Healthy Pancakes? Nooo... YES!

Healthy Pancakes? Can it be!? Yes! And no, they don't taste like cardboard, they are actually delicious! The secret? Oatmeal, greek yogurt and bananas. Abbey and I had these for breakfast yesterday and they were too good not to share. I got my inspiration for these delicious pancakes from Pinterest but made a few tweaks with what I currently had in my Fridge. Follow this link for the original Biggest Loser recipe, or read on below for mine.

Oatmeal in the SDUT

Yesterday mornings food section of the San Diego Union Tribune had a huge tribute to Oatmeal.

If you get the UT, check out the paper, if not you can click here.

I perused the recipes submitted by readers and have included some of my favorite variations below. Enjoy!!

FLUFFY FLAPJACKS

Easiest recipe ever. Follow recipe for Bisquick pancakes (healthy version) on the box. Substitute 1 cup of oats for one of the cups of Bisquick. Fluffiest, lightest pancakes!

– Harriet Wolpoff

FOR CHOCOLATE LOVERS

My favorite, almost daily, oatmeal routine is to cook a single serving of quick oatmeal, then stir in a small spoonful of almond butter and toss in a small handful of chocolate chips and cover for a minute. This is very addictive, but my justification is there is no added sweetener, salt or cream.

– S.L.

BREAKFAST PUDDING

Our favorite oatmeal recipe was actually from the Union-Tribune. It's Apple Cranberry Breakfast Pudding. I add coconut, which is obviously optional, but we like it. Also, I have made it with dried cranberries when the fresh were not in season.

– Andi Kosnar

Better'n Peanut Butter

Peanut Butter has lately become a weakness. I know that it's a MUFA and so it's not really THAT bad for me, but the amount of fat and calories mean I don't get much of it.

Enter, Better'n Peanut Butter!

With only 50 calories and 1 gram of fat a tbsp, it's pretty much the best thing to spread on sliced bread. In fact, I've been putting it on pretty much everything. It's got a creamier texture with a bit less viscosity than regular peanut butter (meaning it doesn't hold its shape as well) , and is almost frosting like. It's made with "defatted peanut flour" so it still has the taste, without the fat. I wanted to try it on everything I had previously put regular peanut butter on, and try it out, so YOU didn't have to!



It's freaking AMAZING on apples. LOVE IT.



I substituted it for regular peanut butter in my banana oatmeal, and it was even BETTER. It's melted perfectly and mixed in so well.

I even tried a new recipe my client Sheila told me about for yummy late night snacks! I used Better'n Peanut Butter in it instead, and the beauty of this is you don't even need to know how to cook to make this! So try it!!



I started with some bananas, cut in half.



Next slice lengthwise and spread about a tbsp of Better'n Peanut Butter on them, sandwiching between the 2 banana halves.



Wrap in plastic wrap and stick um in the freezer until frozen. And then eat them, cuz they are freaking amazing. It's the perfect late night snack, cuz I can't think of many other things that go great with bananas than peanut butter, except maybe chocolate! (And um, Better'n Peanut Butter has a chocolate spread too!!)

I also spread some on my bagel this morning. I'm seriously obsessed with it. You can get it at most health food stores, I found mine at Trader Joes. I'd love to see what others come up with, so please if you use it, tried it, or made something amazing, post them in the comments.

Blueberry Muffin in a Bowl

It's been a few days without a post, but I've been really busy in my real life! Good thing I've been taking lots of pictures so I'd have a lot to blog about when I got back to the interwebz.

Last week, we got hit with a cold spell in Southern California. It was the worst. To combat my coldness, I took advantage of the fact that I had a huge new bag of Coach's Oats in the pantry!!

Lately I've been trying lots of new ways to cook oatmeal, and this recipe has definitely an instant fave.



What you need:

1/2 cup Coach's Oats*
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup water
1 cup fresh blueberries
1 tbsp I can't Believe it's not Butter Spray
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp brown sugar
1/4 cup pecans (optional)

* If you don't have Coach's Oats, or any other Irish, or Steel Cut oatmeal, and just wanna use plain ol' Quaker of the like, use 1/2 cup oats, 1/2 cup milk, and 1/2 cup water.

Steel-cut oats are the inside of the oat kernel which have been cut into only two or three pieces, so they are a lot more coarse. They have a lower glycemic index than instant oats, but take longer to cook, thus needing more liquids. They tend to be a bit more "grainy" but I think their extra texture adds a nice touch.

Combine the oats, milk, water, butter spray and blueberries into a med sized saucepan over medium heat.



When the liquids and oats thicken, add spices, vanilla, and sugar. By now the blueberries should have expanded and gotten all warm and yummy, some might even have popped creating a bluish purple colored oatmeal.



At this point I added a handful of pecans for some crunch and protein, but this is totally optional, but totally worth it. If you don't like pecans, almonds, or walnuts work fine too.



All in all it was super yummy and delicious and totally hit the spot. It stuck to my ribs all morning and kept me really full til lunch.

Kath wins at life.

My best friend Michelle has been reading my blog! Yay! And shes been mega linking me to lots of foodie blogs for my blogroll! We were talking about how hard it becomes to eat healthy on your own, without any kind of other foodie blogs, cookbooks, or recipes from friends. I told her that I enjoyed my daily routine, but I knew that if I didn't change it up, it would get old soon.

Living in Southern California everyday is mostly beautiful and hot, and so enjoying cold cereal with fresh raw fruit is super yummy, but lately we've been having these weird cold spells and now I have a yummy hot cereal to eat when it's cold! Yay!

Michelle linked me here, to Kath Eats' blog. It's a super awesome vlog about her classic oatmeal, which I had heard about, but had never made. Obviously on a whim I didn't have EVERY ingredient but I think I did pretty well considering. For those of you who prefer a written version (of what I made) to Kath's vlog, you can read on. Or just watch her vlog and come up with your own versions.







I started with quick oats (not from Costco, but I think I might have to put those on my list since this oatmeal was so yummy)and 2% milk. 1/2 a cup of each, plus an additional 1/2 cup of water.









I threw it all into a pot over med-low heat and let it come to a slow boil. Then I sliced up the other half of my banana I saved from breakfast yesterday and threw that in there too so it could get all warm and gooey.









Then I got out the rest of my ingredients, or "toppings" as Kath calls them. Pure Vanilla Extract (if you don't have it, just step away from the computer and go buy some. I NEVER use the imitation stuff, let this be a life lesson), Light Brown Sugar (dark has more molasses)1/4 cup of toasted walnuts (mircowave them for 1:30 min), and Cinnamon.



I set aside the walnuts and added the rest into the oatmeal as it was simmering on the stove, then dumped it all into a bowl, topped it with the walnuts and added a tsp of peanut butter since I didn't have the almond butter Kath recommend.



Seriously it was uber yummy. The peanut butter got all melty on top and I eventually mixed it in. I'll most likely try this again with some other toppings and maybe use pecans instead of walnuts next time, cuz I tend to have more of an affinity for pecans. I didn't bother doing a calorie count, but I assume it's not too much higher than 300, if it even reaches that. If anyone wants to make it and do the calorie counts, by all means let me know. Here's my finished product in all its warm oatmealy gooey glory.



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