Hope everybody has had a great weekend! I can’t believe Christmas will be here in less than a week!
This morning, in honor of Pancake Sunday, I decided to try out Heather’s Chocolate Chip Cheezecake Pancakes! If you haven’t checked out her blog, go over there right now and read her latest, she never disappoints! Go ahead…I’ll wait!
I followed her recipe (only omitting the sweetener and using mini chocolate chips) and produced two beautifully browned pancakes riddled with tiny pockets of melty chocolate. My only complaint would be that they were a bit dry so next time I plan on adding a little bit of milk to the batter, but they were definitely a great way to start the day and great protein packed breakfast that left me satisfied for hours!
The nutritional yeast in this recipe lends a unique cheesy/nutty taste that really paired well with the chocolate and banana. For those of you not familiar with nutritional yeast (aka nooch), here’s a bit of what I found when I first learned about it months ago:
- Popular with vegans due to it’s cheese-like flavor
- A great source of vitamin B12, which increases energy levels
- A complete protein providing 18 different amino acids
- Contains chromium, a mineral that has been known to regulate glucose levels
I loved all the nutritional benefits that it had to offer so I went to my local vitamin and herb store and was able to find a pretty good sized container for only about 10 bucks. They also sell it in the bulk section at Whole Paycheck Foods and of course there’s always online. Since my purchase, I have sprinkled it on cooked veggies, hummus, sandwiches, and also in various recipes including this one. It is so versatile and I am always discovering new ways to use it!
Yesterday, while blog browsing, I stumbled across something great! Imagine a fresh tasting healthy granola that smells of everything holidays, enter Pumpkin Spice Molasses Quinoa Granola created by the cute little genius over at cleaneatingchelsey.com.
I’ve been wanting to make some granola for a while now but just haven’t gotten around to it…I’ll blame it on the holidays even though I’ve had a TON of granola-ish ingredients in the house since early autumn! As soon as I saw this recipe, I just knew I had to try it for myself. Some of you may not know, but I have a bit of a pumpkin addiction.
See?
I can’t help myself! I also buy at least one large can of pumpkin every time I go grocery shopping whether I need it or not…guess I’m still a little skittish from last year’s pumpkin shortage!
As it baked, it filled the house with the most delicious aroma of pumpkin and cinnamon. My mouth watered the whole hour that it cooked and I inevitably burned my tongue on a not so thought out straight-outta-the-oven taste test! 🙁 No worries! I managed to resuscitate enough taste buds for my taste-testing pleasure 20 minutes later when it had cooled!
Pumpkin Ice Cream + Pumpkin Spice Kefir
topped with
Pumpkin Spice Granola
Perfectly Pumpkin-ny!
Thank you Chelsey for pleasing this pumpkin lovin’ palate!
