Helen's High-Protein Low-Carb Pancakes

My mom invented this recipe a few years ago for our low carb lifestyle. It makes a nice break from eggs. We have often served these pancakes to guests not on a diet and they enjoy them too. It's a great way to get your omega-3's from flax. The recipe is very flexible, and you don't even need to measure the ingredients--just eyeball the proportions, or vary it to suit yourself after you've gotten the idea. I have used sour cream or cottage cheese instead of ricotta, and it works just as well (plain yogurt would be good, too). Cottage cheese makes a very tender, flavorful pancake, but omit the salt because cottage cheese is quite salty compared to the others.

• Ready In: 15 mins
• Serves: 2
• Yields: 4 5-inch pancakes

Ingredients

• 3  eggs
• 1⁄4 cup flax seed, ground
• 1⁄2 cup ricotta cheese
• 1  teaspoon baking powder
• 1⁄2 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. Mix all ingredients together and stir well. (Optional: You may also add one packet of artificial sweetener if you are accustomed to recipes that call for sugar.).
2. Spoon onto preheated, oiled griddle and cook as usual.
3. Serve with butter and low-carb syrup, or sour cream and berries.
4. Note: If you want the batter a little thinner, stir in water, 1 tablespoon at a time. Batter will thicken as it sits, so if you refrigerate it till the next day, you will probably need to thin it. If the batter is too thin, stir in a little more flax.
5. Also note: Flax seed should always be fresh ground (keep a dedicated coffee grinder for this purpose) or stored in the freezer. You may use either regular (brown) flax, or golden flax, which produces a lighter texture and color. You can often get it in bulk bins at your health food store for a great price.