Lemon-Blueberry Protein Muffins + Pancakes

Ever since I discovered the wonderful world of healthy living blogs a little over a year ago, I’ve been hearing about how great Sun Warrior protein is. But, since I have never been able to find it in stores, I didn’t purchase any. (Obviously) I’m not vegan, but I like to have both plant-based and whey protein powders on hand for making smoothies and baking. I have a few vegan protein powders that I really like, namely Vega and Plant Fusion (and of course, peanut flour!). I really love Vega, but it has a pretty strong flavor that doesn’t lend itself to baking very well (unless you’re just looking for that Vanilla Chai flavor). I wanted a really good-tasting Vanilla plant-based powder, so I bit the bullet and recently ordered a big bag of Sun Warrior from Amazon. I sampled it immediately upon arrival, and it tasted great! I definitely get the hype.

Early last week, I decided to switch up my breakfast routine a bit. It’s much easier to make the same thing for breakfast every morning during the work week, since I have to pack both breakfast and lunch to bring to work. I had some Chobani yogurt with fruit, granola and either part of a bagel or muffin for breakfast both days at Blend, and it really filled me up. Since I’ve been in an oatmeal rut lately, it was a good time to switch it up. So last week, I started making a big fat protein muffin for breakfast) along with some yogurt, fruit and peanut flour “butter.” I had gotten some amazing lemon-blueberry granola at Blend made by Nature’s Indulgence. The granola was delicious- and reminded me of just how much I love that flavor combination. So, I thought: why not take that flavor combo and put it into a protein muffin? And this past weekend, I used the same recipe to make lemon-blueberry protein pancakes! I got some NuNaturals Stevia in both lemon and orange flavors and have alternated between the two for this recipe (both versions are awesome!)

I’ve been eating this for breakfast every morning since I got back from Colorado. 🙂

This breakfast is especially good on mornings like today when I don’t really get to eat until after I’ve taught a super intense spin class at 5:30 in the morning! The muffin is topped with some 0% plain Chobani that is mixed with a little bit of NuNaturals Lemon Stevia. The peanut flour butter is just 2 T peanut flour, a pinch of salt, stevia, chia seeds and some water mixed together. Keeps me full for hours!

I really can’t get enough of these muffins- they have so much flavor and are incredibly filling (for such a low calorie count), high in protein and low in carbohydrates. The secret is the “flour”- which is made of from these two guys:

I used one full scoop of Sun Warrior plus one tablespoon of coconut flour (which is my favorite flour to bake with and makes everything super fluffy!).

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Last weekend I decided to take this recipe and turn it into pancakes (because weekend mornings just scream “pancakes!!” to me)- and it worked out beautifully! I mixed up the batter and let it sizzle away in a nonstick pan with a little bit of coconut oil.

I love when you flip a blueberry pancake over and you can see the berries just ready to burst!

And a few minutes later… perfection.

I heated up some fresh blueberries with a little bit of Xagave and nuked it for 30 seconds to make a quick blueberry syrup. A little sunflower butter also made its way onto my plate. 🙂

Lemon Blueberry (Mega) Protein Pancakes

1 scoop vanilla protein powder

1 T coconut flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

1/4 – 1/3 c almond milk

1/4 c liquid egg whites (or 1 egg)

about 1/4 dropper full of NuNaturals Lemon Stevia (if you don’t have this, you can use lemon extract and sweetener of your choice)

handful of fresh blueberries

In a small bowl, mix all of the dry ingredients together. Stir in the wet ingredients until well -incorporated (and make sure there are no lumps!). Fold in the blueberries. Heat a large skillet over medium heat and divide the batter into two pancakes. Cook for approximately four minutes, or until edges are golden brown. Flip over and cook for three additional minutes.

The whole recipe has approximately 180 calories, 3 g fat, 9.5 g carbs, 4 g fiber and 25 g protein!

**For the muffins- use the exact same ingredients listed above, but also add 2 pumpkin puree and 1/2 T chia seeds. Place in a medium-sized microwave safe bowl and nuke for 3-4 minutes, until fully baked. (You can also bake it in the oven.)

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I also experimented with a chocolate flavor last night, which was almost just as good. I think I’ll stick with the lemon blueberry (or strawberry!) combination for now. 🙂

How do you get your protein for breakfast?