Crepes with Egg Whites: Low Fat & High Protein?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the feasibility of making crepes using only egg whites, skim milk, and regular flour, with a focus on increasing protein intake while maintaining low fat content. Participants explore dietary choices, cooking techniques, and alternative protein sources.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Technical explanation
  • Debate/contested
  • Conceptual clarification

Main Points Raised

  • One participant suggests that using egg whites and skim milk could work for making crepes, despite concerns about the texture being too light.
  • Another participant mentions the possibility of uneven heating in the pan contributing to cooking issues with crepes made from whole eggs.
  • Some participants propose incorporating salmon into the diet as a cost-effective source of protein, citing its health benefits.
  • There is a discussion about the adequacy of current protein intake, with one participant expressing a need for more protein due to a predominantly plant-based diet.
  • Several participants mention alternatives like whey protein powder and canned tuna as potential protein sources, with varying opinions on their desirability.
  • One participant shares an observation about a Starbucks drink's protein content, leading to a debate about its nutritional information and carbohydrate content.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express a range of opinions on dietary choices and cooking methods, with no clear consensus on the best approach to increasing protein intake or the effectiveness of the proposed crepe recipe.

Contextual Notes

Some participants note limitations in their current diets and the challenges of sourcing affordable protein, while others discuss the potential for uneven cooking results based on equipment used.

Who May Find This Useful

Individuals interested in high-protein diets, cooking techniques for crepes, or exploring alternative protein sources may find this discussion relevant.

selfAdjoint
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I was thinking of getting a little more protein in my diet, and egg whites occurred to me, they are almost solid good protein, and low in fat and calories too.

Now crepes are made of eggs, flour and milk. If I use skim milk and just the whites of the eggs, and regular flour, can I even make crepes with this combo? Anybody know? My current skim milk crepes made with whole eggs have a bad tendency to burn at the edges before the middle cooks through, which is a disaster. BTW I use olive oil instead of butter in the pan.
 
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I'd give it a go. I'd say it would work just the same.

Any particular reason for wanting to have a higher protein intake?
 
selfAdjoint said:
I was thinking of getting a little more protein in my diet, and egg whites occurred to me, they are almost solid good protein, and low in fat and calories too.

Now crepes are made of eggs, flour and milk. If I use skim milk and just the whites of the eggs, and regular flour, can I even make crepes with this combo? Anybody know? My current skim milk crepes made with whole eggs have a bad tendency to burn at the edges before the middle cooks through, which is a disaster. BTW I use olive oil instead of butter in the pan.
Sounds like uneven heating in the pan, and perhaps given the contour of the pan, the crepe is thicker in the middle.

I don't like skim milk for cooking, and 2% still seems too thin. Whites of eggs only would give very light crepes IMO, but it would probably work. Give it try.
 
Depending on your location, you may get more bang for the buck by incorporating salmon into your diet. Salmon is relatively inexpensive here, compared to decent cuts of meat. It has good taste and it's high in Omega 3 fatty acids, which are said to have considerable health benefits, including lowering cholesterol, reducing inflammation in blood vessels, and perhaps reducing the effects of asthma, arthritis, colitis, and some cancers.
 
turbo-1 said:
Depending on your location, you may get more bang for the buck by incorporating salmon into your diet. Salmon is relatively inexpensive here, compared to decent cuts of meat. It has good taste and it's high in Omega 3 fatty acids, which are said to have considerable health benefits, including lowering cholesterol, reducing inflammation in blood vessels, and perhaps reducing the effects of asthma, arthritis, colitis, and some cancers.


We get salmon fillets in the market here in Wisconsin, but they aren't cheap like along the coast, and I don't use them. Occasionally tuna goes on sale. I take a supplement for the omega-3 acids.

The reason I want to increase the level of protein is that my present diet, 18 meals out of 21, consists of vegetables fruits, and cereals, and maybe a little cheddar cheese. During the winter months I eat a fair amount of beans, but this time of year I repace them with berries. The cheese doesn't give me enough protein and the other three meals, which usually include meat, aren't giving me enough per week either, in my careful opinion - sensible sites online tell me that for my body weight I should be eating a little more protein than I do.

Uneven heating in the pan is a good possibility for my bad results; I have an electric stove. I had a long discussion with a lady in a food implement store and she suggested I brush the pan with oil before cooking crepes, even though it's non-stick. I'll try the whole thing next week.
 
