Protein Pancakes

by Tracey Primeau

My house is built on routines. I’m a disaster if I don’t have some sense of routine. In our house, my 5 year old is such a picky eater. I got tired of her asking for the same meal every. single. day. so I implemented a food routine to keep her meals varied. She’s going to grow up thinking that the whole world is only allowed pancakes on Sundays and mac & cheese on Wednesdays, but I’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. 

Choose your battles, right?

I don’t have time to battle over meals everyday, so for now, routines are the glue to our sanity. 

I blame myself for not introducing her to a wider variety of food when she was younger – I’m paying for that now. I often try to swap out typical ingredients for healthier options and cross my fingers while I wait for her first bite to see if I’m busted. More often than not, it’s a fail. In the end, our routine prevails – it keeps me sane and she seems to enjoy knowing what’s on the menu each night.

BUT 

Every once in a while, she completely surprises me and absolutely loves it. We’ve recently been able to replace ingredients in some of her favorite meals and it’s making me feel like there’s a light at the end of her picky tunnel.

Sunday’s mean pancake breakfasts. Olivia looks forward to this every week.

I had been buying a paleo pancake mix and my husband was making the most creative and artistic characters out of the batter, so pancake Sunday had become an even bigger hit. At the risk of ruining her favorite day of the week, I decided to swap out those pancakes with my own boring, healthy (but tasty!) version of protein pancakes and see how that went over. When I first placed the plate down in front of her, she eyed up my thin, tiny, misshapen “pancakes” and gave me a look I’d seen far too many times before…uh oh, here we go.

Our “go-to” line with her lately has been “try new things”, hoping to discover a vegetable she deems edible, but in this case it was a plea to try a pancake. As I was begging her to try the thin, character-shape-lacking pancakes, I was simultaneously questioning both my cooking and parenting skills. 

She finally agreed to take a bite and I braced myself for the usual reaction. She would either dramatically spit in back on the plate leaving the remaining pancakes inedible or dramatically push her plate away with all the facial expressions and sighs to ensure I understood that I did in fact ruin her favorite day. But wait, was that a “Mmmmmmmmm!!” I heard? That couldn’t be a smile, could it? Just then, my Mom and chef status was reinstated as she said “Thank you Mommy, these are my new favorite pancakes!!” Hell ya they are! Take that, Daddy and your fluffy-pancake-characters! My wife status was questionable as I reveled in my small win (for days), but I’m ok with that.

Since then, these pancakes have become a regular in our house. I’m not a huge fan of protein shakes, mainly because I enjoy eating. The idea of drinking a meal doesn’t sit well with me. I make these as a quick post-workout snack. Not gonna lie, I do a little victory fist pump every time Olivia requests these. 

The most crucial part of this recipe is to use protein powder you actually enjoy the taste of. You wouldn’t make an omelet if you didn’t like eggs, right? If you require a ton of ingredients in a shake to mask the taste of your powder, this might not be the recipe for you. Seems like common sense, but you’d be surprised.

A few other notes before I give you the recipe because I rarely scroll past the recipe section to read the notes and then I blame the recipe. Obviously.

• These are less pancake and more crepe (depending on the ripeness of the banana). I tend to keep mine on the smaller side because I’m not a great flipper. 
• These will not bubble like a normal pancake when ready to flip, but it you give the edge a little nudge, it’ll slide quite easily when ready to flip.
• These cook way faster than you’d expect.
• These are not so light and fluffy, they’re more dense. This makes them easy to eat them on the go and with your hands if you make them small