Like every other red-blooded human I know, I crave pancakes. Every day, if I’m going to be honest. But ESPECIALLY on the weekends. I blame YOU, Mom!
Well, well, well. I’m finally back from my latest adventure in geekdom (visiting family, Disney World, and of course, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando, FL). If you want to peruse my nerdiness, just check out ladyapplesauce on Instagram (that’s me!) It was the exact nerdcation I was craving and provided tons of bonding time with my Mom, which I was in desperate need of.
I know that I promised a green smoothie post waaaaaaaay before I started traveling. And I have EVERY intention of sitting down and actually writing one today. But, heck, I’m a Pisces and I’m easily distracted — plus, it’s Monday and I’m severely missing the weekend already. And so, in honor of Sunday mornings and lazy afternoons and cat-cuddling and too much coffee, I feel like posting about PANCAKES.
Pancakes rule. Mostly when someone else cooks them for me. Because I’m not that good at pancakes. I blame my griddle (but it’s a really awesome cast-iron griddle). I blame my spatula (but it’s a really awesome thin, metal, Cutco spatula that costs way more than spatulas really should). And I blame my ingredients (but they’re really awesome, organic, vegan, and who are we kidding?! I know the problem with pancakes is ME). It might be a patience thing — maybe I don’t let the griddle heat properly. Or maybe the first two pancakes are always embarrassing in everyone’s batches and it’s just that no one really talks about it. But I always end up scarfing down those first two disasters before anyone can see them. It just makes me feel like a bad, bad, fat, fat cook.
Regardless, I still love pancakes. I love making them. I love making them for people I love. I love making them for just me. I love eating them. I love eating A LOT of them. I love smothering them in maple syrup or agave nectar and Earth Balance and fruit and cinnamon and… damn, now I really want pancakes. So I was getting at a point. Right. Since I started seriously training at the gym, several months before the wedding, I have deprived myself of pancakes. Yeah, sure, I could make them and attempt to eat only one and feel really good about myself — but when I start, I can’t really stop, and I easily consume 2000+ calories of pure pancake awesomeness. Which is fine if I didn’t really feel like eating ANYTHING ELSE for the rest of the day. And thus, I needed a solution that could combine the miracle of pancakes with my strict, self-imposed fitness goals. I scoured the interwebz and found these little gems. I modified them to what I had available in my pantry (because after all the adventuretimes, I am one broke little vegan…) Here is the result:
Aaaaand, here are the mostly usual (some not-so-usual) suspects.
Vegan Apple Chai Protein Pancakes
(Makes about 3 – 4, depending on how big you dig ’em!)
- 1 scoop Vega One Nutritional Shake powder (I used the Vanilla Chai flavor!)
- 3 tbsp. organic spelt flour (of course, you could use any flour you like; to make this gluten-free, try Bob’s Red Mill All Purpose GF Baking Flour, or a combo of rice and coconut flours would be good, too.)
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- 2 Stevia packets
- A big pinch of pumpkin pie spice: it’s a combination of cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, ginger, clove, and lemon peel
- A pinch of salt
- 1/2 cup unsweetened organic applesauce
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup of fruit (for this batch, I chopped up apples, but you could use blueberries, strawberries, what have you!)
- About 1 cup of water, give or take
- Oil or vegan butter for the griddle (I’m really into coconut oil spray, at the mo…)
- Toppings! More fruit, maple syrup, agave nectar, more vegan butter, coconut oil, it’s up to you. DUH.
To prepare:
- Heat your griddle to medium-low and grab your ingredients, two bowls, a whisk, a wooden spoon, a thin, metal spatula, and a soup ladle.
- Combine dry ingredients in one bowl; I use a whisk for this.
- In a separate bowl, mix together applesauce and vanilla.
- Add the applesauce/vanilla mixture into the dry ingredients; it won’t be super moist.
- Slowly add the water into the batter; just a little at a time until you reach your own desired consistency (depending on whether you like super thick or thin pancakes — more water = thinner batter.)
- Use a wooden spoon to fold your fruit into the batter.
- Add a light coating of oil to your griddle; like I mentioned before, I am seriously pancake-challenged, but I would assume you do the drop-of-water test on the griddle (when it sizzles, it’s hot enough). Medium-low is the way to go!
- Using the soup ladle (I love this trick!) scoop your batter onto the griddle; using the back of the ladle, you can kind of smooth out the circle of batter to make your pancakes a bit more even.
- Just like non-protein pancakes, keep your eye on them; when the little bubbles start to pop on the outer rim of the pancake, it usually means it’s time to flip.
- Repeat until your batter is no more! And don’t forget to top with your favorite fixins. I didn’t really need to add anything to these except for a touch of Earth Balance, though my husband loved them with lots of maple syrup. Now that I’m thinking about it, to further boost the protein packed power punch, you could add organic peanut butter or raw almond butter — I bet that would be DELICIOUS.
NOM NOM NOM ❤
The Lady Applesauce 