Light & Fluffy Banana Protein Pancakes are a healthy breakfast with 5 simple ingredients that taste amazing and fill you up! Egg whites, protein powder and ripe bananas make up these low-fat and low-carb pancakes, for a complete and wholesome meal under 200 calories.
Light & Fluffy Banana Protein Pancakes
As much as I hate it, I am suppose to be following a low-carb diet as instructed by my doctor. I have PCOS and have been battling infertility the last few years and apparently carbs are the enemy in my situation. I did great in the beginning with high hopes that loosing weight and following the low-carb diet would be the answer along with medications. I lost around 35lb eating healthy meals and got myself into a healthier weight range, required by my specialist to start treatment.
I started my first medicated cycle with far too high of hopes. I was just sure that between the drugs and my weight loss, it would be the magic bullet and we would get pregnant immediately. Needless to say, my hopes were dashed that cycle…along with subsequent cycles. During this time I fell off track and lost motivation when it came to my diet.
Although I have my struggles from time to time, lately I have been trying my hardest to reduce my carb intake. It is insane how carbs seem to be hiding in EVERYTHING! From tomato sauce to fruit to granola bars, all the places I would expect them and some I wouldn’t. Sadly, I seem to love all things loaded with carbs. Then again, who doesn’t?!
Despite trying to minimize my carb-intake, I still believe in moderation. There are times where you crave something hearty for breakfast like pancakes, instead of just string cheese or fresh fruit. A stack of normal pancakes would blow my entire day’s worth of carbs out of the water, so I wanted to come up with something equally filling but much healthier. I have seen versions of banana pancakes in the past but they seemed dense and unappealing.
One day a light went off in my head…whipped egg whites. By beating the egg whites alone, like you would for a meringue, it would make the batter much lighter and airier. The process worked wonderfully, they were like eating banana clouds! They don’t have the same consistency of a traditional pancake with flour, but they are equally wonderful in their own right! Top them with some honey yogurt and fresh fruit for the ultimate breakfast.
I highly recommend Naturade Whey Protein Booster for a protein powder that doesn’t have any added sugars and therefore only has 1 carb per serving.
This recipe makes two servings, so if you are flying solo you can toss the leftovers in the freezer, layered between parchment paper in a resealable bag and you will have a great breakfast option for the future!
Light & Fluffy Banana Protein Pancakes
Ingredients
- 2 20g each scoops vanilla protein powder
- 1 large very ripe banana
- 1/8 tsp. cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp. baking powder
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 2 eggs
Instructions
- In two clean bowls, separate the eggs carefully so none of the yolk gets into the egg whites. Beat the egg whites on high for 2 minutes until they form soft peaks. (It is important that your bowl or beaters don't have any oil, fat or yolks on them, or the egg whites won't form peaks. Soft peaks are defined as barely holding their shape. The peaks flop over immediately when the beaters are lifted.)
- Add the remaining ingredients to the egg yolks and beat until smooth. Gently fold 1/3 of the egg white mixture into the banana mixture until roughly combined. Fold half of the remaining eggs whites into the mixture and finally the last portion until everything is well combined.
- Heat a skillet over low heat. Scoop 1/4 c. of the mixture onto the skillet and cook for 60-90 seconds on each side.
- Serve immediately.
- OPTIONAL: Top with fresh fruit and/or 1/3 c. plain non-fat Greek yogurt mixed with 1 Tbsp. honey.
More healthy breakfast options!
Light & Spicy Turkey Sausage Breakfast Burritos
Goat Cheese & Pesto Veggie Scramble
Peach Yogurt Parfait with pistachios and dark chocolate
Hi Danielle, first I’m sorry you are struggling with infertility and I hope your desire to have a child is fulfilled very soon (If you haven’t conceived already).
Thank you for sharing this recipe. While bananas are usually forbidden for me, these pancakes looked too yummy to deny myself this rare treat. There are times when I buy too many bananas for my kids so when they go brown I throw them in an airtight bag and toss them in the freezer to use for bread or muffins later. I usually roast them in the peel before mashing them to bring out more of that delicious banananess (if that isn’t a word, it needs be). I’ve decided to use a roasted banana and sub the vanilla protein powder with cinnamon roll flavored whey protein for your recipe this morning…fingers crossed that I don’t muss it up!
Thanks again,
Rashie
Thanks for the kind words Rashie! I hope you love them.
Can these be refrigerated and popped into the microwave throughout the week?
I haven’t tried this myself yet, but if you give it a try, I would love to know how they turn out! Thanks.
I do it a least 3/4 times a week. I added 1/2 scoops of oats to have more fiber.
And instead of doing step by step, I mix everything on my nutribullet in 1 min, save time for a quick breakfast.
