Throughout high school, our marching band attended a handful of varsity football games throughout the season. We sat in the stands for the first half, filling two entire sections with our 200+ members and playing short pep band tunes, but with just a couple of minutes left in the second quarter, we walked single file out of the stands and down onto the far side of the track, waiting to perform our field show at halftime.
But as soon as we finished…
We raced back to the band room to change out of our heavy blue uniforms, back into street clothes, and leave campus. Our band director only required us to stay for that first half, which still gave us enough time to do something fun on a Friday night!
After the first football game of the season during my senior year, three of my friends came up with the idea to head to IHOP for a late dinner after our field show performance. We sat at a booth at the far end of the restaurant, virtually the only four people inside at 9:30 pm on that Friday night, and we skimmed through the menu as our waitress brought us glasses of ice water.
Within just a few moments, one of my friends piped up. “Chocolate chip pancakes sound really good right now…” he mentioned, scanning the breakfast section, and the two other guys immediately agreed. Since I’m never one to turn down chocolate…
All four of us ordered stacks of chocolate chip pancakes for dinner!
The waitress looked a little relieved by our easy order, and not too long after, she brought back four identical plates, each covered in gigantic, thick fluffy buttermilk pancakes completely packed with warm, melty, gooey miniature chocolate chips… And, as if that wasn’t enough, they were topped with swirls of whipped cream instead of butter.
All four of our faces lit up in big smiles, and we completely ignored the various jugs of flavored syrups sitting on the table as we reached for silverware. We ate in near silence for a full minute or two before one of the guys finally spoke up.
“Man…” he breathed. “These are SO freaking good!”
By the time we left, we all agreed… This late night IHOP trip needed to become a new Friday night post-football game tradition.
So a couple of weeks later, after the next varsity home game, we headed straight back to the restaurant after our halftime show, but we ended up with a few more friends sitting around the table. The word had gotten out, and more people wanted to join in!
We continued throughout the football season, and we took a few trips there on Friday nights during the winter and spring too. At the end of the school year, we skipped the PTA’s 1 am pancake breakfast and headed to IHOP after our senior prom instead… And after everyone left town for college the following fall, we even met up at the restaurant the night before Thanksgiving when everyone came back home for break!
And every time, we always ordered chocolate chip pancakes… Or CCPKs, as one of the original “founding members” dubbed them. (Not to be confused with CPK, the California Pizza Kitchen!)
Since then, I’ve never ordered chocolate chip pancakes at IHOP — or any other breakfast restaurant — unless I’m with one of my three friends from that very first CCPK night. It just feels weird without any of them… And almost a little wrong, like I’m breaking the CCPK rules!
So whenever I start craving CCPKs, I make them at home instead with this amazing Healthy One-Bowl Chocolate Chip Pancakes recipe! These pancakes are so easy to make, and they’re perfectly fluffy with lots of rich buttery flavor and yummy chocolate chips.
Yet unlike the ones from IHOP… These healthy chocolate chip pancakes contain no cream, refined flour or sugar, and each stack is 163 calories!
Continue reading & see the rest! ›› Healthy One-Bowl Chocolate Chip Pancakes
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