Protein Pancakes Two Ways

For some reason lately I’ve had a taste for pancakes.   Friday night I worked as the night secretary.  I actually volunteer when the opportunity arises because it’s overtime and a lot of times no one needs help, so I get the peace and quiet with no interruptions and actually get a lot done.   I didn’t get home until nearly 9 p.m. on Friday night and while you all know I love my party pizza  Friday, when I walked into the train station I could feel my blood sugar dropping, checked it really quick, it was 63 and I had nothing in my bag for the hour and 15 minute train ride home.   I had 6 minutes until my train, and Burrito beach was the only food court spot that didn’t have a line, so I bought chips and spicy salsa, which cost me 6 smart points. 

I had 16 points going into dinner for my planned pizza, but now I was down to 10, and decided to just make breakfast for dinner.  I made a batch of Premier Protein pancakes – I tweaked a few recipes I saw online to come up with this one – this whole recipe made 10 pancakes for 2 points each.

• 1.5 cups flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup reduced fat buttermilk
• 1 container chocolate premier protein

Mix the dry ingredients together, then the liquid ingredients, then mix just until combined. These pancakes never looked like they were “cooked.”  You know how pancakes are golden brown?  These were pretty good, and with bacon, syrup and strawberries, this was a quick and easy dinner (I ate 2 of the 4 pancakes shown).

When I was cleaning out the pantry, I found this lone Quest protein package –  I think I bought these last summer?

That package is 1 smart point and is meant to be a protein shake mixed with 8 ounces of water.  I decided to make that my “flour” but after mixing everything together, I needed a batter that was a bit more tight, and added 2 tablespoons of flour – that did the trick!  This recipe is for 1 serving and made 4 pancakes for 4 smart points.

• 1 (one ounce) single serve Quest protein powder
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons egg white
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 mashed banana

In a bowl, mash the banana.  Add the egg, egg white, cinnamon and vanilla and mix well.  Mix in the protein powder, flour, baking powder and salt and let the batter sit for 15 minutes to let the baking powder do its magic.  This was when I cooked up my Jennie-O turkey sausage (2 links for 1 point!).

I used 1/3 cup measure spoon per pancake, and cooked for about 2 minutes a side until golden brown.

That syrup?  That’s 2 tablespoons of PB2 mixed with 1/4 cup Smucker’s sugar free pancake syrup.  This breakfast is a protein punch – 22 grams for the pancakes, 8 for the turkey sausage and 5 for the PB2 syrup.

The Quest protein pancakes were amazeballs.  Like, I could eat these every day amazeballs.  Super fluffy, you didn’t taste the “protein powder” taste you sometimes get with those products, and that plate kept me full FOR HOURS.   I believe I picked up the individual packages of Quest at GNC – and if memory serves, each one was .99 cents.  There were lots of flavors to choose from too, so the possibilities are endless, but these tasted like I was eating fresh out of the oven banana bread with the vanilla notes from the protein powder and added vanilla extract. 

I can’t remember if I posted it here, or on Facebook, but I am carb cycling this week (actually started on Saturday).  I just toggle between lower carb and higher carb foods every other day.  The only exception is breakfast.  And by low carb, I don’t go below 125 grams of carbs a day – still need carbs in a healthy diet.  I still count points too, but I’ll show you what I mean below for my food ideas this week (LC=low carb; HC=high carb).  On the low carb days, nearly all of my carbs will be coming from fruits and veggies.

Breakfasts:

• individual potato crusted zucchini quiche (HC) with fresh fruit
• egg white omelet with zucchini, turkey sausage and cheese (LC) with fresh fruit
• steel cut oats with fresh fruit (HC)
• steak and eggs (LC) with fresh fruit
• breakfast burrito on low carb wrap (LC) with fresh fruit

Lunches:

• chicken fried rice (HC)
• chicken fajitas (LC)
• roast beef veggie roll ups (LC)
• leftover pork potsticker noodle bowl (HC)
• grilled chicken picky plate with veggies (LC)

Dinners:

• pork with roasted carrots and zucchini (LC)
• potsticker noodle bowls (HC)
• grilled chicken Caesar salad (LC)
• steak with mango salsa and garlic green beans (LC)
• spinach ricotta pasta with turkey sausage meatballs (HC)
• Thai red curry coconut soup with turkey sausage meatballs (LC)

Here’s how my grocery shopping went this week:  

$24.96 at my regular grocery store – although I was pissed because I wasn’t paying attention – I asked for 1/4 pound of roast beef and she sold me 3/4 of a pound – which cost more than the sirloin steak that I bought!

$55.03 at Sam’s Club – $38.00 was for food – stocking up on chicken breasts, fresh cut fruit, etc., the rest was paper products and laundry detergent

$7.88 at Jewel at the 50% meat discount bin for pork chops, Italian sausage and more chicken breasts that will go in the freezer.  So I spent $71.28 for food this week, but a lot of the meat will be used in the next two weeks, so I’ll spend considerably less the next couple weeks.

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I got my cleaning pants on this weekend and tackled my basement.  One of Hannah’s regular customers was giving away a brand new four drawer filing cabinet and Hannah picked it up for me a couple weeks ago.  I have lots of photos, papers, etc. that needed to find a central home.   I came across some things I had forgotten about!  That’s a drawing my Dad did of Hannah when she was three.

Tony had a thing of hanging onto every single chord we ever owned.  I’ve walked by this basket of chords every time I go to do laundry, and other than pulling out extension chords that I know I will use, I have never touched or needed a chord from that basket in years, and now that it’s been more than two years since Tony passed away and I still haven’t needed a chord for anything, I threw the whole thing out.

I found my Weight Watcher card from 2000! I was maintaining my weight around 140 pounds.  I met Tony in May of 2000.

Kashi was my go to cereal back then.  I used to eat 1 cup of that cereal with 1/4 cup of Lucky Charms most days of the week.  The first time I was spending the night over at Tony’s house, he found my favorite cereal, and scanned the box with that note and emailed it to me.  I still remember opening up my email and my heart fluttered when I read that – we’d only known each other a few weeks, but we both already knew. 

Tony wrote me notes all the time.  I am so glad that I saved them – I loved this one in particular:

For newer readers, my husband’s real name was Jeff, not Tony – Tony was the name he wanted to use on the blog because he’s Italian and always wished he had more of an Italian name.  And I should mention that he was also half French Canadian on his Mom’s side, but for some reason would never acknowledge that, so Bonnie, that’s for you!  (and one of his nicknames for me was Booger Butt, among dozens of others over the years!).

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I am not looking forward to the weather this week – snow, when we didn’t get any snow in January and February, and highs in the low 30s, with lows in the low teens.  I am so ready for spring!

Make it a great day!