How the recipe for Protein Powered Pancakes was born & developed.

Everyone loves a good before and after right? 

The protein powered brand was born in part by personal necessity and as I mentioned in the previous post, with a few hints, pushes and resources, provided by the universe along the way!

The personal necessity part was that I really hated meat as a child, and after 13 years of being a lacto-vegetarian, I have pretty much have always struggled to get optimal protein in my diet.

Even after deciding to put vegetarianism behind me - with my aversion to eating meat - and not being a ‘protein bar or smoothie person’ - I really struggled to get optimal quality protein in my diet. 

So I am always looking for new ideas for how to include more high quality and complete protein in my diet, while minimizing meat. 

There was also another question percolating around in the back of my mind.

“How can I come up with a sugar free pancake that is nutritious for breakfast", not only for clients, but specifically because I knew a sweet little toddler who only wanted to eat conventional pancakes for breakfast!

In other words, it had to be kid friendly and it couldn't taste like we were eating it to be "healthy".

It had to be so close to a real traditional pancake breakfast, so that the kids wouldn't notice the difference (and yip, Protein Powered pancakes are both kid and teen approved.... shhh.....don't tell them it's healthy!).

Not to mention, I was also always working on developing new 'protein forward', low carb, gluten and sugar free recipes for my weight loss clients.

I was especially interested in creating more alternatives to bread, because wheat is a total disaster for weight loss in people with binging tendencies, digestive issues, inflammation and food intolerances.

So I bet you can imagine that I was beyond pleasantly surprised when I realized that I had cracked the code!

Not only on the macros for this recipe - which are pretty incredible -  but what was even better, is that the pancakes have a texture and taste so reminiscent of wheat, that it’s hard to believe it’s wheat free!

What’s amazing about the recipe is that it gives people that ‘flour like feeling’ they crave, but without the fluff (no wheat, gluten, grains, sugar, nut flour, gums or indigestible starches).

To be honest, I normally wouldn’t even recommend eating pancakes at all, and especially, not at breakfast - because regular pancakes are more like a dessert, than a meal (way too much sugar, next to no protein and very little nutrition).

Conventional pancakes are both a recipe for hyperactive children and for 'tired and wired' adults. Any way you serve them, conventional pancakes are not the ideal way to start the day!

It became my intention to come up with an alternative low carb pancake recipe to help people cut the sugar, without giving up their pleasure in pancakes (and it couldn't be typical, because most alternative flours are higher in carbs than wheat is!).

I wondered if instead of using wheat or nut flour, if I could use grass-fed whey protein powder and actually get a nutrient dense pancake?!

Then I remembered a grain free recipe for buns that one of my students brought to a potluck, back in the days when I was an instructor at the Canadian School of Natural Nutrition.

The recipe used psyllium husk, which gave the buns the most authentic wheat texture and experience I had ever had with alternative flours.

And so I thought I should give the two a try.

To my delight and surprise, it worked - and without the need for eggs either!!

And that is how the Protein Powered pancake mix and brand was conceived!

As you can see from the recipe before and after photo, it evolved to get better and better over time, as I played with the ratios to where it is today!

Tomorrow I will share more about how creating these pancakes helps me easily balance my plant forward diet, and keeps my blood sugar stable (despite my hereditary tendency toward hypoglycemia which is a pre-diabetic state). 

It's not a good idea to minimize symptoms like hypoglycemia like I did for over a decade - as a result I ended up obese - even though I was eating a natural whole foods vegetarian diet.

Meanwhile, I am officially launching Protein Powered with a 'Prioritize Protein' training series!

If you want to join for FREE and learn why prioritizing protein is about way more than just making muscles, click here: https://www.proteinpowered.shop/protein-training