I love going on Pinterest and looking for recipes. Cupcake recipes, salad recipes, dinner recipes – you name it, if there’s a pretty picture on it, I’ll pin it. Now, for one of those recipes to actually make it into my regular rotation, it has to meet certain criteria. First of all, it has to taste really good. Second, my kids and husband have to like it. Third, it has to be healthy. So when I ran across this recipe for “Healthy Pancakes that Actually Taste Good” on Eating Rules, I had to try them. I was excited to see that they called for Greek yogurt instead of cottage cheese, since I tend to buy a lot of Greek yogurt to eat with honey, but never end up quite using the entire carton. Plus, its protein content alone makes it a winner in my book since I try to somewhat limit my carb intake. The recipe rocks, and now has a permanent place on the side of my fridge so that I can access it easily at least a couple of times a week (how many recipes can you say that about?). I made a couple of tweaks, like adding a pinch of salt and replacing the honey in the original recipe with stevia powder, since I have an under one year old who eats them, and honey can be toxic for infants. Also, this recipe could easily be made gluten free, if you use certified gluten free rolled oats.
So, that solves the unhealthy pancake problem, but what about the syrup? When I eat pancakes or waffles, I want good maple syrup to go with them, the kind that you want to lick up off your plate, but don’t because you’re an adult, and you’re trying to teach your children manners. To solve this, I use a combination of agave nectar and maple syrup. Agave nectar is a natural sweetener that is 1.5 times sweeter than sugar, so you can use less of it while achieving a similar intensity of sweetness, thus saving calories and eating less sugar. I found that a 2 to 1 ratio of amber agave to 100% maple syrup does the trick for us (2 tablespoons of agave plus 1 tablespoon of maple syrup is usually about enough for our little family). Just remember that the agave only saves you calories and sugar if you actually use less!
My slightly tweaked recipe for the pancakes is below.
In the bowl of a blender combine the following ingredients:
1 cup of dry, uncooked rolled oats
6 egg whites
1 cup of plain Greek yogurt
½ tsp of vanilla extract
½ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp stevia powder (1 packet)
1 pinch of salt
Combine everything in the blender until smooth. Pour onto a preheated griddle. Cook until golden on both sides. Makes about 8 four-inch pancakes.
