Jazz up your pancakes EVERY DAY for the holiday season!
Almost everyone loves pancakes on the weekends.
When my son was small, he wanted pancakes every day. So, I made a version of pancakes with protein powder, milk, eggs, and spices to make them a bit more nutritionally sound than weekend pancakes. I also offered him toppings such as fruit and nuts instead of syrup and honey, and that felt good to me. It’s about balance after all.
Adding strong spices to your meals are a great way to bring flavour to any dish without adding more sugar and salt to it. Spices are typically low calorie and pack a flavour punch. Some spices even have health benefits, which is a great reason to find new ways of adding them regularly to your meals, especially homemade baked goods.
About the Ingredients:
Complete by Juice Plus+ Shakes: This shake powder includes real food ingredients, such as water-washed soy protein, chickpea powder, rice protein, amaranth, millet, quinoa, radish sprouts, broccoli sprouts, pomegranate, pumpkin, apple, alfalfa sprouts and other added nutrients. I add this to my pancakes for additional protein and plant-based nutrients.
Flour: These days you can get flour from so many different grains, beans, and nuts. When prepping pancakes for everyone, I use straight up white flour made from wheat. When prepping for myself alone I use a gluten-free blend that is made from buckwheat, corn, and rice flours. The most important thing is that the taste may change depending on the flour you use.
Ground ginger: A spice that adds warmth and heat to any meal.
Cinnamon: A lovely, sweet, yet spicy spice, that we all love during winter.
Nutmeg: I find nutmeg difficult to describe. It fits well in gingerbread but is also magical when used in spinach and feta quiches!
Salt: We love using Himalayan or sea salt as it contains more minerals than typical table salt. However, simple table salt is usually blended with iodine which is a very important nutrient that every body needs.
Egg: Not everyone loves the taste of eggs, but they are very common in recipes, because they are used to hold the ingredients together. Sometimes, you can swap out an egg for a flax egg. That would work in this exact pancake recipe, and we think the flax egg tastes better. Here’s how to make a flax egg: grind up 1 tablespoon of flax seeds into a powder, then mix with 2 tablespoons of water and letting it sit 10 minutes before mixing in.
Milk or plant-based milk: We are lactose intolerant in our house, so we either use lactose free milk or unsweetened almond milk. Cow’s milk tends to have more protein than plant-based, although soy milk comes quite close nutritionally.
Maple syrup: Sap drained from a maple tree and then reduced and refined gives us this sticky amazingly tasty, sweet syrup. At the store you will see different grades of maple syrup. Golden, Amber, Dark or Very Dark, all having slightly different flavour depths.
Butter: The say butter makes it better, LOL. Anyway, we love the taste of butter, but there’s an ongoing debate whether or not it’s healthy (I’ve heard both from two different nutritionists.) We rotate using butter with other oils such as coconut oil or olive oil depending on what taste we are looking for. For pancakes, I use a coconut oil that has a neutral flavour, so no coconutty taste, but helps the pancakes to not stick to the pan.
Tools Needed for this Recipe:
- Griddle or flat frying pan – if you pan is slightly bent or uneven, the pancake batter will slide to one side, making for an uneven, yet still tasty pancake.
- Pancake turner – I grew up calling it a spatula, but whatever, you need a kitchen tool that can slide under the pancake, pick it up and turn it over. Essential pancake tool!
- Couple of mixing bowls
- Ladle – I use a ladle to portion out my pancakes. So, one ladle = 1 pancake. It keeps them all the same size and I am nerdy like that.
- Serving tray with a cover – because of my kitchen situation, I make one pancake at a time and keep them warm, I have a serving plate with a cover to do just that.
Makes about 6-8 pancakes (about 4 servings)
Serves: 4
Ingredients:
1 scoop Juice Plus+ Complete Chocolate or Vanilla
120 g flour
1/2 tbsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
Pinch of salt
1 egg
250 ml milk or plant-based milk
½ cup maple syrup
Butter or coconut oil
Topping Ideas: Chocolate shavings, toasted hazelnuts, sliced bananas (optional!)
Directions:
- In a large bowl, using a whisk, stir the dry ingredients together (flour, sugar, salt, ginger, cinnamon, and Juice Plus+ Complete powder)
- In a separate bowl, using a fork, mix the wet ingredients together (egg, maple syrup and milk)
- Slowly stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients to make your pancake batter.
- Lightly grease a frying pan or griddle with butter or coconut oil. Heat up medium to high.
- Using a measuring spoon or ladle, measure out one pancake into the pan at a time.
- Let the pancake cook until little bubbles start to burst in the pancake, then flip gently with a pancake turner or spatula.
- Let second side cook gently and then move to a serving plate.
- Serve with your toppings of choice.
Vanessa Gatelein
Health & Wellness Coach
