Tuesday, May 7, 2013

{Recipe} Strawberry Banana Protein Pancakes

kid friendly protein pancakes
Don't forget to pin it!
I love breakfast food! It's so homey, and comforting, and full of carbs! Seriously, I could eat pancakes and waffles covered in fake syrup everyday. But then I'd have to buy a new wardrobe.

I didn't really give traditional pancakes much thought until recently. They are delicious. End of story. But then our quadruplets showed up, and Sean and I decided to lose some weight and somehow, refined sugar and the pointless calories in bleached white flour started to bother me. I decided I wanted to make those calories count nutritionally. Obviously, something had to be done about the pancakes as giving them up was not an option.

So I did some googling, pinning, and facebooking, and eventually snagged a protein pancake recipe from a friend.  I did tweak it slightly, but it is a total winner! And since we eat breakfast for dinner regularly, I don't have a problem serving these.

Okay, yes...these do have cottage cheese in them. But, before you go running off, hear me out. I was concerned about eating a big slab of baked cottage cheese myself, so I totally understand the warning bells going off in your head. The ingredients are pureed together so well, that unless you tell someone that these have cottage cheese in them, they won't even know it's there. Seriously, even die-hard cottage cheese haters won't guess what's in these. I promise. And it's an easy recipe, so just give it a try before deciding you won't like it.

Dump all of your ingredients into a food processor. 
ingredients for protein pancakes

Add your bananas and cinnamon on top.
easy protein pancakes

Puree until smooth, dump in a bowl for easy scooping, and you are ready to go!
oatmeal cinnamon protein pancakes

Cook these like any normal pancake. See? I told you this was super easy!
cottage cheese protein pancakes

And serve up!
strawberry protein pancakes

A couple of things:
  • Get yourself some fresh fruit for the top of these. My go-to are strawberries. They are an absolute perfect combination with the bananas in the batter!
  • Yes, it costs a little more, but buy the real maple syrup for this dish. You can use way less (just a drizzle!) by topping the pancakes with fresh fruit since the fruit is already sweet. Also, it tastes better. And it's better for you.
  • The recipe goes easily from pancake griddle to waffle iron. I do it both ways depending upon my mood.
  • These pancakes turn out slightly denser and more chewy than regular pancakes. If you are expecting super fluffy pancakes, you might be disappointed. But these are insanely filling and worth the slightly flatter eating experience.
  • Each pancake has 48 calories and 4 grams of protein. Plus, there are only 6 carbs and 1 gram of sugar per pancake. Beat that!
So, I'd be lying if I didn't share one more little thing about these pancakes. I don't always stop at the fresh fruit and real maple syrup topping. Sometimes when I need something extra sweet, I ramp it up a notch and make these Chocolate Covered Strawberry Banana Protein Pancakes! "Oh my," is right! And yes, you're welcome! :)
chocolate protein pancakes
Don't forget to pin it!

Strawberry Banana Protein Pancakes
Slightly Adapted from Marcia's recipe
Makes 19 three-four inch pancakes

  • 2 cups Low Fat Cottage Cheese
  • 6 Eggs
  • 1 cup All-Purpose Flour (or other flour)
  • 1 cup Old Fashioned Oats
  • 2 Tbsp Ground Flaxseed (optional)
  • 2 Scoops Protein Powder (optional)
  • 2 Bananas
  • Cinnamon
Throw everything in a food processor or blender, and blend until smooth. Cook on a pancake griddle or in a waffle iron. Make sure to use non-stick spray between every batch as there is no oil in these pancakes.

Top with slices of real fruit (strawberries and blueberries are awesome!) and real maple syrup!

10 comments:

  1. Only 48 calories each - I'm sold! Thanks for the great recipe :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Rebecca...I just finished making your recipe and these are yuuuuu moooo!!!! You're right...you can't detect the cottage cheese AT ALL!! Also, I don't care for cinnamon in pancakes, but I thought I'd try it this time just to see...and I was pleasantly surprised! The cinn really added to them but not overpowering. I knew the kids wouldn't eat them if they weren't a tad sweeter so in addition to what you did, I added a 1/4 c. honey, 8 drops liquid stevia and a 1/4 c.olive oil for a DOUBLE batch. Thanks so much for the recipe! I love getting more protein in the kids any way I can. PS....on a side note: A double recipe of this does NOT fit in a big 'ol vita mix! Ya gotta do it twice! bummer! Belive me..it was a mess....but so worth it :-)
    Connie in NM

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hehe! Yeah, I made the recipe as big as I could and still fit it in my food processor. I made the same mistake as you. :)

      Mmm...thanks for the tips on sweetening it up a bit. I might try that next time!

      Delete
  3. These look absolutely delicious! :) Thanks for sharing! I want to try this recipe out soon. I'll just tweak it a little to make it gluten free. Yum!

    ReplyDelete
  4. The above given recipe is really very nice. It is easy and tastes good. Thanks for such a great recipe.

    ReplyDelete

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