5:2 Diet Fast Day: Pancakes for Breakfast - Blueberry & Oat Pancakes with Cinnamon Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is the healthiest way to eat pancakes? ›

Easy pancakes

Omit the sugar, top with a dollop of low-fat yogurt and pile high with fruit for a delicious, easy and better-for-you brunch.

Health Benefits of Oats

Oat flour is rich in fiber which is an incredible carbohydrate because it increases metabolism, triggers your CCK hormone that signals to your brain that you're full, absorbs fat, and promotes regular bowel movements.

The pancake also doesn't cook evenly. Plus, whole blueberries make for a messy and explosive eating situation. Cutting blueberries in half, strawberries into thin slices, and flattening out flexible raspberries allows the batter to swallow up the berry and seamlessly cook on both sides.

Once batter begins to bubble (15 seconds) add 5-10 blueberries. After batter has bubbles covering entire surface flip. Cook remaining side for 30-60 seconds or until browned. Remove from pan and serve.

However, it does not mean that pancakes are off-limits for those wanting to shed some pounds. In order to effectively use pancakes in a weight loss plan, and to get the most out of them, it's important to make sure that you are consuming healthy pancakes made with minimal processed ingredients and healthier sugars.

Enjoy in moderation

If you can bear to give up your traditional pancakes, you can still enjoy them as part of a healthy eating plan. Most experts don't recommend cutting out all sugar, saturated fat, and refined grains from your diet. They just recommend cutting down on how often you consume them.

In this country, fruits have become a popular ingredient in pancakes. Blueberries contain a compound anthocyanin offering the blue color and a host of health boosting effects. Health benefits include lower blood pressure, improved insulin response and reduced risk of cancer.

To make healthy pancakes, use whole-wheat or another whole-grain (cornmeal, oats or buckwheat) flour instead. Whole-wheat flour has 16 grams of fiber per cup compared to 3 grams of fiber in white flour.

Oatmeal and oat flour are identical in nutritional makeup and flavor because they're made from the same initial ingredient: whole oat groats. The main difference between meal and flour, though, is how finely the original ingredient has been ground. Meal is coarser and has more texture, while flour is pure powder.

If you use fresh berries, mix them right into the batter. If you use frozen berries, it's better to scatter them atop the cooking pancakes. If you mix them into the batter, they'll tint your pancakes a rather unappetizing shade of green. Why is it helpful to let pancake batter rest before cooking the pancakes?

Why are my blueberries turning green in my pancakes? ›

Blueberries turn greenish-blue in a batter that has too much baking soda (or grey in a smoothie with a lot of dairy), which creates an alkaline environment. That's why mixing a little lemon juice into your batter or smoothie will give you a more vibrant color.

However, it's not as tasty as you think, as they add small objects (after they've been thoroughly cleaned of course) such as buttons, rings, and coins. Each object has a special meaning, for example, if you find a shiny coin in your pancake, you're deemed very lucky and will end up rich!

Avoid High Heat

Mortillaro explains that high heat results in uneven cooking as it burns the outside while leaving the inside batter raw. "This is because the high heat does not allow enough time for the heat from the pan and oil to penetrate to the center of the pancake," she says.

We hate to break it to you, but pancakes and waffles are not a nutritious way to fuel your mornings. Despite their tasty profile, these comfort foods are often made with refined white flour and topped with butter and syrup, which is essentially pure sugar.

Honey. A bit of honey drizzled over the top of your pancakes gives you the satisfaction of a syrup, although the consistency might be a bit thicker than you're used to. It's especially good when you've topped your pancakes with a spoonful of Greek yogurt and some chopped walnuts to offset the thickness of the honey.

That large stack of pancakes with syrup is a plateful of refined carbohydrates that rapidly increases your blood sugar and harmful triglycerides to raise your risk of heart disease. Guys who binge on white-flour goods have a greater chance of sudden death from heart attack.