Heart Healthy.
Or not so much. It’s ironic that—thanks to sugary sweets, fancy dinners, and rich desserts—a day devoted to matters of the heart can be so dangerous for your heart. Google “red velvet” and your results will be saturated with butter, eggs, heavy cream, and enough sugar to sweeten even the Grinch. Pretty, for sure. But healthy, it is not.
Until now.
Flipping through People Magazine last Friday, I stumbled across a recipe for “Jessica Alba’s favorite red velvet pancakes.” Red velvet pancakes?! I had to create a heart-healthy version.
Mission accomplished. These are like eating cake for breakfast!
Red Velvet Pancakes for One
- 2T flour (I used 20g whole-wheat pastry)
- 2T plus 1tsp oat bran (20g) (you can sub flour)
- red food coloring (For alternatives, see: Natural Food Coloring Ideas.)
- 1/2 tsp plus 1/8 tsp baking powder
- scant 1/8 tsp salt
- 2T cocoa powder (I use regular, but if you want a more brownie-like taste, try dutch cocoa)
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup plus 1T nondairy milk (95g, or more, if needed)
- optional: If you don’t like the taste of fat-free pancakes, be sure to add 1 tablespoon oil
- 1-2 T sugar, or 1 stevia packet (I left it out. If using liquid sweetener, decrease milk accordingly.)
Mix dry ingredients. Add wet and mix. Then make your pancakes! (Makes 5-6)
Nutrition Information:
(For the entire batch)
- Calories: 230 (130 if omitting oil)
- Fat: 14g (or less than 1g if omitting oil)
- Protein: 3g
- Fiber: 5g
I topped these with my Healthy Cream Cheese Icing.
Then, really fancy things happened. I dusted the pancakes with cocoa powder and swirled some of the chocolatey fairy dust into the frosting.
If you’re still hungry for pancakes (although I don’t know how that’d be possible, after these!), I have an entire recipe tab devoted to them:
Question of the Day:
What do you do to be Heart Healthy?
Get regular exercise? Eat healthy foods? Spend quality time with people who make you happy? The heart is an amazing little organ; be sure to treat it right!
I saw those too! Thanks for creating a healthy version!
My eyes just widened – those pancakes look STELLAR!
To be heart healthy, I try to just take care of myself with less stress.
I think my eyes just popped out of my head. This might be my favorite CCK blog post yet. And I will be making these for SURE! It’ll be two days in a row of CCK recipes, since I made your chocolate-raspberry truffles yesterday :).
Wow. No words to describe how beautiful those pancakes look. Why must you tease us? I have no whole wheat flour in the house! I wonder if I could use a mix of coconut flour and brown rice flour.
When (not if) I make these, I’m throwing CHOCOLATE CHIPS into the batter :). And I’ll use your cream cheese frosting recipe as well, because it rocks and because, well, I want to eat cake for breakfast too!
To stay heart healthy? I read your blog. No, seriously! 😉 Then I can have my treats and still treat my heart. Best of all worlds. I always loved red velvet cake, and I love pancakes, so I’ll try these! But they won’t look as good as yours, I’m certain!
I eat healthy and exercise and hope it’s helping my ticker. 🙂 Your pancakes look delicious!!
thank you, i’ve been craving these since you mentioned them. they look great, but i’m gonna have to do some more shopping first.
I eat healthy and exercise and hope it’s helping my ticker! 🙂 Your pancakes look delicious!!
Ooh yummy! I’m really glad someone else enjoys pancakes as much as me. I eat pancakes every morning. The red velvets are some of my favorites! 🙂
WOAH!! those look colossal and DERRICIOUS- i can’t believe you get that many pancakes out of such little flour!!! DEAL
hum… i never really think of my heart—- ALTHOUGH i suppose running and working out helps it a bit! have a wonderful day! i know i will with my RAW CHOCOLATE FUDGE CAKE IN THE FREEZER 😀
I know, right? lol I guess the cocoa powder helps the recipe yield a bigger amount.