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turbo-1 said:
Depending on your location, you may get more bang for the buck by incorporating salmon into your diet. Salmon is relatively inexpensive here, compared to decent cuts of meat. It has good taste and it's high in Omega 3 fatty acids, which are said to have considerable health benefits, including lowering cholesterol, reducing inflammation in blood vessels, and perhaps reducing the effects of asthma, arthritis, colitis, and some cancers.


Nothing better than sushi.
 
franznietzsche said:
Nothing better than sushi.
I agree, and Atlantic salmon and Bluefin tuna (both available in Maine) are both wonderful.
 
turbo-1 said:
I agree, and Atlantic salmon and Bluefin tuna (both available in Maine) are both wonderful.

:-p .
 
selfAdjoint said:
We get salmon fillets in the market here in Wisconsin, but they aren't cheap like along the coast, and I don't use them. Occasionally tuna goes on sale. I take a supplement for the omega-3 acids.

The reason I want to increase the level of protein is that my present diet, 18 meals out of 21, consists of vegetables fruits, and cereals, and maybe a little cheddar cheese. During the winter months I eat a fair amount of beans, but this time of year I repace them with berries. The cheese doesn't give me enough protein and the other three meals, which usually include meat, aren't giving me enough per week either, in my careful opinion - sensible sites online tell me that for my body weight I should be eating a little more protein than I do.

Uneven heating in the pan is a good possibility for my bad results; I have an electric stove. I had a long discussion with a lady in a food implement store and she suggested I brush the pan with oil before cooking crepes, even though it's non-stick. I'll try the whole thing next week.

There is always the eazy solution of buying a whey protein powder :)

How many extra grams of protein each day do you aim to eat?
 
  • #10
Azael said:
There is always the eazy solution of buying a whey protein powder :)

How many extra grams of protein each day do you aim to eat?

I'd rather have something I can make. The only reason I use a fish oil supplement is that real ocean caught fish is too expensive for me here in the midwest (I live on social security). Additional protein? I'd say about 30-40 or so grams a day.
 
  • #11
selfAdjoint said:
I'd rather have something I can make. The only reason I use a fish oil supplement is that real ocean caught fish is too expensive for me here in the midwest (I live on social security). Additional protein? I'd say about 30-40 or so grams a day.

I thought of whey because there are recepies around on baking and increasing protein content by adding protein powders. I have never tried it myself though so I can't comment on flavor:smile:

You could try baking some of the stuff in the recepies section of this forum. Loads of good stuff there and since they are following a high protein low carb approach to dieting just about everything in there is high protein.

http://www.proteinpower.com/forum/

If you can stomach it canned tuna can be found real cheap. But in general the cheaper the can the more unrecognisable bits and pieces is in it and the worse it smells There is no other source of protein with a lower cost per gram of protein.

One liter of milk or yoghurt contains 35g protein btw. If you are not trying to restrict carbs and isn't lactose intollerant that might be the cheapest and simplest way to add high quality protein to your diet.
 
  • #12
Azael said:
There is always the eazy solution of buying a whey protein powder :)

How many extra grams of protein each day do you aim to eat?

I'm not a fan of protein powders anymore.

I prefer to eat all my protein. It's not that hard like everyone makes it out to be. When I make my pita, it has 40 grams of protein in it. That's quite a lot. My breakfast has like 35 grams of protein. In two meals, I'm almost at 100 grams!
 
  • #13
An oddity I discovered yesterday: a Starbucks Venti Mocha Frappucino Lite (made with low fat milk) has 138 calories and 11 grams of protein. That's actually not too bad.
 
  • #14
selfAdjoint said:
An oddity I discovered yesterday: a Starbucks Venti Mocha Frappucino Lite (made with low fat milk) has 138 calories and 11 grams of protein. That's actually not too bad.
That's not what I get from their website. I get 250 calories and 10 grams of protein. One of the "problems" here is the 52 grams of carbohydrates, which IMHO is simply an absurdly high amount.

I mean what is "lite" about 52 grams of carbohydrates?
 
  • #15
"lite" or "light" usually refers to fat content.

This is a typical high calorie, low fat item that they call "light"

Edit: OMG, a "regular" has 400 calories :bugeye:

SA, for what you spend on Starbucks, you could buy some decent high protein food.
 
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  • #16
When I was younger,I used to stir a package of Knox gelatin into a glass of V8 juice, a good way to add protein and it's cheap.

Well, I'm finding conflicting information, one source says one envelope is 25 calories and 6 grams of protein, and another says 5 calories and 0 protein. Ok, the 5 calories is not a full packet.
 
