Eat Cardboard No More!

"How can a nation be great if it's bread taste like Kleenex."

- Julia Child

Ok, so my first search was directed at breakfast foods...pancakes.  I found several to choose from and tried two different kinds; carrot cake pancakes and peanut butter pancakes.  The winner was the peanut butter pancakes.  YUMMMMM! 

My focus was on trying to find healthier food that I would actually want to eat on a regular basis!  Now this is not healthy in the "extreme" form.  Some people might disagree with me putting this in a healthy category.  What I'm looking at is; calories, fat, protein, carbs, fiber and sodium.  In this instance I compared these items with an "original" pancake, with butter and syrup. My goal is to find healthier versions of foods that I already like. 

I made a few slight variations when I made mine that would change the nutritional value slightly.  I will give you the original recipe with the nutritional value based on the original recipe.  My variations will be listed in parenthasis within the original recipe.

Peanut Butter Pancakes

I found this recipe on myrecipes.com

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

6 tablespoon sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 cups fat-free milk (almond milk)

1/4 cup chunky peanut butter (Creamy peanut butter)

1 tablespoon roasted peanut oil or vegetable oil (canola oil)

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 large eggs, slightly beaten

1. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.  Combine milk and remaining ingredients; add to flour mixture, stirring until smooth.

2. Spoon about 1/4 cup batter onto a hot nonstick griddle or large nonstick skillet.  Turn pancakes when tops are covered with bubbles and edges look cooked.

Cooks Note:  all natural peanut butter doesn't work well, it is difficult to stir into a liquid batter.  You can serve with Strawberry-Lemon syrup or Raspberry Honey Coulis.

This also make GREAT waffles...which I prefer to pancakes.  They have a natural sweetness so no syrup is needed.  I made a little honey butter and put a very small (approx 1/2 tsp) amount on my pancake and that was enough!  These are great to make ahead of time and put in freezer bags to freeze.  Then you can pull them out and put them in micro-wave or if your having waffles - the toaster.

NUTRITIONAL VALUE (comparison) for 2 pancakes or waffles

                                     PB Pancakces               VS                 Original
Calories                         349                                                     520
Fat                                11.7 g (a bit higher than I like)             14 g
Protein                          12.2 g                                                  8.3 g
Carbohydrate                49 g                                                    90.9 g
Fiber                             1.2g                                                    ?
Sodium                          432 mg                                               1104 mg

If you happen to try this recipe, please let me know what you think.  I really like the pancakes! 

I will keep searching!

"The only real stumbling block is fear of failure.  In cooking you have to have a what-the-hell attitude"

- Julia Child