My FAVORITE protein pancakes

I love breakfast food. I love it for breakfast, lunch, dinner and sometimes a late night snack.  But,  that doesn't always translate as something healthy or nutrient dense.

For instance, your typical buttermilk pancakes might offer you that cozy feeling when you eat them. Syrupy, filling and lots of butter.  But they have little nutrition, a lot of carbs and usually a lot of sugar after you douse them in maple syrup.  Typical pancakes always leave me hungry an hour later.

In my search for the perfect pancake alternative to those fluffy golden circles of buttermilk and maple syrup goodness-  I came up with the 'protein pancake'.

Here is what you will need:

Protein pancake (makes 1 pancake) 

-1/3 cup old fashioned oats
-1/3 cup egg whites
-1/3 cup reduced fat cottage cheese ( I HATE cottage cheese. You can not taste it in this recipe at all.)
-1/4 tsp cinnamon
-1/4 tsp baking powder
-1/4 tsp vanilla extract
 (optional) honey, maple syrup, fresh fruit- for topping
 

All ingredients!

Add all your ingredients in your blender.  Blend until smooth (I always start slow until the ingredients combine, then turn up the blender speed a little).  This should take no longer than 40 seconds.

Pour your 'batter' into a hot pan (I usually turn it on while i'm blending up the batter).  Always use a little cooking spray so things don't stick!

It's cooking!

As you would with normal pancakes, wait until the 'bubbles' start to stick and then flip it. 

After the 'flip,' I'm a horrible pancake flipper!

Finished product!

I added a drizzle of tupelo honey ( which the pancake soaked up)

This is one of my favorite 'go-to' recipes. It is quick, yummy and packs around 25 grams of protein in just one pancake. It is also under 300 calories ( before adding honey or other toppings).  They taste a lot like french toast, but in pancake form.  You would have no idea that this pancake could be good and good for you.

Other options for this pancake include...
-adding berries into the batter (once poured in pan)
-adding pumpkin puree to the batter ( in the blender) for a pumpkin protein pancake.  I'd add a little pumpkin pie spice for this to.
-adding pieces of turkey bacon into the pancake (once poured in the pan)


 I hope you give my protein pancakes a try!

Peace, love and pancakes for everyone,
Caitlin

Pittsburgh adventures

This blog post will document my ideal Sunday.  Which is heading up to Wexford, Pa. for lunch, grocery shopping at Whole Foods....and ice cream on the way home.

I have been so forgetful about taking pictures for my blog lately, but I still think I did okay for this one.  You guys will have to let me know what you think!

For lunch, we went to one of my favorite places, Walnut Grove in Wexford, Pa.  It's just outside Pittsburgh.  http://walnutgroverestaurant.com/

From the outside, the restaurant almost looks like a chain restaurant.  While they do have a few locations- the food there is FAR from any chain/cookie cutter restaurant I have been to.  We got there around 2:30, which is perfect for me.  I like sneaking in while restaurants aren't packed and the server not distracted with several other tables.  

The menu has 2 sides ( but I forgot to take a picture of the other side).  I have never had anything bad at Walnut Grove.  Everything is always fresh, quality ingredients and there is a little something for everyone.

After a long work week, nothing better than some white sangria for me (left)!  The sangria was fruity, with hints of peach, and several pieces of citrus fruit in the glass.  It was light and fruity, perfect for a Sunday afternoon lunch!

I started with the strawberry balsamico salad.  This salad features Mesclun greens topped with strawberries soaked in balsamic vinegar, a sprinkle of goat cheese and sliced almonds.  For anyone who hasn't experienced balsamic strawberries- the vinegar actually enhances the flavor of the berries and takes on a whole new flavor profile. The berries become sweet and tangy ( they are even good over ice cream!)

Another salad we had was the caramelized walnut salad which has pears, caramelized walnuts, goat cheese, and sundried cranberries over a bed of field greens.  It is served with an herb balsamic vinaigrette.  We topped this one with some chicken for added protein.

Another item we had was the seared tuna tacos. The tacos had sesame crusted tuna, avocado, Asian slaw and topped with a chipotle aoili. 

Just to keep it balanced, I also had the sweet chili boneless wings.  I'm not one to usually eat chicken wings, but these are probably my favorite.  The texture is closer to that of a traditional chicken wing, rather than the glorified chicken nuggests you get in most restaurants.  The sauce is tangy, sweet and has a little heat from the chili peppers.  I don't like wings that are overly sauced.  Its more of a smoky/spicy barbeque sauce than a tradition buffalo wing sauce.  No weird grisly parts to the meat either- these are all white meat and delicious!

When we got to Whole Foods, I had the complete intention of documenting the entire process.  I was even going to do a few little videos.  But, I got a little overexcited and completely abandoned my phone while grocery shopping.  I only remembered by the time we got to check out. I bought lots of strawberries, blueberries, coconut creamer, power greens, apples, bananas, lemons, greek yogurt, butternut squash ravoli.  I'm getting hungry just thinking about it!

This is generally what I get at Whole Foods (plus some that wouldn't fit on the check-out belt).  I like going there because of the high quality produce and their organic selection.  I don't have to sift through reading every single label and wondering if I'm consuming something GMO ( although I still check). This trip, I got a few Blueprint Juices.  While expensive, these juices are raw and pressed.  Meaning they keep all their enzyme properties and nutrients- which can be lost when juice is pasteurized.  The Blueprint company is based out of New York and originally was only available for home delivery of their 'cleanses'.  I enjoy drinking the juice regularly and I LOVE that I can pick it up at the store- without having to special order it. The Pineapple, apple and mint is one of my favorites.  But I also got their cashew milk and beet, carrot and ginger blend as well.  YUM! Check out their website and the benefits of their juices here http://blueprintjuice.com/ or http://blueprintcleanse.com/

We wound the trip down by heading to Sarris Chocolate Factory in Canonsburg, PA for some ice cream Sundaes on a Sunday ( get my little joke?)

Big candy displays!

The chocolate castle! 

(this was new) a white chocolate lady.

The sundae 'before'. (1 scoop vanilla topped with hot fudge, 1 scoop chocolate topped with marshmallow, whipped cream, chocolate sprinkles, 2 cherries and 2 wafer cookies on the side!) 

The sundae after. Even between 2 people we couldn't finish it! (obviously I will be in the gym tomorrow regretting this)

I had a fantastic food trip to Pittsburgh! I'll do my best to get some more blogging done for my fellow foodies!  Hopefully using some of the wonderful things I got at Whole Foods during this adventure!

Peace, love and lots of sprinkles,
Caitlin