Adventures in Low Carb - My dismal failure

Pancakes: food of the breakfast gods

Before I started working in the school system, I had lost 40 lbs through Spark People.  I was still a good 20 lbs overweight, but I was feeling pretty good. Then slowly, over the years, I gained almost all of those 40 lbs. back. (Working with students with severe disabilities means that a lot of their curriculum includes life skills lessons, which included grocery shopping, which included cooking, which included a paraprofessional eating a lot more than she should. Add to the fact that we were able to celebrate everyone's birthday and well, it was just a weight gaining disaster waiting to happen. (Note: I do not blame my students or the job for my weight gain. I used to but soon realized that this wasn't actually blame, it was an excuse and it was unacceptable.)

That's my back story. Long story short (too late!), I stumbled upon the low carb way of eating. Many people know this as Atkins. The program has undergone massive changes in the past 20 years, one of which includes adding more veggies to the diet. I've been following a low-carb/low-sugar diet since May 28th (right after we came back from Girl Scout end-of-the-year trip).

Being on the diet for almost 10 weeks means that I've gotten pretty bored with my food choices and have started venturing into the realm of low-carb recipes. Some have been successful; some have been dismal failures. And since this blog is this side of perfect, of course I'm going to share the failure!

The best food known to man (besides cheese) is pancakes. Right? Right. I can't "have" pancakes. ("Have" is in parenthesis because I can have anything I want; I choose not to partake in foods that have a whole day's carb allowance in one food. I don't love pancakes that much!) But I have to admit, I was jonesin' for some pancakes. And I found, what I thought, was the perfect recipe:

Cheesecake Pancakes.

Yes, please.

The ingredient list was simple: cream cheese, eggs, butter, cinnamon, salt, ground flax seed and Splenda. The process wasn't quite so simple. I had to beat the egg whites separately, cream the cream cheese, add egg yolks, sweeteners, and flax seed meal. Then I needed to fold the egg whites into the mixture and cook them. Easy peasy, right?

Not so much.

First, they didn't hold together so well.

Dismal failure: Exhibit 1

Then they cooked too fast, so they didn't cook completely.

Then they swelled...

Inflated, eggy balloons

And deflated...

Deflated, sad balloons

And they tasted eggy and flax seedy. Not a great mix. Not a great recipe. Will I try it again? You know, I think I might - just not with this flax seed. (I'm told that golden flax seed has a milder taste. This has a very strong flavor. I don't like the Muffin in a Minute recipe with this flax seed for the same reason.

Butter and sugar free syrup makes them also palatable

But, I'm not going to give up! I'm going to find the perfect pancake recipe. I will!

But first, I think I'm going to make some Oopsie Rolls.