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  • #17
Something I found out recently is that lentils are very high in protein. They're quite cheap, easy to cook, and pretty tasty. They go well in all kinds of dishes.
 
  • #18
zoobyshoe said:
Something I found out recently is that lentils are very high in protein. They're quite cheap, easy to cook, and pretty tasty. They go well in all kinds of dishes.
Yep, I eat lentils at least once a week. They're only 50 cents per pound DRY which makes a large potful cooked.

Cooked they have 18 grams of protein per cup, at a cost of maybe a nickel.
 
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  • #19
Mmm...lentils are yummy, and you can find so many different recipes for them, including salads that are great for summer when you don't want to eat a lot of hot foods, or soups in winter when you do.

I'm not sure if crepes would taste right without the egg yolk in them. But, it wouldn't hurt to try. They might turn out more like fluffy pancakes though. Waffle batter is made with lots of egg whites.
 
  • #20
Evo said:
When I was younger,I used to stir a package of Knox gelatin into a glass of V8 juice, a good way to add protein and it's cheap.

Well, I'm finding conflicting information, one source says one envelope is 25 calories and 6 grams of protein, and another says 5 calories and 0 protein. Ok, the 5 calories is not a full packet.

Knox should be all protein. So, 25 calories with 6 grams of protein sounds correct. I work in a grocery store, and I remember looking it up because we had some other product with protein in it and I couldn't figure out from where. Then I saw Gelatin in the ingredients, and that's how I discovered Knox.

I'd like to know a cheap way to get protein that doesn't taste so bad. I hate tuna and any kind of fish for that matter. I'm not too interested in Lentils because 18 grams of protein per cup isn't quite high enough.

I eat chicken 3 times a day! It probably costs me $20-25 a week on chicken alone.
 
  • #21
Tofurkey Jurky - a 28 gram serving has 12 grams of protein.

pjurkiesph7.gif


I can't imagine what it tastes like and I'm sure it costs more than chicken. At least you'll have variety.
 
  • #22
EvoSA said:
Man, you think I do that every day? My daughter and I went their yesterday, a holiday, remember?, to celebrate. And she paid!
 
  • #23
Evo said:
Tofurkey Jurky - a 28 gram serving has 12 grams of protein.

pjurkiesph7.gif


I can't imagine what it tastes like and I'm sure it costs more than chicken. At least you'll have variety.

I love my chicken though. :biggrin:

I have eggs everyday too, so that's even more chicken.
 
  • #24
selfAdjoint said:
Man, you think I do that every day? My daughter and I went their yesterday, a holiday, remember?, to celebrate. And she paid!
I thought you might be one of those people that indulge a habit and skimp on everything else. :biggrin:
 
  • #25
JasonRox said:
I love my chicken though. :biggrin:
I hope so if you're eating it three times a day!
 
  • #26
Moonbear said:
I hope so if you're eating it three times a day!

:)

My mom moved out and all she cooked was pork and beef. I hated it. Tasted good, but health wise I hated it.

I feel great now that it's out of my diet.
 
  • #27
My current skim milk crepes made with whole eggs have a bad tendency to burn at the edges before the middle cooks through
I don't know if it would help, but I used to have that problem with pancakes -- all I had to do was to change the temperature at which I cooked them.
 
  • #28
Pork really isn't that bad, because most of the fat is on the outside. If you trim the fat off, it's a pretty lean meat. Beef you can't do anything about the fat, so yeah, you have to keep portions small to avoid it being unhealthy. It's expensive too, especially the good cuts. Since I really do enjoy beef, I just cut it into smaller pieces before I freeze it so I just have a small portion at a time to enjoy the taste without overindulging in the fat, and try to limit it to once a week. My portion is what is really considered a serving of beef, which most people would think is miniscule considering what they're so used to.
 
  • #29
JasonRox said:
I'm not a fan of protein powders anymore.

I prefer to eat all my protein. It's not that hard like everyone makes it out to be. When I make my pita, it has 40 grams of protein in it. That's quite a lot. My breakfast has like 35 grams of protein. In two meals, I'm almost at 100 grams!


A friend of mine that lifts weights was telling me that it's impossible to bulk up without some kind of supplement (protein powders/pills), because not even meat will provide the protein you need for body building.

I prefer steak, myself, but I'm also not that concerned about bulking.
 
  • #30
Moonbear said:
If you trim the fat off...



that's the best part!
 

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