Emily's famous blueberry pancakes

I am queen of winging it in the kitchen. I am constantly taking a recipe and either trying my best to healthify it or changing it up based on ingredients I have on hand. Very rarely do I follow a recipe to a T. Sometimes this ends in disaster. But Sunday this ended in the best blueberry pancakes ever.

Saturday on my grocery store run I bought some beautiful blueberries. I had blueberry pancakes on my mind for the rest of the weekend.

But I couldn't just make plain ol' buttermilk pancakes, now could I?

I started with Todd's Famous Blueberry Pancakes recipe (However, I'm not sure who Todd is). I only did a basic healthification this time around subbing 3/4 cup of whole wheat flour and 1/2 cup rolled oats for the 1 1/4 cup of all purpose flour. I also used the aforementioned fresh blueberries.

Each pancake is approximately 72 calories with 3 g of protein and they were very filling! I had 3 pancakes with 2 tablespoons of syrup and 2 slices of center cut bacon for a meal of 383 calories - well within my realm of a normal amount for breakfast - and I was sustained all morning, even through a late morning/early afternoon 2.5 mile walk before lunch.

I could have went farther and used applesauce for the butter or flax seed + water for the egg. Or cut the sugar out. But I was OK with those small trace amounts of fat, cholesterol and simple carbs. But taking these steps could decrease the calories per pancake by 7 whole points, should you care to do so. (9 calories if you use skim milk)

I've found my best strategy for weight loss isn't about cutting foods I like out of my life, but more about making modifications to bring some better nutritional value to these foods. Would it be sensible to say I was never going to eat pancakes again? No! I love pancakes for breakfast every once in awhile and if I can get a little more nutrition by using whole wheat flour and oats in my batter then why not indulge myself?

[Side note: I am never good at taking pictures, so I contracted Stephen to take a picture of the reheated results this morning, but alas I don't think they look too great reheated (a lot like shriveled disks), so you get nothing.]

Have you ever been hiking in the dark? No? Well stay tuned for my report on Wednesday from my very first full moon hike I shall experience tomorrow night.