Palatable pumpkin protein pancake

Sploosh

With fall here and a chill in the air, I thought I needed to switch my usual protein shake to something that would give me the warm and fuzzies. Enter the protein pancake! I’d seen variations of protein pancakes made on Twitter, but my pancakes always fell flat (Get it? Flat?). So I trusted my gut and came up with my own recipe because I’m a home cook and they are fitness instructors and who wants a pancake recipe from a gym rat?

So here’s what I came up with:

Put in a blender:

1 cup almond milk

3 egg whites

1 whole egg

½ cup pumpkin purée (plain, canned)

1 scoop protein powder (optional)

½ cup white whole wheat flour

2 tbsp ground flaxseed

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ginger

1 tsp nutmeg

½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

BLEND!

It’ll keep a few days in the fridge. Pour on a hot pan in the morning for a quick pancake that’ll fill you until lunch. Top with your favorite fruit and maple syrup.

Holiday Spirits

I like to make and bake my gifts to friends for Christmas. This year, since I'm into cocktail making, I thought I'd give some mason jars filled with a yummy cocktail (sterilize jars first.) I wanted something ginger based so it was holiday appropriate and could easily be weakened with ginger ale without taking away from the balance of flavors.

Making ginger syrup is easy! Just peel some fresh ginger (I use a spoon.) Then chop it up and throw it into a pot of a couple of cups of water and a cup of brown sugar (I'd use white sugar if it's hot outside.) I don't measure so you'll just have to eye  how much you'd like. Stir while it simmers for about 20 minutes so it reducing it down a little.

I poured the cooled syrup into a bottle with a pour spout. The cocktail had bourbon, ginger syrup, and a peel of clementine. Seal the top on tight, make a cute label and give the gift of holiday "spirit"!