♥ Pancakes.  This word calls to mind IHOP and its famous golden short stacks, dripping with warm syrup, adorned by fruit, and topped with a generous dollop of butter and a swirl of whipped cream.

And naturally,  nearby are pancakes’ BFFs – bacon, sausage, eggs… and a defibrillator waiting under the cash register in case this IHOP pancake party turns out to be one party too many.

Pancakes are glorious.  But when you’re trying to manage your hanger healthfully and conscientiously, pancakes — like most cakes — truly should be a last resort.

Or should they?

I had ‘unfriended’ pancakes because of their white flour, carbs, buttermilk fat and – generally speaking – the complete lack of nutritional value that they contribute to my diet.  But here’s the thing: I had no idea that the traditional pancake has a fraternal twin.  Did you ever see the movie Twins with Danny DeVito and Arnold Schwarzenegger?  If not, skip to the next paragraph because the following observation will be meaningless to you.  The traditional pancake is DeVito’s character Vincent Benedict: fat, nutritionally ugly and contributes very little to the society known as Your Body.  The traditional pancake’s lesser known twin is Schwarzenegger’s character Julius Benedict: a nutritional Adonis, capable of contributing transformative value to Your Body.  This healthy, amazing-in-every-way twin has been around for a long time, living on its own paradisiacal island, known by some but unknown to me.  Until recently…

Hangry Chicks followers, if you were unaware of this pancake Adonis, it is my supreme privilege to introduce you to the guest of honor who sits on my breakfast table at least 5 days a week…

The Julius Benedict pancake, as I call it.  It is brilliantly simple in its contents and preparation.

Mandatory ingredients:

• 1/2 c. Egg whites
• 1/2 c. Dry oatmeal (old fashioned, not instant)
• 1/2 c. Cottage cheese, 1%

Optional (strongly recommended) ingredients:

• Couple dashes of cinnamon and nutmeg
• A packet or two of Truvia or Splenda

Directions:

1. Using a hand-mixer, blend the ingredients together for about 30 seconds.  Don’t blend too long as over-blending will adversely impact the texture.
2. Spray a pan with non-stick cooking spray.
3. With the mixture, you can make several little pancakes or a couple big pancakes.
4. Cook slowly on a medium-low heat to avoid burning.  It should take about three minutes (or so, depending on size of pancakes) on each side.

As I am not a cook, my first experience making Julius pancakes was a train wreck, which I will share with you in order to make you feel better about yourself.

I tried making three pancakes in a large skillet.  The batter, which is rather thin, did not conform to my spherical vision.  As I watched these three pancakes merge into one, I realized that I inadvertently succeeded in making a pancake in the shape of a uterus.  That was not my intention. 

When the uterus-cake was done and ready for its plate, it appeared as if it had a run-in with a wood chipper.  That certainly was not my intention.

Looking at my first Julius pancake was a fleetingly sad experience.  It looked like a drunk infant made it.  I was not drunk and as I write this post, I am 39 years old.  Then, like shapes and characters that emerge from clouds if you gaze at them long enough, I saw a little character in my pancake that made me smile – clearly it looks like an obese, jolly bunny, running as fast as his fat, little legs will carry him, with a sack of stolen goodies strapped to his back.

Despite the cuteness of this little flapjack(rabbit) moment, I had no qualms about devouring the portly bunny like a rabid wolverine.

I’ve come a long way since making my first Julius pancake.  As you can see below, I finally mastered the exquisitely simple spherical shape.

Since this mixture makes two large pancakes, I now make my pancakes in two small skillets to ensure they are perfectly shaped.  I always top my pancakes with a teaspoon of Brummel & Brown butter and one tablespoon of sugar-free syrup.  I don’t have to say it, but I’ll say it anyway because this post isn’t nearly long enough: Get as creative with the Julius pancakes as you do with the traditional pancakes.  Add fruit, sliced almonds, dark-chocolate pieces (in moderation) – go wild with the endless possibilities.

As this blog is all about controlling hanger in healthy ways, I’ll conclude by sharing two amazing benefits of the Julius Benedict pancakes.  Incredibly substantive, they have the power to control hanger for several hours.  When I eat the pancakes that this mixture yields, I can go until lunch without eating a hanger-curbing snack.  (That’s quite a feat for me.)  Plus, the nutritional profile is off-the-charts awesome: the mixture above is a total of 312 calories, 3.5 grams of fat, 32 grams of carbohydrates, and (drumroll please) 38 grams of protein.  Compare that to the nutritional profile of IHOP’s DeVito-fugly (but admittedly tasty) pancakes:

If you love your body and pancakes, you owe it to both of them to make Julius Benedict pancakes.  Or, since I eat these pancakes almost every day of the week, come over to my house for breakfast –  I guarantee instant addition with just one bite.

