Don’t you love it when food bloggers tempt you with delicious-sounding recipes for their version of the very best whatever it is? Except instead of giving you the list of ingredients and the recipe, you get an essay about living in the moment?
Listen, Janet. If I wanted to live in the moment, it probably wouldn’t be _this_ exact moment when I am struggling to figure out what to feed my kid for dinner for the 7 millionth night in a row, all while feeling the pressure of an impending bedtime meltdown. I am tired from a full day of this nonsense and I don’t have time for your idyllic vignette. Also, who knew kids need to eat so frequently? I eat three meals a day and a couple of snacks. My child eats every hour throughout the day, and every fifteen minutes before bed.
And why do people with such limited palates refuse to eat leftovers? You liked it yesterday, little one. Eat it today, and then fall asleep early enough so mom can catch up on her true crime documentary in peace. That’s my version of mindfulness, folks. Take it or leave it.
Breakfast for dinner is a brilliant idea if your kid wants a fruit salad, scrambled eggs, and some whole-grain toast. But the thing is, my kid always wants pancakes. And pancakes have traditionally been my least favorite breakfast item. They’re sweet, mushy, and dry. No thanks. Furthermore, they’re mostly made with white flour and I find that I am hungry pretty much immediately after eating them.
That’s why I came up with my own recipe for the world’s best high protein high fiber pancakes. Believe me, I can get ten kids to support my claim that these are the best pancakes. Really, they are. And you won’t have that annoying rebound hunger right after eating them because these pancakes are a full meal.
Ingredients
-1 cup almond flour
-1 cup white flour
-1/2 cup hemp hearts
-1/4 cup ground flaxseed
-1 tsp baking soda
-1 tsp baking powder
-1 heaping tbsp sugar (totally ok to substitute any other sweetener)
-pinch of salt
-4 eggs
-1 cup of milk
-1 tbsp oil (canola, veggie, or whatever neutral-tasting oil)
-1 tsp vanilla extract (optional) or a few shakes of cinnamon (optional)
-1 cup blueberries (or other minced fruit like bananas or apples, but apples need to be finely minced.)
Combine dry ingredients. Add wet ingredients. Stir ’til thoroughly mixed but don’t overdo it. Add blueberries and lightly mix into batter. If you prefer thicker pancakes, add less milk. Thinner, add more.
Here’s the cool thing, though. I never measure my ingredients when I make these pancakes. I just throw this stuff into a bowl in approximately these amounts and stir. If I have yogurt that needs to be used, I add it. If there’s an inch of cottage cheese or sour cream in a tub in the fridge- in it goes. Apple sauce? Great. This recipe is very flexible and forgiving.
I’d like to mention something else too. Yes, I know this is annoying. But it’s relevant. See, it’s not just colorful vignettes that make me bonkers. I also detest recipes that require me to buy a bag of some esoteric ingredient that I will never use again.
Hemp hearts, ground flaxseed, and almond meal, I am looking at you. But, stick with me, please! These ingredients are more versatile than you may think. Almond flour can be subbed in for about 25% of white flour in quickbread recipes- which I use to make banana bread and muffins and are about as complex as I am willing to go with baking. You can use only almond flour and no white flour to bake with if you want to find more complex recipes and add a binding ingredient too. I use almond flour in my pancakes and quickbreads. And, if I am completely honest, the almond flour makes pancakes a little more crumbly, which is sometimes a challenge when flipping, and I recommend making spatula-sized pancakes that are easier to flip.
Hemp hearts are the incredible star ingredient you should be using in everything, so go out and fearlessly buy a giant bag.
I add them to oatmeal, meatloaf, granola, and in any and all hearty baked goods. Hemp hearts are amazing. They are mild tasting, high in protein, contain a lot of omega 3 and 6 fatty acids which are great for you, and are high in soluble and insoluble fiber. If you start to eat one new food, hemp hearts should be it, and having a giant bag of them hanging around your house isn’t a problem. You can even sprinkle them on salads if you toast them a little first. Or not. Raw is fine too, but not as tasty. Raw is much better than burned though. I know this from experience and stick with me for more extra-helpful tips.
Oh! But wait! We’re not done with this recipe for the world’s best high protein high fiber pancakes yet? What do you want from me? They’re pancakes. Put pools of raw pancake mixture into an oiled pan heated to medium or medium-low, and cook until they start to bubble, firm up on the edges, and are ready to flip. Flipping is the only tricky part of this recipe and it’s pretty easy if you oil your pan between rounds of cooking, and also if you make smaller pancakes.
These world’s best high protein high fiber pancakes are delicious, store refrigerated well, and you can most certainly thank me later. Please let me know what you think!