I whipped up a batch for myself, then made a batch (substituting the protein powder for baby rice cereal) for my baby who has gluten issues. We both loved them, and I froze most of the baby batch of pancakes and have been reheating them in the microwave. She is still devouring them after being frozen and heated up again. Thanks for such a great recipe!
That makes me so happy to hear it worked for both you and your baby!
These are the best protein pancakes I’ve had, hands down! Thanks so much for sharing!! Only thing I found was I needed to add a little water to thin out the protein/banana/egg yolk mix (but that’s probably because my protein is like cement). Kas Xx
I’m so happy to hear you loved them! I’m glad you were able to adjust them to your particular protein powder to make them work for you. Thanks for stopping back to share!
I added my banana to my magic bullet with some unsweetened almond milk for more “liquid”. They came out wonderfully and my 9 year old daughter gobbled them up! We don’t like overly sweet things so I also used one scoop vanilla protien and one unflavoured for a less powerful vanilla taste.
ohhh and we topped with dark chocolate shavings and banana slices!
Yum!!!
Winner!!! Thank you for givIng me something edible and fast for breakfast ❤️ They turn out kind of gooey in the middle, is that normal? And I am adding a few semi sweet choc chips on top instead of syrup.
I’m happy to hear you like them! Mine didn’t turn out goey at all in the middle. My guess is you might have a thicker protein powder and need to add a little bit more liquid to compensate for it.
Loved them! Finally some protein pancakes that are light & fluffy!! Only thing I added were some chopped walnuts……yum!!! Thank you!!! Best wishes & positive vibes on your fertility. 😊
Thanks so much Candice!
These sound great. Can I use Chocolate Shakeology instead of the protein powder?
You could try, but I’m not certain how the flavor would be. I’m personally not a fan of the artificial sweetener flavor in Shakeology, so it wouldn’t work for me.
Yes, you can use Shakeology. (And the sweetener is NOT artificial) Enjoy!
Hey, this recipe looks great! I am currently moving on from vegetarianism, to try and adopt a healthier vegan lifestyle. I was just wondering if you know of anything i could use with this recipe, to substitute the eggs? Any help would be much appreciated! Thanks a bunch! All the Best Xx
With this particular recipe, I don’t think there would be a good substitute for eggs. The whipped egg whites are what make them light and fluffy and I am unaware of a substitute that would do the same for them. Sorry I couldn’t be more help, but best of luck with your transition to vegan!
Try using the liquid from a can of garbanzo beans. 3 Tablespoons for every egg.
I made these with blended silken tofu and Vega protein. They turned out great!
These were great!!!
I’ve tried making protein pancakes before but they never came out this good. Looks like I found my recipe!
I also added a handful of frozen blueberries and 1/4 tsp vanilla
Hi! I made these today and used a french vanilla protein powder that I had on hand (20gm protein per scoop). They were good and I will make them again. I have been getting into counting my macros recently and I’m confused about the nutritional facts that are listed…it states this makes 8 pancakes (it did) and a serving is 4 pancakes…how is there only 8 grams of protein per serving if using 2 scoops of protein powder, and there are also 2 eggs in this? I clicked on the link for the protein powder in the recipe and it looks like 16gm protein per scoop but this still did not make sense to me if using 2 scoops plus eggs. Are the nutritional facts accurate?
Thanks,
Julia
Hi Julia, thanks for that catch. I went back and cross referenced everything from the nutritional app I pulled this from. It looks like I made a typo in the protein section. There is in fact 22 grams of protein per serving. Sorry about that mistake, but thanks so much for pointing it out!
Danielle
Hi there,
I gave these a try with Isoflex protein and they wouldn’t cook around the edges ? Just all raw batter :/ any suggestions ?
Unfortunately I am not familiar with that protein so I can’t help troubleshoot much. I do know that different proteins definitely have different consistencies though, so it might be worth giving it a try with the Naturade protein.
I tried powdered bone broth protein in place of the protein powder. Do not try it! Could not even flip the pancakes. Not rating yet since I didn’t follow the recipe!
I tried this recipe on a whim because I had everything by chance and it turned out better than expected! The pancakes were fluffy and had the right amount of cinnamon. I used chocolate whey protein by ON and instead of syrup, I used peanut butter. It went well!
Why do the eggs whites and yolks need to be separated. Admittedly, I’m a novice in the kitchen but this seems cumbersome. How much of a difference will it make it everything is combined quickly?
This makes a huge difference. By whipping the egg whites, it adds a light fluffiness to the pancakes instead of the normally heavy and dense protein pancakes.
Hi, I would just like to know how much calories would 100 grams of these pancakes be?
Hi, how much calories would 100gram of these pancakes have??
