Essentials: Trader Joe's Buttermilk Protein Pancake Mix (Review)

I love Sunday mornings. Especially summer mornings. A short stack of buttermilk pancakes with fresh June strawberries and I'm a happy girl. When I was at Trader Joe's Saturday night picking up ingredients for Caprese sandwiches, I was excited to see that they were carrying a new protein pancakes mix. I picked up a box of Trader Joe's Buttermilk Protein Pancakes Mix (just add water!) along with a container of organic strawberries for breakfast on Sunday mornings.

I was setting the bar low on these. I've tried protein pancakes in the past, and typically the chalky taste and texture make it hard for me to get past the first bite. As I whipped up a batch of these pancakes yesterday morning, I actually had a back-up plan of scrambled eggs ready to roll if these were inedible.

The instructions called to mix the pancakes with just water. Instead, I added half water/half fresh squeezed orange juice and orange zest. With ingredients that included whole wheat flour and whole grain oat flour, the wet mixture was brown and had the look of high fiber bread. I sliced the strawberries and put them aside.

In a nonstick pan on low-medium heat, I added a little butter for taste and then the mixture in small puddles. As they bubbled, I added strawberries to the little mounds. (If you don't want your pancakes to turn blue when adding blueberries or pink when adding other berries,  add the berries to the top of each bubbling pancake while the first side cooks.)  I flipped them over and they were surprisingly golden and fluffy. Just a couple of minutes more and the pancakes were ready.  I had Trader Joe's maple syrup on the table but we didn't even need it.  The strawberries added the perfect sweetness.One bite and we were hooked. There was no chalky/protein aftertaste. They were the best pancakes I've ever made. They even passed the husband and toddler test.

Our house pancakes mix used to be Snoqualmie Falls Lodge Pancake & Waffle Mix but it's now this one from Trader Joe's. Not only are these pancakes restaurant quality but each serving has 1 gram of fat, 0 cholesterol, 3 grams of fiber, less than 1 gram of sugar and 10 grams of protein.

I'm looking forward to trying these with lemon zest + fresh blueberries and in the fall, substituting the water with spiced apple cider.

Trader Joe's Buttermilk Protein Pancake Mix is $3.49 a box.