Category Archives: pancakes

Cranberry Orange Pancakes

This was an experiment that turned out pretty well!  You know normally I make the protein pancake mix with cottage cheese and oats, but I decided on a real flour one today.  And since it is fresh cranberry season – I wanted to incorporate those as well!

The ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup of fresh cranberries, coarsely chopped
  • 1 tablespoon of orange juice concentrate
  • 2 tablespoons of liquid egg whites (or 1 fresh egg white)
  • 1/2 cup of buttermilk
  • 1/2 tsp of vanilla
  • 1/2 cup white whole wheat flour (60 grams)
  • pinch of salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
  • 1/4 tsp of baking powder

In a medium size bowl, combine the chopped cranberries, OJ concentrate, vanilla, egg whites and butter milk.  Combine thoroughly.

In another bowl, mix all of the dry ingredients.

Add the dry to the wet (yeah, backwards, but whatever).

Mix until it just comes together.  Some lumps will be there, but that is okay!

Set aside and heat up your pan on medium heat.  This batter will need a little longer to cook, so lower heat than normal for pancakes so they don’t burn. Trust me.

You will notice as the batter sits for the 5 minutes while the pan heats up this it will become light and airy.

Measure out a scant 1/2 cup (or generous 1/3 cup) for each pancake.  I can only do 2 in this pan.  Cook until bubbles form on the surface.

Again, this is a delicate batter, so take care in flipping them.  Oooops.  Note to self – use wider spatula.

I also learned here was where to use lower heat than usual for pancakes.  The second 2 pancakes got a little dark.

Stats for the pancakes without any toppings.  For the *entire* batch of 4 pancakes:

325 calories, 2.2 fat grams, 55 grams of carbs, 8 grams of fiber, 18 grams of protein.

Nice, eh?  So if you have 2 pancakes, you can enjoy some real maple syrup on them and toasted pecans, like I did.

I think maybe a heartier flour like oat would maybe make the batter a little less fragile.  I am not sure how this would be in the waffle iron, but that could be an experiment for later 😀

Nutrisystem pancakes

While I am not crazy about processed food in general – there are some products that nutrisystem makes that are really good.

The pancakes have 120 calories, 12 grams of fiber and 11 grams of protein per serving! And they taste really good. You can either add milk or buttermilk to make the pancakes, or use the mix for any number of recipes. I love how filling they are. After I am off NS, I will order these ala carte.

Halloween coming up. We are going to give tiny boxes of raisins and little packs of goldfish. No candy!

No artificial sweetener dieting

Okay, I have to say that it is hard to find products that fit into a lower calorie lifestyle that aren’t full of artificial sweeteners. I don’t like the taste of Splenda, it is very bitter to me, and can only take they tiniest amounts.

For those of you in the same boat, here is a nice pancake topping – where you don’t need fake maple syrup!

1 cup frozen unsweetened blueberries
1 tablespoon of cold water
1 teaspoon of cornstarch

Put the blueberries in a small sauce pan and heat on medium until thawed. They should be hot, but not boiling. Too hot and too much juice will be released. In a small bowl, mix the water and cornstarch. Add to the sauce pan and stir until thickened. Use this as a fruit topping for pancakes or waffles.

The blueberries are about 60 calories for the cup and 10 calories for the cornstarch.