Power Pancakes

College is a fantastic opportunity to meet diverse and unique people, further one’s education and experience, and realize just how long your body can subsist on frozen pizza, cold cereal, Top Ramen, boxed brownies, and string cheese.  Yet every now and again, the desire to combine ingredients and create something from scratch awakens.  This enthusiasm, however, commonly lives a short life.  Time constraints, complicated instructions, expensive ingredients, and uncommon tools needed (think Bundt pan) all diminish the call to the kitchen.  There is a better way, my fellow college-mates: Power Pancakes.

Ingredients:

2 eggs

½ cup cottage cheese

½ cup rolled (you can substitute quick) oats

1 tsp. vanilla

Fruit (optional)

            At eight years old, the staying power of a Pop tart was impressive.  It could keep me going all morning.  Halfway through morning classes now, and my stomach growls so noisily that, much to the chagrin of the professor, I become the subject of the entire room’s focus.  Contemplating the variety of breakfast options, the value of a solid, nutritional breakfast is unmatched.  The criteria include keeping my blood sugar stable, mind alert, and belly happy.  Oatmeal?  Let’s be honest; few of us enjoy warm mush while facing the reality of another early school day.  Boxed cereal gets pricey, and often has high amounts of sugar content.  This will spur short-term energy, but has little staying power. 

After a few days of breakfast brainstorming, I saw the light.  Alright, so there wasn’t any light, and I did not see it.  What I did encounter, however, was my roommate cooking cottage cheese pancakes, or as I call them, Power Pancakes.  These babies have around 24 grams of protein, and low sugar content.  Additionally, they are delicious.  Although not a particularly picky eater, I am generally not one to begin my day with cold cottage cheese.  For starters, why is it called “cottage” cheese?  It imagine it was crafted in some cabin on the prairie, which causes me to question the food product quality, which consequently diminished the scant morning appetite with which I began.  Or, I wonder if perhaps cottage cheese is made from cottages, which although probably very high in fiber, is equally unappetizing.  Alright, aside from questions of cottage-made dairy products, these pancakes are surprisingly tasty, highly nutritious, simplistically prepared, and have great staying power.   Here is how you do it: 

1.       Throw all your ingredients into a blender.  This step is complicated, but I believe in you.

2.      Blend until just smooth, but not fine.  Texture is always good.

3.      Heat a pan on medium-low, with a drizzle of oil or butter.  If you are health-nutty like I am, you can use olive oil.  It’s nutritional and you don’t end up tasting it.

4.      Pour about ½ cup of batter into the pan.

5.      If you want fruit (blueberries are the bomb), this is where you plop ‘em on top, gently smoothing the batter over them.

6.      Cook until bubbles appear all over the surface of the pancake.  Because of the density, they take longer than usual pancakes.

7.      Flip, and finish cooking.  If you are too speedy on the turnover, they will not cook completely.

I like yogurt, fresh fruit, powdered sugar, maple syrup, and peanut butter on mine (but not all together.)  Here’s to power breakfasts that get us through the day, keeping our minds sharp and bellies silent!  Go conquer that morning.

P.S.  This is not my photo.  I just wanted one, so I stole this.  Your pancakes will be more dense, and less "omg, look at these totes adorbs pancakes!"