I love Sun­days, don’t you? Whether it’s get­ting together with friends for a long, lazy brunch, relax­ing at home with a great book or cook­ing your favourite recipe with a deli­cious glass of red wine in hand. Yep, I’ve been know to enjoy a glass or two of red wine over the weekend!

This morn­ing, after a killer cir­cuit work­out at home, I met a girl­friend for a yummy grilled veg­gie egg white omelet and way too many cups of cof­fee. Her 17 year old daugh­ter has recently embraced fit­ness and nutri­tion and has been hav­ing some trou­ble lately per­fect­ing her pro­tein pan­cakes. My ulti­mate pro­tein pan­cake recipe guar­an­tees suc­cess every time. So Carly, this one’s for you!

The Ulti­mate Pro­tein Pancake

¹⁄₃ cup liq­uid egg whites

¹⁄₃ cup rolled oats

1 scoop vanilla pro­tein pow­der (I use GNC)

1 T chia seeds*

3 T hot water

¹⁄₄ tsp bak­ing powder

¹⁄₄ tsp bak­ing soda

dash of cinnamon

pinch of salt

1. In a small bowl, com­bine chia seeds and water. Let stand approx­i­mately 5 min­utes or until thick and gel-​like.
2. Pour bat­ter into sprayed or non-​stick omelet pan. Cook until bat­ter sets and sides pull away from pan (about 5 minutes).
3. Care­fully flip pan­cake with a spat­ula and con­tinue cook­ing for another 5 min­utes or so.
4. Serve on its own or with your favourite guilt-​free pan­cake top­ping. I love it with my home­made apple­sauce (as shown) but fresh fruit, sugar-​free syrup or nat­ural peanut or almond but­ter would be won­der­ful too.

*What are chia seeds? These pop­py­seed “super­food” looka­likes deliver the max­i­mum amount of nutri­ents with min­i­mum calo­ries and when soaked in hot water, they make an amaz­ing sub­sti­tute for whole eggs, in bak­ing recipes. Chia seeds have sev­eral of the same ben­e­fits as the more well-​known “super seed” flax, but unlike flax seed, you don’t need to grind them to reap the health ben­e­fits which include fiber, omega fatty acids, cal­cium, antiox­i­dants and much more – even pro­tein! Chia absorbs up to 12 times its own weight and expands to curb your appetite, so adding just an ounce or so of chia seeds to your diet can reduce caloric intake and help lower the energy den­sity (or calo­ries) of foods, plus dou­ble the amount of fiber you receive. Con­tribut­ing to its super-​seed sta­tus, ounce for ounce, chia seeds have more omega-​3 fatty acids than salmon! and is one of the most con­cen­trated sources of omega-​3 in any food.

I buy my chia seeds in bulk at the Bulk Barn but you can find them in just about any health food store.