Healthy Pumpkin Pi Pancakes

I attend a school for nerds.

It’s the truth.  We all admit it.  We’re gifted and talented labrats with giant glasses and braces, skipping grades left and right, and heckyeah we’re proud of it.

Which is why the title of this post actually does NOT contain a typo.  I do sincerely hope you  realize the significance of this particular day of the year.  March 14; 3/14.  Also known as the first three digits of the ratio pi.  Also known as National Pi Day.  Also known as the best non-school-excusing holiday of the year.

Every year for three years in a row, preceding my school’s annual Pi Recitation Contest, I’ve done my best to memorize as many digits as possible and thus clinch Pi-Memorizer-Victory, and by extension, the grand prize: a whole homemade piE, all to myself.  The first year I competed it was cherry (won with 181 digits), the second year, apple (secured via 348 digits); and it was indeed apple again this year.

😀

YES, PEOPLE: I HAVE ONCE AGAIN SECURED THE TITLE OF PI MASTER!!

I was really hoping to memorize 500 digits this year, since it seemed final and awesome and I’ll be leaving the school next year so I kind of wanted to “go out with a bang”, but sadly I forgot a “26” somewhere in there and ended up with a grand total of 433 digits past the decimal point.

3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971 69399375105820974944592307816406286208998628034825342 11706798214808651328231664709384460955058223172535940812 84811174502 8410270193852 110555964462294895493038196442881097 5665933446128475648233786 7831652712109091456485669234603486 1045432664821339360726024914 12737245870066063155 881748815209209 6282925409171536436789259036001133105305488204665213 8414695194151160943315727036575959195309218611738193!!

But, this post is not about pi.  Well, it kind of is.  Happy Pi Day!  Mainly it’s about piE, specifically Pumpkin PiE pancakes that I’ve been enjoying for breakfasts all week…you know, for preparation. 😉  They’re super healthy and contain a #strangebutgood secret ingredient!!

http://instagram.com/p/WprKhilYuv/

When I saw Heather at Kiss my Broccoli playing around with including “riced” cauliflower in her pancake and dessert recipes, I knew my own recipe testing would not be far behind.  Before I even realized what was happening, I had whipped up THREE batches of these cauliflower pancakes (though without the coconut flour, alas), and was working my way toward my own modified version.  I managed to include the stuff of the gods, peanut butter (though any other nut butter would also work here [try almond or pecan!]), make it more pi(e)-like, and squeeze in yet another vegetable.  And yet, yes, it still tastes like a sweet breakfast! 🙂

Recipe: Healthy Pumpkin Pi Pancakes  (1 serving)

-2T flour of choice (I used white-whole-wheat)

-Half-scoop vanilla protein powder (I’ve heard of something like cinnamon protein powder too…if you have it, try it out here!)

-1/4 t baking powder

-1 t pumpkin pie spice (or blend cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg)

-1/4 c riced cauliflower (pulse raw cauli in food processor until pureed, or the consistency of rice)

-1 egg

-splash almond extract

-3 T canned pumpkin

-2 T milk of choice

Instruction:

Coat a skillet with cooking spray, butter, or oil, and set over medium heat.

Mix dry ingredients (spice, flour, protein powder, and baking powder) together in a small bowl.  (You don’t need much bigger than cereal-bowl-sized).  Mix wet ingredients together in a separate bowl, and stir both mixtures together until incorporated.  Scoop picakes onto skillet (they will not bubble like traditional mixes), and cook for about 5 minutes on either side. Once plated, top/stack them with the aid of Peanut Butter Pumpkin Cream!:

Ingredients:

-2T peanut butter/nut butter of choice

-2T canned pumpkin

-2t maple syrup

-1t molasses (blackstrap, if you like)

-sprinkle of each cinnamon and nutmeg

Instructions: Mix 🙂

Top picakes with more cinnamon, and enjoy.

That’s my orange pi shirt, and I quite enjoy it.  On the plate are my orange pumpkin piecakes, and I quite enjoyed them. 🙂

Happy Pi Day! 😀