Tag Archives: pancakes

Going Healthy, Promo

Legion Whey+ Banana Vanilla Protein Pancakes Recipe

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Do you love banana bread? What about a tasty vanilla treat? If so, I have just the thing for you….Pancakes! Not just any pancakes, healthy, protein-packed, and easy-to-make pancakes!

legion whey+ protein pancakes

With delicious Legion Whey+ 100% Isolate Protein Powder and fiber-rich oat flour, you can forget the nutrient lacking white flour found in most recipes for something healthy the whole family will enjoy for breakfast. If you missed my review of Legion’s Whey+ Vanilla Protein Powder, you can read it here. If you’re wondering if your little ones can have/will like them, let me just put this here…..

As a parent to a demanding toddler, labor-intensive recipes requiring time and precise measurements are as common as our little girl accepting when it’s time for bed and willingly hopping in bed to go to sleep.. Which, as most parents know, is anything but common! But that doesn’t mean you can’t feed your family healthy food they’ll love.

Hey, Dad, less pics and more pancakes for Mommy and me!
Hey, Dad, less pics and more pancakes for Mommy and me!

These pancakes are fluffy and golden just calling out to your taste buds to savor each and every bite.

Legion Protein Pancakes-Cooked

Since they are so easy to make, they’re perfect on any day of the week. Make the batter the night before for an even quicker breakfast. Every second counts when you have two very hungry girls in the morning, I don’t even get hugs until they have food in their bellies!

Legion Protein and Banana

Legion Whey+ Vanilla Protein Pancakes

Ingredients (2 – 3 Servings):

  • 1/2 cup oat flour (Just put rolled oats in a blender if you don’t have flour)
  • 1/2 cup Legion Whey+ Vanilla Protein
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 12 drops vanilla or regular liquid stevia (about 2 – 3 stevia packets or 1/8th pure stevia powder)
  • 1 overripe banana, mashed
  • 1/2 cup cottage cheese
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions:

  1. Heat griddle or shallow pan on medium heat and coat with non-stick spray, butter, or coconut oil.

  2. Combine all ingredients in a small bowl and mix by hand (if you don’t mind a few clumps) or in a blender like the NutriBullet until all ingredients are fully mixed.

  3. Scoop batter onto pre-heated pan with a large spoon to form pancakes to your desired size.

  4. Allow to cook until edges begin to harden and you see bubbles forming, about 2 ½ – 3 minutes.

  5. Flip pancakes and allow to cook about another minute or two. The batter should no longer be runny.

  6. Remove from heat and serve the savages your loving family while trying to save a few for yourself.

I love topping these with a mixture of cottage cheese and NuttZo for an extra delicious and protein-packed treat, but they are perfect as is.

protein pancakes

After you make and unquestionably WOW yourself and your family, try making a Whey+ Chocolate version or swap pumpkin puree in place of the banana. Have fun, be creative, and enjoy!

Going Healthy

Going Healthy: Homemade Egg “McGriddle” Sandwich

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Have you ever had a McGriddle breakfast sandwich from McDonald’s? The soft maple-flavored pancake “buns” sandwiching crispy bacon or sausage, egg and cheese creates a sweet and savory fast food breakfast.

Mmm, I really enjoyed these sandwiches back in my “ignorant to how food is made” days. Now…not so much.

Glad I’m free from food ignorance now, and can see right through the “M” branded griddle cakes stuffed with fluffy egg and crispy bacon.  I only see low-quality, non-nutritional ingredients like enriched flour,  chemicals created in a lab to obtain that certain “flavors”, and cheese that is anything but.

Starting from the top, lets break down the ingredients in one of these sandwiches from McD’s. This info comes right from their site here.

Who brands their buns anyway?

One Bacon, Egg, and Cheese McGriddle (source) packs a whopping 420 calorie handheld heart attack served neatly in colored paper wrap. You get a substantial (not in a good way) 18g of fat, 240mg of cholesterol, 1110mg of sodium, 2g fiber, and 15g of sugar.

Still sound good? Lets keep going….

The top-level ingredients for a Bacon, Egg & Cheese McGriddles® are:

Griddle Cakes, Folded Egg, Pasteurized Process American Cheese, Bacon, Liquid Margarine
Seems somewhat safe, but dig deeper and we find the Griddle Cakes have a little more than you or I would use to make pancakes:

Water, enriched flour (bleached wheat flour, malted barley flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), sugar, dextrose, palm oil, leavening (baking soda, sodium acid pyrophosphate, monocalcium phosphate), brown sugar, salt, soybean oil, rice flour, whey powder, modified tapioca starch, buttermilk powder, caramel color, natural (dairy and botanical source) and artificial flavors, soy lecithin, corn oil (processing aid).
Surely there’s nothing in the Folded Egg besides “egg”….right?….wrong:

Pasteurized whole eggs, food starch-modified, soybean oil, natural flavors (botanical source), sodium acid pyrophosphate, carrageenan, flavor enhancer [salt, maltodextrin, natural flavor (plant source), spices, herb, turmeric (color)], monosodium phosphate, citric acid, soy lecithin (release agent).

And the topping on (and in) the “cake” is Liquid Margarine:

Liquid soybean oil and hydrogenated cottonseed and soybean oils, water, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, salt, soy lecithin, mono-and diglycerides, sodium benzoate and potassium sorbate (preservatives), artificial flavor, citric acid, vitamin A palmitate, beta carotene (color).

This, among numerous other reasons, is why I happily prepare my own food at home!

My version is actually what you would expect an egg sandwich with pancake buns to be; two pancakes with a cooked egg in the middle. Wow, shocker!! I made a batch of coconut flour protein pancakes from ProteinPOW.com for the “buns”, but you can use your favorite pancake recipe if you choose.

The fluffy white one was obviously my egg-cellent first choice.

For the egg, I had this bright idea to microwave it in a small, circular glass dish to make the perfect round egg patty.

As you can see, I did this 4 times, and the egg just expanded and wrinkled into a brain-like resemblance. #FoodieFail.

I made do with the best rounded one of the bunch and just saved the other eggs to put on salad. Since my pancakes were too big, I trimmed around them a little; not necessary, but I wanted to make it look good!

Topped with a drizzle of raw, local honey, sprinkle of cayenne, and dash of pepper, this was a delectably sweet and spicy sandwich I devoured immediately after the last picture; pancake trimmings included.

I was pumped when the idea to make this sandwich came to mind, and I’m glad I did. These non-McGriddles are a delightful (and healthy) way to start or end the day. Not to mention they can be fun to make with kids!

I think it’s smiling at me…

My favorite breakfast on the weekends would be a scrambled egg sandwich with ketchup that my mom would make, and I could eat several! Did I mention I was a heavy boy?  I don’t have ketchup anymore, but salsa suits me just fine and I don’t feel like I’ve given up anything!

Have you ever made your own fast food version into something healthier?

Do you like egg sandwiches with ketchup?

Dad Creek

Read more: http://www.dadcreek.com/news/who-needs-a-gym-fitfamilyfriday/