Oreo Protein Pancakes

I love to try new protein pancake recipes!  I spotted these Oreo Protein Pancakes on a blog I recently started following called Peace, Love, Fitness.

It has lots of my favorite ingredients... chocolate protein powder, cocoa, eggs, egg whites, oats and yogurt.  How could I go wrong, especially now that I have found some gluten-free oats?  I used the GNC Chocolate Brownie REBUILT MASS in this recipe, but I am sure any chocolate protein powder would be fine.  If your batter is too thick, add a splash of Almond Breeze or fat free milk to thin it a bit.

I did make a few slight changes to the recipe I found so will share it with you as I made it.  In hindsight, it is a huge serving, and when I make it again, I will make a single serving, and make 4 smaller pancakes out of it, for The Captain and I to share.  The Captain actually could not finish his!

I know that vanilla-flavored Stevia is not an easy ingredient to come by, so if you don't have it, use a bit of vanilla extract, and a bit of sweetener of your choice.  I like to put syrup on my pancakes so I don't make the batter very sweet at all.  And I also topped it all with some fresh blackberries from our last picking adventure.



Oreo Protein Pancakes
Makes 6 pancakes and 1 cup filling.

Pancakes:

• 2 eggs
• 4 egg whites
• 1 scoop chocolate protein powder
• 2 Tbs cocoa
• 2/3 cup rolled oats
• 10 drops vanilla Stevia

Filling:

• 1 cup fat free plain yogurt
• 5 drops vanilla Stevia

1. In a medium to large bowl, beat the pancake ingredients till frothy with your blender or immersion blender.
2. Lightly coat a skillet with non-stick spray and place over MEDIUM heat.
3. Use a 1/4 cup measuring cup to scoop out batter for each pancake.  Pour into heated pan and cook about 2 minutes per side and then remove to plate to keep warm while the rest are cooking. 
4. Stir the batter between scooping out for each pancake because the oats will fall to the bottom of the mixture as it is quite wet.  Repeat spray on skillet if necessary between cakes.
5. While the cakes are cooking, stir the filling ingredients together in a medium bowl and refrigerate.
6. After the 6 pancakes are cooked, place one one each of 2 plates.  Put a couple of spoonfuls of the filling on top and spread a bit.  Repeat with 2nd and 3rd cakes.  
7. Garnish with fruit if desired and a bit of syrup or honey.  Serve immediately.

Per serving of 3 pancakes and 1/2 cup filling, not including fruit and syryp.
Weight Watchers P+ = 9.
Calories 344; Protein 27g; Carbohydrate 38g; Fat 10g; Fibre 5g.

1/4 cup of the batter per cake...

 

and flipped to cook second side.

 

Garnished and ready to devour!



Printable Recipe

Whaddya think?  Chocolate pancakes... yea or nay?

A Way to Preserve Basil... Mix with Olive Oil and Freeze

One of the herbs I have really enjoyed growing on in our balcony container garden this year is basil...  I love to pick it and then snip it with scissors on top of salads, pasta, omelets and am even using it in sandwiches... but there has been so much of it that I just cannot keep up!

I know that the basil plant is an annual and won't winter here, so I came up with a way to preserve some.

I put about 2 cups of basil leaves into my food processor with 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil... and processed them on HIGH till they were pulverized and completely blended with the oil.  I had to stop a couple of times, and push them down the sides of the bowl with a spatula.

When I was happy with the mixture, I spooned it into 6 compartments of an icecube tray and popped it into the freezer.

Now I can use them in soups, sauces, and pasta dishes, and know that each cube is equal to a single Weight Watchers Points Plus Value, and a healthy serving of oil.

Into the food processor....

 

and then the ice cube trays.



To melt, just pop into a warm skillet.

 

Add other veggies if you like.

 

Or add to already cooking veggies.

 

 

Have you tried freezing herbs?

 





Happy #Gluten-Free Thanksgiving

Yes, it's true... a gluten-free Thanksgiving meal can be a very happy experience!  The whole meal prepared for our traditional Canadian Thanksgiving turkey dinner this year was gluten-free. and it was truly delicious.



On the menu:

Roasted turkey and potatoes

Turkey gravy

Quinoa dressing

Homemade cranberry sauce

Steamed carrots

Crustless Pumpkin Pie

Pinot Grigio/ice water

We gave up stuffing our turkey a few years ago.  Not only does it cook much quicker, but the meat is moister, by far.   There is a lot more jus to make gravy, too.  Neither of us ever cared for the bread dressing that was cooked inside the turkey anyway, so we don't miss that one little bit.



We peeled and cut up russet potatoes and set them around the turkey to roast along side it. Roasted potatoes taste so good, and require no mashing and who needs all the butter that it takes to do that!

The turkey jus was thickened slightly with a bit of cornstarch instead of white flour and and then seasoned with a bit of salt and pepper before serving.  I heated it in a saucepan and then mixed a bit of it in a little bowl with some cornstarch and then added that back to the sauce pan to thicken the jus just a bit.  I don't like a thick gravy so this worked really well.



The Quinoa Dressing is made with celery, onion, herbs,  and chicken broth... quite lovely!  And I made enough for lots of leftovers.  I will share the recipe later in this post.  Just an aside...we both do like bread dressings... but we opted to make a gluten-free dinner this year and so decided not to go this route. I will make a bread dressing later for The Captain to have with leftovers... and I will bake it in the oven so it is crispy and crunchy on the edges, just the way he likes it.



I made my homemade cranberry sauce.  It can be made with sugar or with an artificial sweetener for those of you looking to lower calorie and P+ values of your meal.



Steamed fresh carrots need no explanation. I chose them because they are easy and nutritious and they go nicely with turkey.  And they are colorful and look like Thanksgiving!



Rather than fussing with a gluten-free piecrust, I opted for a crustless pumpkin pie.  This is such an easy and delicious dessert.... dress it up with real whipping cream or vanilla yogurt if you like.  It is great and you will make it again and again.



I served an very cold Pino Grigio with dinner and we also like to have a glass of ice-water to sip on, too.

There you have it.. a wonderful gluten-free traditional roasted turkey Thanksgiving Dinner! I hope this will inspire you to think about your own.  Eating gluten-free doesn't have to be an isolating or expensive undertaking. 

 





Stove-Top Quinoa Dressing
Makes 16 servings, approximately 1/2 cup each

• 2 cups quinoa
• 4 cups chicken broth
• 3 stalks of celery, diced
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1 Tbs fresh sage, chopped
• 1 Tbs fresh or dried rosemary
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper

1. Heat oil in large saucepan on MEDIUM, and then saute the celery, and onion till they are translucent, about 10 minutes.
2. Add the quinoa, chicken broth, sage, rosemary, salt, and pepper and bring to a boil.
3. Cover the pan and reduce heat. 
4. Simmer for 15 minutes until the quinoa has absorbed the chicken stock.
5. Remove from heat and fluff the qunioa with a fork. 
6. Replace the lid and keep covered till ready to serve.

Per serving.
Weight Watchers P+ = 2.
Calories 98;  Protein 3g; Carbohydrate 16g; Fat 2g; Fibre 2g.

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