Recipe Remix: Strawberry Protein Pancakes

Last month I posted a very popular recipe for Blueberry Protein Pancakes.  These are so fluffy and delicious yet they give a powerful protein punch to get your day started the right way.  The other day I woke up craving a warm plateful of these so I started pulling the ingredients to get a batch started.  I suddenly realized that I had placed my last couple of overripe bananas in the freezer.  This recipe uses mashed banana as a fat substitute but the bananas I had were frozen bricks.  I thought I was going to have to scrap my breakfast plans but then I remembered that I often use unsweetened applesauce as a fat substitute.  I pulled out the jar and figured I could replace the mashed banana with half a cup of the applesauce.  I made no other changes to the recipe and they turned out delicious!

This version uses sliced frozen strawberries in the batter and I topped the stack with extra berries that had been warmed up and some sugar free maple syrup.  So delicious!  You really need to make these for breakfast.

Strawberry Protein Pancakes
(1 serving)

1/2 cup old fashioned oats (not instant oatmeal)
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 tablespoons of vanilla protein powder (I use Aria)
1 packet stevia or sugar substitute of choice
1/4 cup nonfat Greek yogurt
1/2 cup Egg Beaters
splash of vanilla extract
1 handful of frozen strawberries

Heat a nonstick pan sprayed with cooking spray over medium heat.  Place oatmeal in a food processor (I use my Ninja blender) and pulse until oatmeal has turned into flour.  Place all other ingredients except for strawberries into food processor and pulse to blend until smooth.  Remove blade from processor and fold frozen strawberries into the mixture.  Drop by spoonfuls onto prepared hot pan.  These pancakes do not bubble like traditional pancakes so check for desired color after 1 minute and then flip to cook other side. Serve with syrup of choice or additional fruit.