How much calories would 100grams of these pancakes have?
Sorry, I don’t figure the nutrition that way. You can see the nutrition info for 4 pancakes at the bottom of the recipe though.
These pancakes are sooo Good! Thanks for the great Recipe!
Happy to hear you enjoyed them!
I’m sorry but this recipe creates air-cakes with no substance! You need some kind of flour in there to give them more bite.
Warning: don’t beat the egg whites by hand if it’s the day or two after a hardcore arm day. ☺️ Seriously though, these were perfect. I used Teraswhey, organic bourbon vanilla. They are amazing! Even my boyfriend commented on them. Well done!!!
I’ve tried the recip this morning and the batter looked really good. They looked beautiful after I flipped them and I thought they would be perfect. But they didn’t really cook and tasted really foamy and spongy almost like mousse? They were still wet no matter how long I left them on the stove and you couldn’t eat them because it just didn’t have the consistency of a pancake 🙁 really disappointed
Hey Natalie, in the post I mentioned that they aren’t going to have the consistency of regular pancakes. You will need a recipe with flour to get that consistency. Sorry to hear you were disappointed.
I just tried this, and it was a complete fail. 😳 I doubled the ingredients because I was making this for 4 people, but I followed the instructions line by line. When the first pancake didn’t raise, I tried adding more baking powder to the rest of the batch. The second pancake raised a bit but was still too gummy and gooey and not fluffy at all! I’m thinking it must of have been the protein powder. I used whey protein powder, chocolate flavor, instead of the one on the ingredients list (because that was the only kind I had available at the moment). It was a complete disappointment.
I will try again with the right kind of protein and see how it goes. If I can’t get it together, then I guess I’m destined to eat box pancake for the rest of my life 😔lol
Sorry to hear it was a flop. I’m guessing you are right and it was the protein powder. They all have such different consistencies.
Hi! These seem amazing, I’m looking forward to trying them. Has anyone weighed the banana they used? I’d like to half the recipe and I don’t want to mess it up.
I used a plant based protein powder and they were disgusting.
Whey protein is more creamy, almost all plant based (pea, soy, etc,) proteins have a more gritty texture that works well in smoothies.. And evidently works terribly in baking.
You must use whey for these not to taste like gritty slop. Recipe should specify.
The recipe includes a link to the specific protein powder I used. Every powder is different so there is always a risk when you swap out an ingredient.
I made these using a plant based (pea) protein and they were so light, fluffy and delicious! And conveniently my protein was also bananas and cream flavoured which helped. I agree that some plant proteins are gritty, but not all are. Try being appreciative that someone is sharing a great recipe and not rude next time, hey?
These were delicious. I used egg white vanilla protein powder and I topped with homemade peanut butter and blueberries. Mine were a little dense, probably because my stand mixer but the dust and I tried whipping the eggs by hand. Gave the satisfaction of a high carb snack without the guilt, and with peanut butter, each pancake (5 total) had around 15 grams of protein. A+
Do you have to use salt?
You never HAVE to use salt, but it brings out the flavors in any recipe.
Will a griddle pan work fine too?
Yes!
How did you get 5 grams of fat? 2 eggs are more than 5 grams of fat. Are you sure the marcos are correct?
The 5 grams is for one serving, so there is 20 grams total in the whole recipe.
I made these this morning and they were great! I only did a 1/2 recipe and added 20g almond flour to add some body as well as some almond milk and they turned out beautifully! Much yummier than some of the other pancakes I’ve tried!
Happy to hear you enjoyed the recipe. I might have to try your twist with almond flour for a more pancake like bite!
Best protein pancakes I’ve ever eaten! Like you I have PCOS so I am trying to increase protein and reduce carbs, and this recipe is definitely helping, I do intermittent fasting, so I eat the whole damn lot 😉
Happy to hear you enjoyed them! PCOS sucks, but it’s nice when you can find a good low-carb recipe to enjoy.
I used a plant based protein powder and the consistency was perfect! I don’t even like regular pancakes; these were amazing 🙂
I’ve be tried just about every protein pancake recipe there is and this is by far the best. Light. Fluffy. So good!! I used vanilla shakeology and added a tablespoon of chia seed. Heaven! Thank you!
Just made these using chocolate protein powder and topped wth some maple & pecan peanut butter…Very yummy! Thank you.
Tips:
pancakes made better after letting the batter rest for a few minutes.
Make sure pan doesn’t get too hot.
Make these every week. Love them. Thanks. Loam
Hands down the best protein pancake recipe I’ve tried.
They’re a little eggy, but that’s just the texture and mine weren’t so fluffy, but they taste SO GOOD! I used chocolate protein powder.
Thanks so much for an excellent recipe!