Sweet Potato Pancakes...dang.

I keep playing with recipes.  I'm still loving all the ideas I get from people on Instagram.  It's amazing how Instagram has become a place of fitness/cleaner eating encouragement.  If you are interested in seeing some - search #clean or #protein on Instagram.

The past few weeks I've been adding baked sweet potato to a lot of recipes recently.  I slice the sweet potato into rounds and then bake them till they are soft.  Then I add a few slices to my recipes.

Baked sweet potato slices!

My favorite way has been in my oat protein pancakes! (original recipe here)

I feel like I am cheating when I am eating!  So decadent and so flippin moist!  Seriously people - you should try them.

I added zucchini this morning too.

Want to try them?

Here's my Sweet Potato Zucchini Protein Oat Pancake recipe for one:

I mix all of this in my mini ninja that my amazing mom gave me for Christmas.

1/2 cup of old fashioned oats
1/2 scoop Vega Sport Vanilla
3 slices baked sweet potato
1 egg
1 tbsp ff yogurt
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp cinnamon or more to taste
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
6 tbsp of water

I also added 1/3 cup zucchini this morning.

Let sit for a few minutes.  Heat up pan and add 1/4 tsp coconut oil for each pancake you make.
Then eat!

My amazing mini Ninja

I topped mine with natural peanut butter today but that changes depending on my mood.

Breakfast this morning. So good!

Pancakes. I love pancakes. (Waffles too but I don't have a waffle maker right now)

One of my favorite recipes from Niki G's Meal Plan is the oat pancake.  I started making something similar a couple years ago but I forgot about them.

Here's Niki's recipe:

Oat Pancakes 
1 egg, 3 whites mixed with
½ cup dry oatmeal (I use the old fashioned oats because they are less processed then the 1-minute version)
1 tsp cinnamon
1 packet stevia
Cook on medium heat in skillet
Top w/Barlean's - Strawberry Banana Omega Swirl Flax Oil, 1 Tbsp


Part of Niki's plan is that you eat the same food for breakfast, lunch and dinner  for an entire week.

My prep a couple weeks ago!

One week would look like:
Breakfast - Oat pancakes with fruit
Lunch - Turkey Chili
Dinner - Cashew Butter Chicken

I prep ALL (or as much of it that I can) on Sunday/Wednesdays so that I have NO excuses for what I choose to eat.

I started following her plan back in January and now I'm experimenting with all of the meal ideas.  I've added new things and tried different fruits or veggies or seasonings depending on what I like or have been craving.

I have played a lot with the Oat Pancake and have a basic recipe that I've changed a bit from Niki's.

Em's Oat Pancakes
1/2 cup oats - ground up into flour
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1 tbsp ff plain yogurt (sometimes this is greek - depending on what else I'm making that week)
1/4 tsp baking powder
2-3 tbsp water if it's not runny enough

I let this sit for a couple minutes and then cook in a griddle with 1/2 tsp coconut oil.  YUM!

Optional add ins:
1/2 banana
1/2 scoop protein powder - I use Vega Sport Protein (Previous post about why Vega here)

Oat pancake with Natural peanut butter.

Protein Powders - Cleaner?

I have spent a lot of time reading through different protein powders to find one that is cleaner.

I haven't bought it yet because I still have a few samples to try but I think I am going to use Vega Sport Protein as my protein powder.  I like to add a little protein powder to smoothies or pancakes or bars every once in a while and I really wanted one that is less processed and has very little additives.  Or none.  This one is plant based - and it seems to have ingredients that make sense to me. And it's sweetened with Stevia!

I have also used Whey Protein from Jay Robb.  It's sweetened with stevia and I feel like I recognize the ingredients.  But I'm trying not to take in Whey Protein for now.

I realize that there are probably others out there that are cleaner - and I'd love input from people who have tried some!

This journey into cleaner eating has meant that I read a lot of ingredients.  I still don't know a lot of what I need to pay attention to - I'm learning as I go.  But I definitely feel like I have a much better idea of what I am putting into my body these days.
 

Protein powder pancakes with strawberry yogurt syrup, March 2014