). I also have a recipe book that I share with my clients in West Dundee that has a ton of great healthy substitutions.

Enough babble, here’s the recipe: Healthy Protein Pancakes-Makes about 10-5″ pancakes

Ingredients:

• 1 cup organic oats. I blend my own but you can use oat flour.
• 1.5 tablespoons flax seeds(can use flax meal)
• 2 eggs
• 2-3 egg whites or 1/3 cup egg whites
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 scoops Vanilla protein powder
• 1/4-1/2 cup water
• 1/3 cup dark chocolate chips

Directions:

Using a blender or the Bestek brand I use, blend oats and flax seeds into a fine powder. Add eggs, egg whites, vanilla extract and baking powder, mix. Finally add the protein powder, reserving the water to add as needed to obtain the correct consistency. Your protein powder will determine how much water you need to add. It should be thin enough to pour but thick enough to not run freely all over the pan.

Use a non-stick pan and pour in batter adding chips to each pancake. Cook on med. for 2-3 minutes per side. Then flip for additional 2-3 minutes.

My protein powder(nutrabio)(you can purchase it through my Amazon store here) has enough sweetness that I didn’t need additional sugar. If you find yours aren’t sweet enough for you, you can add figs, banana(I feel bananas add too much flavor), coconut sugar, turbinado, or add something sweet with your topping.

As you can see mine(my son actually…honest) had a dab of whipped cream. I had syrup with mine. You could add PB, greek yogurt, or anything that sounds good.

This recipe is for Vanilla pancakes but can easily be adapted if you have chocolate or strawberry powder. Top with vanilla greek yogurt and your favorite berries. I haven’t tried to make waffles with the same batter yet but I think it would work just fine.

Do you have a healthy substitution for a food you love, please share it with me!