Painless Pancakes

angie — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 18:00:54 +0000

Craving pancakes but think you can’t spare the points?

Mmmmmmmmpancakes. They are one of our downfalls, so we decided we needed to find a nutritious, lower calorie and healthier alternative to these Saturday morning favorites. We like ours covered in syrup, butter and because we’re creative (though some may think we’re weird), we like to add peanut butter and sometimes even cinnamon on top of that.

The cooks at MagicallyDelicious took our demands to the test kitchen and whipped up these taste-alikes that we flipped over. Here is the ultra-complicated recipe so you can indulge in these lower-calorie pancakes for a hearty breakfast that is full of fiber.

Ok I hope your culinary skills are up to snuff for this super complicated recipe. Ready? Here we go.

MagicalMakeover Buttermilk Peanut Butter Pancakes

1 cup Krusteaz Fat Free Buttermilk complete pancake mix

2 T PB2 powdered peanut butter

1 t vanilla extract

3/4 cup plus 1 T water

Preheat skillet or griddle on medium-low heat. Combine dry ingredients. Add water and vanilla; stir to just combine (overmixing will make the pancakes less fluffy). Test heat of skillet by dropping a little water on the skillet. It should dance and sizzle on the surface but not instantly evaporate. Make those pancakes. Recipe makes 2 servings of two pancakes each.

Now here’s the magic part. We ran these through our points analyzer and compared them against their full fat frere (that’s brother in French–we’re feeling continental today and it alliterated well) as we would normally eat them both, with butter (1 tablespoon) and syrup (1/8 cup). Here’s how they stack up:

Full fat pancakes					MagicalMakeover pancakes
	calories	fat	fiber	points		calories	fat	fiber	points
pancakes	240	3	1.5	5	pancakes	200	0	6	3
peanut butter	100	8	1	2	peanut butter	27	1.4	.6	1
butter	100	11	0	3	butter	50	5	0	1
syrup	102	.2	0	2	syrup	50	0	0	1
Totals	642	30.2	3.5	12	Totals	327	6.4	6.6	6

Healthier Grilled Cheese

angie — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 18:00:03 +0000

My dad has this joke we loved when we were younger. It went something like this:

Dad: Do you want me to make you a grilled cheese sandwich?

Kids (giggling, already in on the joke): Yeah! Make me a grilled cheese!

Dad: Poof! You’re a grilled cheese sandwich!

So we loved our grilled cheese. It was both comfort food and a delicious treat Dad made for us. Grilled cheese and funny-shaped pancakes were his specialties…probably still are. I look forward to my nephew giggling over the same corny joke.

Grilled cheese isn’t something I’m likely to give up; it tastes like home to me. So, I needed to find a healthier way to enjoy the warm gooey crunchy taste of home. Here is a comparison of my version vs. good old Dad’s version of this classic. I refuse to give up the taste, so this isn’t as healthy as it could be. But I’ll throw in a note at the end of how to shave off even more points. But the version I outline for you here tastes just like the real thing.

Dad’s Grilled Cheese		MagicallyDelicious Toasted Cheese
2 slices white bread	140 calories 2 g fat 1 g fiber 3 points	2% American cheese	100 calories 6 g fat 0 g fiber 3 points
2 T margarine	200 calories 22.8 g fat 0 g fiber 6 points	2 slices light Italian bread	80 calories 0 g fat 3 g fiber 1 point
2 slices American cheese	140 calories 10 g fat 0 g fiber 4 points
Total	640 calories 34.8 g fat 1 g fiber 13 points	Total	180 calories 6 g fat 3 g fiber 4 points
Dad’s version is fried in margarine. For our version, toast the bread, then add the cheese and pop it into the microwave for 10-15 seconds to melt the cheese.

This MagicallyDelicious version will save you 28 g of fat and 9 points over Dad’s version and it’s just as creamy delicious. If we really are what we eat, you’ll be a skinny grilled cheese in no time.

MagicallyDelicious » Recipes

Painless Pancakes

Craving pancakes but think you can’t spare the points?

MagicalMakeover Buttermilk Peanut Butter Pancakes

Full fat pancakes

MagicalMakeover pancakes

Healthier Grilled Cheese