Ohmygodyouguys! Remember when we blogged about the Hangry Pillow that my friend Cheryl found for us??? Hold that memory…When I went to Chicago this weekend to visit my dear sister Greta, she had the Hangry Pillow waiting for me as a gift! YOU GUYS! I was so excited. Here is a picture of us on a 6 on the Hangry Scale holding the amazing pillow:

This pillow was sent to us from Australia from a delightful woman named Cath. I assume she’s delightful because of this lovely hand written note she left with the pillow:

Also, I love that her business is called the Bearded Pigeon and I love her logo. We are birds (chicks), too (stay tuned on the blog for OUR new logo!!!)!

You guys should know that this pillow is feather stuffed and a joy to lie a hangry head on. And, like I wrote in the post describing the pillow, it has multiple uses other than comfort. Reacquaint yourself with these uses and buy yourself a pillow STAT!

SPREADING THE DE-HANGER!!!!

Two days ago it was Superbowl Sunday. Woo! Honestly, I didn’t care about the football game. I was all about Beyonce and the return of Destiny’s Child (fierce, right? I mean, despite the fact that Michelle and Kelly’s mics were turned down so low that they were barely audible…). But, I do have a dude in my life who was pretty psyched about the SB/commercial watching so I thought I would make some healthier snacks for us to enjoy the concert/commercials/guys stretching in the semi-dark with.

Besides the shrimp cocktail I provided (great healthy and high protein choice for belly filling de-hangering) I made a Seven Layer Dip that is actually much healthier than I thought it would be, and easy as all get out to make. So, I’m going to share it with you. Right now. And even though I know you’re thinking, “Thanks, Natalie, I could have used this recipe two days ago,” this is still a pretty rockin’ app to bring to your next potluck, so don’t be too mad at me that you didn’t have this for your Superbowl Party pleasure.

Here are the ingredients you will need:

1 can of refried beans (fat-free or regular, but in all honesty, go for the full fat. There is only 1.5 grams/serving so what are we arguing over here?)

A package of ground turkey breast–preferably organic (make sure it says turkey breast on the container because otherwise you’re getting ground turkey, and that means you’re “enjoying” other turkey parts which is neither as healthy or as desirable a choice)

1 Container of Guacamole

Montery Jack Cheese

0% Plain Greek Yogurt (2 small containers)

Salsa

Half a tomato

2-3 Green Onions

A couple handfuls of Black Olives

*Side note, you can make this dip vegetarian by nixing the turkey breast. But you already knew that.

First brown the turkey in a pan:

While it’s cooking, spread the refried beans in a large dish.

Make sure that while the turkey is cooking, you’re constantly forking it (yes, forking it) to break it up into small pieces, because you’re going to need it bite sized to ensure easy chip dipage. After the turkey is cooked, put it to the side to cool to room temp.

Then, you’re supposed to sprinkle cheese on top of the beans and the turkey on top of that and THEN sour cream (or in my healthier case, greek yogurt) on top of the turkey. BUT, I f–ed it up and put the cheese on top of the turkey, thinking it would cause the cheese to melt a little bit, but what what it really did was make the greek yogurt hard to spread and make  the cheese stick to my spreading spoon. It was annoying, but not that big of a deal. SO, long story short, first put down the cheese, then the turkey meat and then the greek yogurt. Mine looked like this:

Also, you guys should know that I used real sour cream on half of the bean dip just in case my main squeeze got a little peeved that I made this dip too healthy and noticed a difference in the taste (spoiler alert: he didn’t notice the difference).

Then, on top of the sour cream, you add the guacamole. I used organice guac from Whole Foods. Side note: I’m really trying to eat all organic these days because I’ve been learning a lot about the horrible chemicals that are in all non-organic foods. It only generally works out half the time, but I do what I can.

After you layer in your ORGANIC guacamole, throw a whole bunch of salsa on top. I like to use medium spiciness. I’m still a midwestern girl after all…

Then after you’ve done that (sorry I don’t have a pic for that but let’s be honest, do you really need the salsa view? I didn’t think so), you sprinkle a bit more cheese (for calorie conscious living, don’t be as liberal with the cheese sprinkling) and add some diced tomatoes, sliced olives, and chopped green onion. Slice ’em, dice ’em, and chop ’em, my friends! The the finished product looks like a dis:

Are my camera phone skillz getting better? Yeah, I didn’t really think so either. Doesn’t this look delish, though? You guys, it was. I admit, I indulged a little bit, but only a little bit. My boyfriend killed this sh*t. I have the photo to prove it.

Like I said, he didn’t notice the greek yogurt substitue at all. Score for the calorie/health conscious! How my dude stays trim is beyond me. Oh, and just because he offered it up, I’ll share with you my bf’s superbowl shirt:

He was rooting for The Squirrels, obviously.

Enjoy this semi-healthy dip, my friends. Oh, oh, oh! And for dipage, you can use blue corn tortilla chips, carrots, celery, or you can make your own chips. I will let Greta do a post on those since she makes them (COUGHHERBOYFRIENDMAKESTHEM), so she is the authority there. They are much healthier than the normal chip, and I definitely recommend.

DE-HANGER SUPERBOWL!