I am always on a lookout for new pancake recipes. I make various kinds for weekend breakfasts and sometimes for after school lunch/snack. Yesterday I had a package of cottage cheese unfrozen and wanted to use it, so pancakes for lunch it was.

Not many people might be aware, but pancakes, especially when made with cottage cheese or buttermilk, or both, make a pretty healthy meal anytime. I put very little sugar in mine and kids eat them with sour cream, so besides dairy and a bit of flour, there is not much damage done.

I love getting GrubHub’s help with food and get something fantastic delivered, but that usually happens for dinner at our house. Lunch is on me or on Instacart, thanks to their delivery of fresh produce and roasted chicken. Publix sushi once a week is also great – kids go crazy for it.

So yes, since there was no GrubHub for lunch, I decided to use my cottage cheese and make quick and nutritious lunch. To speed things up, I made pancakes two ways: half in the oven and another half on a frying pan.

Ingredients:

• 1 organic egg
• 200g of cottage cheese
• 200mg of buttermilk or kefir
• 1 cup of all-purpose flour
• ½ teaspoon of baking soda
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 1-2 tablespoons of raw sugar
• 1 cup of raspberries
• A pinch of cinnamon
• Coconut oil

Preheat the oven to 365 while you’re making the batter. The batter making process is very simple and pretty fast, especially if you use a mixer. It is completely doable by hand too, but I always use my hand held KitchenAid.

First crack the egg into a medium size bowl. Then take a separate small bowl and pour buttermilk or kefir. Add baking soda to that and stir very well.

You should see lots of bubbles and the buttermilk will rise up a little – all normal. Pour the buttermilk mixed with soda into the bowl with the egg and combine it well.

Next put your cottage cheese. I buy Lithuanian cottage cheese from our international farmers market, but there are a few kinds in regular grocery stores and Instacart can get it for you. My favorite American brand is definitely Friendship. Add vanilla extract and again mix everything thoroughly.

The last step is to slowly pour flour while stirring or mixing the batter. At the very end put a pinch of cinnamon for some extra flavor.

The recipe I followed is for oven baked pancakes, so I made those first.

I took a parchment paper lined baking sheet and shaped small pancakes with a spoon on it. I added two raspberries to each round pancake and put them in the oven. They baked there for maybe 10 minutes until they expanded and became golden brown. I didn’t even have to flip them – they came out perfect and not stuck to the paper.

The second half of the mixture was used for pan fried pancakes. And they tasted completely different! I love using coconut oil for pancakes, because it gives a faint flavor and also because it’s good for you. I poured about 5 pancakes per batch and put two raspberries on each. 2 minutes on one side, 2 on the other and done! It was a lot faster than the ones in the oven. Both methods were great because the pancakes disappeared pretty fast.

The pan fried ones were great with sour cream, while oven ones were great just plain.

A little jam wouldn’t hurt things either.

Enjoy!