Banana Pancakes

I’ve seen variations of this recipe going around and I’ve been skeptical because (A) flourless pancakes and (B) I don’t really like bananas.

But today Mel posted one that involved nut butter, which I assumed would cover up the majority of the banana taste.

My modifications were that I ate all 4 pancakes myself and reduced the nut butter to 1tbsp (mainly because I was “borrowing” almond butter from my roommate.) Also I had veggie sausage instead of regular sausage, for obvious reasons :)

With a little drizzle of maple syrup this is about 450 calories. Delicious! Between these and oat bran pancakes, I like having options for healthy pancakes. If I’m cooking for other people I usually either follow a “normal” recipe exactly or make the typical healthy subs (wheat flour for white, yogurt for most of the oil, less sugar), but for myself these will do just fine.

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Pineapple Upside-Down Pancakes

These were an idea I had a few weeks ago since I’ve been loving grilled pineapple lately, and finally last weekend I googled them to see if they existed already. It turned out there were a few recipes, and I made some last Saturday using this one. They were good (would’ve been better if I hadn’t burned most of them) but definitely not a healthy breakfast. This morning I set out to make a more nutritious version- it’s still a pretty indulgent breakfast (which admittedly I have not earned, but it’s been a looong week and I ate breakfast at 1pm, so I figured a few extra calories won’t throw a wrench in my calorie count for the day) but at least has some protein, and very few ingredients, to give it more bang for your buck!

While I mixed up the batter, I threw 4 pineapple rings in a pan to warm, and set the syrup to simmer.

Syrup ingredients
1/2 cup pineapple juice
1/2 tsp unsulfured molasses
1/2 tsp butter
A few shakes of cinnamon 

I was worried the syrup wouldn’t cook down enough without the mass amounts of butter and brown sugar I put in it last weekend, but by the time the pancakes were ready it was nice and thick. I used molasses instead of brown sugar as the sweetener because I’ve read that it’s the healthiest form of sweetener since it has iron in it. (next time I might try no added sweetener and just a tad of butter and see if it still thickens up. Pineapple juice is plenty sweet on its own.) Just remember to stir it from time to time.

Batter
Pretty much exactly Monica’s pancake recipe from Run Eat Repeat, with a few tweaks.
1/3 cup oat bran
1/3 cup cottage cheese (this wasn’t a tweak as much as it was me mis-remembering the recipe, but it worked!)
1/2 cup egg whites
1/2 tsp brown sugar
2 tsp pineapple juice
Pinch of baking powder and baking soda
Dash of cinnamon and vanilla 

Mix in a food processor if you have one, otherwise a whisk will work (but you might have some cottage cheese chunks). Next time, I would let the batter sit for a few minutes to thicken up- my first pancake was a little runny.

Pour the batter into your pan- make sure it’s sprayed or buttered, since the batter doesn’t have any oil and they tend to get stuck. Once it’s cooked for a minute, place a pineapple ring on top and flip. Repeat for the rest of your pancakes (I made 4.) Plate and top with your homemade syrup.

Stats (with syrup): 470 calories, 6g fat, 33g protein, 46g sugar (admittedly, very sugary. Would still be sugary with no added sweetener because of the pineapple.)

Stats (no syrup): 375 calories, 4g fat, 32g protein, 30g sugar

So as I said- not the health-food-iest breakfast, but if what you want is a big, relaxing, I-am-treating-myself delicious pancake breakfast, this isn’t bad.  

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Plan-Friendly Pancake

(aka plancake.)

So, my current meal plan calls for lots of protein and fruit, and small amounts of non-wheat carbs. Breakfast usually doesn’t include carbs, but I’m supposed to add 1/2 cup of carbs to any pre-workout meal. Makes sense to me! Breakfast before bootcamp this morning was a pancake that was maybe a little starch-heavy but totally stuck to the rules.

In the mix: (based on Monica’s pumpkin pancake recipe, tweaked slightly)

• 1/3 cup oat bran
• 1/2 cup egg whites
• 1/6 cup pumpkin puree
• 1/6 cup natural applesauce
• pinch of baking powder and baking soda, sprinkle of pumpkin pie spice

Mix it all together and throw it in a pan. I made one huge pancake this morning and topped it with a tablespoon of natural peanut butter. 

The typical recipe calls for 1/3 cup pumpkin and no applesauce, but added stevia or sugar. Since I left those out, I subbed some applesauce in to sweeten it up a touch. Normally I’d like pancakes a little sweeter, but considering the fact that this had zero added sugar it was pretty good.

The stats (including the PB topping): 340 calories, 9.5g fiber, 23g protein, 7g sugar (mainly from the applesauce, a little from the pumpkin and oat bran)

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