OK, I’m serious this time… I’m starting this Trim Healthy Mama thing for REAL.

It’s been hard ok, it might have been hard, had I been trying, which clearly I have not — but I just celebrated my 40th birthday and I was NOT gonna have some healthy cardboard concoction for my 40th birthday, ok? I just was NOT. 

I know, I didn’t have to have the Villa Montez Chocolate Cake, the Chuy’s Tres Leches cake, the Village Bakery Black & White cake, AND then Debbie’s Italian Cream Cake at Pokeeno… I didn’t HAVE to eat all five birthday cakes (yes, five) but I did (oh yeah. I did).  But it was my 40th birthday, for Pete’s sake, and sometimes, you just have to toss reason and accountability out the window. And then it was Valentines Day…

And meanwhile, all my Facebook Trim Healthy Mama friends are just melting away, dropping pounds by the bushel basket full, and I’m JEALOUS. So it STARTS NOW. 

Pancakes are our Saturday tradition. I’ll have to admit, I was leery… I already make healthy pancakes that actually taste GREAT, but … sometimes healthy just, unfortunately, means tastes like spray-in foam insulation.  But I had to at least TRY.

The basic ingredients: oatmeal, egg whites, cottage cheese, baking powder, and vanilla (not pictured).

Start by grinding one cup of oatmeal into powder in your food processor.

Add one cup of egg whites. They recommend buying a carton of egg whites, but I didn’t have that, so I separated out the eggs to total a cup and it took SEVEN (gulp). Yes, I’ll be buying egg whites in the carton next time, but we had scrambled egg yolks with our pancakes this morning so they wouldn’t go to waste, and they were really tasty.

Add one cup of cottage cheese. At this point I had to switch over to my Kitchenaid Mixer because my big food processor bit the dust and my little one wasn’t big enough, but it would be best if you could do the entire recipe in a blender or food processor to break up the cottage cheese chunks. Add your baking powder (two teaspoons) and a dash of vanilla and a little Stevia, and mix well.

Spoon out the batter onto your hot griddle. Normally I cook my pancakes in butter to make the edges all crispy and delicious, but (sigh) in keeping with the “E” nature of this recipe {must read the book to know about “S” and “E“} I used cooking spray. And you know what? I lived over it.

You might need to spread out the batter a little, because it’s REALLY thick. And we’re trying to make pancakes here and not muffins. When bubbles form around the edges, flip the pancakes and brown them on the opposite side.

The book goes into detail about what you can and can’t top these with, but berries or fruit in sugar-free syrup, or just sugar-free syrup are all ok. But by all means don’t use that nasty cheap high-fructose corn syrup syrup, for LOTS of reasons. Oh. And no butter; I do love that you CAN use butter on the THM plan, but just not on “E” recipes.

My review of this recipe? These pancakes were surprisingly QUITE TASTY! I didn’t have any sugar free syrup, so I ate them without, and LIKED them… PLAIN.

Hubby (and this is HUGE, people) even ate a bite and said, “NOT BAD!” which was a TOTAL shock because he often convulses, gags, shrieks, moans, and falls on the floor in a big dramatic display when I make him take a bite of something healthy.

I’m looking forward to diving on in to this Trim Healthy Mama thing. Stay tuned for a giveaway of this book, coming soon!