pancakes for my birthday breakfast!

Last Thursday was my birthday!! I turned the big 35! Not sure how that happened so fast, but nonetheless it happened. 

The night before my birthday, I suggested to my husband that if he wanted, he and the kids could make "breakfast for dinner" instead of getting up even earlier the make my birthday breakfast the day of my birthday! He was all for it and the kids were excited to help. They made one of my new faves..."Fluffy Pancakes". For so many years I didn't make pancakes from scratch (I would use Bisquick or pancake mix), but they just never really did anything for me. I had a pancake recipe that used buttermilk, but I NEVER have buttermilk in the house!! One day at the end of last year, my hubby found a pancake recipe online that used milk and vinegar to make your own buttermilk (duh!) and ever since then we have been hooked!!

I felt so spoiled to have these three cute chefs in the kitchen...just for me!!

Austin's job was putting the bacon in the frying pan...

THIS KID LOVES BACON!!

{Fun in the kitchen!!}

Birthday Pancakes!!

You didn't think I would finish this blog post without sharing the recipe did you??

Fluffy Pancakes
1-1/2 cups milk
1/4 cup white vinegar
2 cups flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1/4 cup butter, melted

1. Combine milk with vinegar in a medium bowl and set aside for 5 minutes to "sour".
2. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large mixing bowl.
3. Whisk egg and butter into "soured" milk. Pour the flour mixture into wet ingredients and whisk until lumps are gone.
4. Heat a large skillet over medium heat and coat with cooking spray. Pour 1/4 cupful of batter onto the skillet, and cook until bubbles appear on the surface. Flip with spatula and cook until browned on the other side.

I guess this is one way to eat pancakes...a pancake sandwich!!

I'm linking up today with...

 

kids in the kitchen - yogurt parfaits

On Monday I shared about our time in the kitchen making mini pizzas for lunch. Mikayla saw the pictures I took of Austin and since she was in school during that time, she said she wanted her turn in the kitchen! I don't know about you, but sometimes I have a hard time coming up with after school snacks that are a little more beyond, "just grab some crackers". I want to try to work on making a yummy (and extra special) snack at least once a week. This was the one for this week!

Strawberry-Yogurt Parfait

Wash your strawberries:

 Cut them into slices:

(Mikayla is using the kid-safe Pampered Chef knife, but if were to do this again I have an easier plan in mind for her to slice the strawberries!)

 Toppings include:

strawberries, vanilla yogurt, granola

 Start with granola on the bottom of the cup.

 Add a generous helping of vanilla yogurt.

 Add strawberries.

 Repeat the layers until you are satisfied.

 This looks so delicious!!

 Austin wasn't sure at first if he wanted to join in, but...

 ...he was all over the strawberries. Every. Last. One.

 Enjoy!!

Mikayla was so excited about this treat that she just had to make her daddy one after dinner that night. He LOVES parfaits, so he was really surprised to find out that this was his treat!

Have you been playing with your kids in the kitchen this week? Join in the fun and link up!

kids in the kitchen - mini pizzas

Recently I have been reliving the days of when the kids were pre-schoolers and I remember all those fun times in the kitchen, making snacks or lunch or whatever! (I have been going through some "my babies are not babies anymore" moments lately!!)

I have a lot of documented time in the kitchen with Mikayla (her little brother wasn't quite the age to be in the kitchen as a helper!) like when we made Homemade Waffles, Banana Muffins, or Cool Whip Sandwiches. Seriously...click on some of those links and your heart will melt with that sweet little baby face who is now almost 7 years old!!

Well, I thought today it would be little brother's turn to be my kitchen helper. We've done plenty of this over the last couple of years (and especially recently), but today I picked up the camera to document him making one of his favorite lunches. Right now Austin goes to preschool (Jr. Kindergarten) 4 mornings a week, but he is home in time for lunch, so we get to enjoy the afternoon together. We try to do some fun things together just him and I right when he gets home and cooking in the kitchen usually happens once a week!

Mini Pizzas

• English muffins
• pizza squeeze (we love the Contadina pizza squeeze)
• shredded cheese
• toppings ~ our favorites are turkey pepperoni and olives

Step One:

Squeeze the pizza sauce onto the English muffins.

Step Two:

Using the back of a spoon, spread the pizza sauce over the English muffins.

Step Three:

Sprinkle on the cheese.

Step Four:

Add your toppings. And, in true Austin-fashion he decided to make pizza faces.

Pizza faces ready for the toaster oven.

Step 5:

Carefully walk them to the toaster oven (yes, I did say to him carefully)...

...and then this happened!

{Let me just pause for a moment to say that had this been 2 or 3 years ago, I may have just freaked out a little and thought this was a major catastrophe. But, guess what? Not anymore! I've learned that life's too short to cry over spilt milk...or in this case pizza on the floor. We just scooped it up, turned it over, added a little more cheese, put the face back together, and into the toaster oven it went.}

Step 6:
Let the cheese melt in the toaster oven until nice and crisp.

Step 7:
Put a smile on  your face and enjoy!

And before I could get the apples cut and on the plate, Austin had already snatched the olives and gobbled them up!

{And, in browsing my blog to reminisce of the days when my kids were little, I found THIS POST where the kids made muffin pizza faces back in 2009. So precious!!}

I am joining in the link up for Kids in the Kitchen...a new weekly series I just found at the blog Sensibly Sara. Come join in the fun (click on the picture below).

 

Christmas Countdown 2011 - Day 6

Day 6 - Milk & Cookies...and letters to Santa

It seems like I'm falling further and further behind in posting our 25 Days to Christmas, but here goes in trying to catch up...

Day 6 we baked up some cookies with ingredients I had prepared ahead of time and then enjoyed them while the kids wrote their letters to Santa.

{cookies in a jar}

{just dump the ingredients into the bowl}

{mix them all together}

{stir in the "wet" ingredients}

{roll them into balls}

{fresh from the oven}

{cookies and milk!}

Time for letters to Santa...

Austin told me to write that he wants a remote control monster truck, but he didn't really tell me anything else he wants for Christmas. However, a couple of days ago while riding in the car, he asked me..."Mommy, guess what I want from Santa." I replied, "A remote control monster truck." He said, "No, that's on my list, but I want a Touchpad like Daddy."

Dreaming big I would say!!

(How cute does he look writing his name?)

Mikayla wrote her own letter this year with a little help from me for spelling. I can't believe she's getting so grown up!

"Dear Santa,
I want a pink and white soccer ball and Barbie Christmas movie. I want a Pocahontas doll. Thank you."

Guess I have some shopping to do! ;)

candy-coated pretzels

A week or so ago, the kids and I decided to make an easy little snack idea!

I had some of these "Melt 'n Mouth" vanilla-flavored candy pieces leftover from Christmas baking, so I thought I would use them up by covering some pretzels.

{Melt in microwave 30 seconds until easy to stir and smooth.}

Line some pretzels on a sheet of waxed paper.
Next time, I'll be sure to put the waxed paper on a cookie sheet first.

Let the kids drizzle the melted candy over the pretzels.
If I do this again, I though about putting the melted chocolate in my Pampered Chef frosting tube for an easier way to drizzle.

They don't have to look pretty to eat them!

Place waxed paper on cookie sheet and put in freezer for 5-10 minutes.

And enjoy!