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!
You had me at red velvet. I only wish you’d posted this before Valentine’s Day so I could’ve made it my V Day breakfast :(.
Wow, those are lovely pancakes! I try to take care of my heart through diet and exercise, as well as attempting to de-stress. Whenever I feel myself getting stressed about something (or clenching my teeth, and I tend to do) I try and calm myself down for my heart’s sake!
I love all things red velvet! Thanks for the recipe girlie girl, I’ve made red velvet pancakes and cupcakes with steamed, mashed beets instead of oil or applesauce/pumpkin. Works like a charm, and makes them gorgeous!
Those pancakes look amazing!! I try to eat healthy (lots of veggies and oatmeal!) and stay active to stay healthy. Also, I think doing the things that make you happy keep you healthy too! So I try to hang out with friends and eat chocolate whenever I can 🙂
Heck yeah I will be making these! Thank you, dear :).
Those pancakes look amazing Katie. Stunning photos as well! 😀
OH MY Katie you little GENIUS!! I definitely am looking forward to my Pancake Sunday! I know what I’m having!! 😀
Quite obviously, I eat lots of chocolate to be heart healthy. It makes me happy and happiness=a healthy heart 😉
I stay stress-free by laughing and hanging out with people I love! Running too of course – that melts away stress so easily.
ahh katie, these look SO freaking delicious! i can’t stand it! get in ma mouth now! i want to eat them right up, but i’ll hafta wait until i get home. boo. oh and i don’t have oat bran, but maybe i’ll use regular oats, crushed a little, and they’ll be kinda like your oatmeal cookie crepe cakes. what do you think?
love u so much!
Ooo I love your idea!
I know what I’m making for breakfast now! Thanks! 🙂
To keep my ticker happy, I run and work out somewhat regularly (at least 3-4 times a week, if not more), eat as well as I can without having too many rules or without any fun, and I spend as much of the day enjoying my time as possible – being mindful and enjoying washing the laundry, being mindful and enjoying washing the bathroom floor, being mindful and finding something to be happy about when the red line in Boston gets mired by something I’m and stuck on the hot smelly train for a very, very long time (like last week!).
On a side note, Katie, I am moving blog spaces because WordPress doesn’t support the networking community I’m joining, so I moved the post with your feature to the new space. I hope you’ll see it there! 🙂
http://agirlandherboy.typepad.com/blog/2011/02/blog-love.html
Good luck with the move, Jen! I left a comment on your post earlier… did you get it? 🙂