Perfect Whole Grain Freezer Pancakes

Every morning I ask my kids what they would like for breakfast, and their answer 95% of the time is PANCAKES. Now getting up every morning making pancakes gets tiring and on some sleepless nights it sounds terrible! On special occasions I do make my own pancakes, but in the last year I have gotten lazy and started buying pre-made pancakes. You know the one you find in the freezer section? 

There are a few problems with this:

1. They are expensive. 

Homemade anything is usually cheaper then the pre-packaged version.

2. All are made with white flour. 

I am not anti-white flour but research after research shows everyone needs more whole grains in their diet. I think it's better to start your kids out younger eating the whole wheat flours, so as adults they have adjusted to the taste difference (because there is one) and will hopefully enjoy (and choose) the healthier version. 

3. Packed with preservatives.

Again, I am not anti-preservatives, they are necessary in some foods to help them keep longer. However, if I can't pronounce you preservative ingredient in a simple pancake recipe (which for hundreds of years people have been making at home without preservatives) then I probably shouldn't be feeding it to my kids. 

4. Environment Impact

Ok, yes I know my hippie self is coming out, but all of the pre-made pancakes come in a cardboard box and about every 3 pancakes are wrapped in a plastic bag. Just imagine how much garbage goes into landfills each year? I am just adding to that with each plastic bag I unwrap because I have been too lazy to make my own pancakes?

With all those reasons listed, I have been on a hunt for the PERFECT whole grain pancake recipe. I have tried many other recipes on the internet and have been highly disappointing with most of them. Either the whole wheat flour alters the flavor too much, the texture is off, they are flat, or too fluffy. Finally, I can say I have found the PERFECT recipe! The kicker to this recipe is the dry mix can sit pre-made in your cupboard for weeks if you feel like stirring up a batch of fresh pancakes OR you can make a bunch of pancakes and freeze them! Here's my recipe and I hope you enjoy!

{now only if I could learn to pour the perfect pancake}

Perfect Whole Grain Pancakes

printable version

Dry Mix:

4 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup All-Purpose Flour

3 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats

4 tablespoons sugar

3 tablespoons baking powder

1 tablespoon salt

1 tablespoon baking soda

1. Pulse old fashioned oats in food processor so they are broken up a little. Do not puree into a flour. 

2. In a large bowl, mix oats, flours, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda.
3. Store in airtight container.

To Make The Pancakes:

1 Cup of Dry Mix above

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 cup buttermilk or unsweetened almond milk

1 tablespoon of orange juice

1 large egg

1. Place 1 cup of dry mix into a bowl.

2. Whisk in vegetable oil, buttermilk/almond milk, orange juice, and 1 large egg.

3. Cook on a oiled skillet or griddle.

TO FREEZE YOUR PANCAKES:

1. Lay pancakes out on a cookie sheet. Do not overlap them.

2. Place in freezer for 1 hour or until completely frozen. 

3. Remove from freezer and place 3-4 in plastic freezer bag. 

4. When ready to eat, place in microwave for 60 seconds or until hot.
Tip: Save your plastic bags to reuse when you make them. 

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Rainbow Birthday Cake

I know it's been a while since my last blog....at least 6 months....but life sometimes gets in the way. I have been very busy chasing around 2 children under the age of 4, planting a huge garden (over 20 tomato plants!), moving wood chips to my flower beds (150 feet of flower beds!), numerous vacations, and so much more! 

I am hoping to post some of the projects I did this summer in the future. For now, I am celebrating this little girl's 2nd birthday! She is my smiley, crying, barefoot, dancing, giggling, yelling, tickling, chocolate eating, thumb sucking little girl Remy! I forget how little they are when they are born :)

 *Photo by Adara Photography 

 *Photo by Adara Photography 

*Photo by Adara Photography 

*Photo by Adara Photography 

For her 1st Birthday I went with a Pink & Green Princess theme. This year I wanted to do a rainbow theme, so here is her 2nd birthday cake! I threw in a My Little Pony, just because it seemed fitting. (Too bad I couldn't find a Rainbow Bright figure!)

 I used the Pillsbury Bold Funfetti Cake mixes to create the colors. I had to split the orange and blue to make the colors red and purple. I frosted each layer and really felt that if I did the outside it would be WAY too much frosting.  

I added a #2 to the top for her birthday!

The top is made with Nerds and Rainbow Twizzlers, carefully held in place by toothpicks. 
Here's the back of the cake:

Here is how the cake looked once we cut into it. (Sorry for the blur, I was a little in a hurry trying to serve cake before the ice cream melted.)

Overall, I think it might rank up there with some the best cakes I have made! Thanks for checking out our blog and look for more of my summer projects coming up!

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Organizing Jigsaw Puzzles

Part of my New Year's Resolutions was to organize my house better. As a parent to both a three and a one year old, the constant battle we are having are toys. However, the worst of all the "toys" are the millions of jigsaw puzzle pieces that we own.

This kid of mine LOVES puzzles:

With puzzles comes all of these annoying boxes that become very hard to store, lose shape which causes pieces to fall out of the side, and then we have lost pieces. 

One day as I was on facebook, I saw an ad on the side for a photo box organizer. (Like the one time I actually look at that sidebar!) It was something similar to this:

I had an idea that this might be just what I need to organize these puzzles. This box opens up and contains little boxes (originally designed to hold 4"x6" photos) but all I could think of is PUZZLE PIECES!

Let the puzzle organization begin! I first decided to make sure all of our puzzles had all their pieces. We put them together and I marked the back of each puzzle with a different symbol. If they ever get mixed up, it will make it easier to tell them apart. 

Next, I took all of the puzzle boxes and scanned the image. (You could just cut the box instead, but I wanted it to be more uniform.)

I printed the images out and trimmed them up.

Then I affixed them to the inside of each box and filled them with the jigsaw puzzle pieces.

The results are wonderful. All the puzzles fit great and it's a nicely organized way to keep the puzzles together.

Looks a bit more organized to me, how about you?

One problem area of my life solved! If you have a great toy organization tip for kids toys I would love to hear it, just comment below!

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The Joys Of Toddlerhood: Bad Behavior

I am really not quite sure how to write this blog, so I guess I will just start out with how much I love my little angel Aiden. He was born with the blondest hair, the longest eyelashes, and the cutest smile. He is a spirited toddler to say the least but always so cute and sweet that I have no problem putting up with his occasional orneriness....until this week....

It all started the other day at Target. Aiden and I were having a Mom's day out with my Mom's group at the local orchard and I had it all planned out:  Aiden and I riding the hay ride to the orchards, him asking all sorts of cute questions, teaching him how to properly pick apples, and getting a few Mama & Me selfies with my phone. It was going to be perfect! However, on the way out to the orchard I realized that I forgot my lip gloss. (For those of you who know me, I am very addicted to the stuff.) I had this brilliant idea to pop into Target, pick up some lip gloss and a Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte and head to the orchard. The idea of sipping a PSL on the hayride with the brisk morning air blowing through my hair holding my little man's hand, just made the morning seem even more appealing.

As I was daydreaming in the checkout line I hear the cry of another kid and turn around to find my toddler standing over some stranger's kid yelling "NO! You put that back!" I was shocked! I have never seen him act this way. Sure I have seen other toddlers be bossy, push to get what they want, and throw tantrums --but that's not my kid. I apologized about 10 times to the other child's mother and made my toddler apologize not only at that moment but again when we were leaving. This poor child's Mom just looked at me and shook her head with that look of "you are the worst Mom ever!" 

Fast forward to today. I am involved in a local MOPS group and today was the meeting. My son loves MOPS days because it's his time to play with other kids in a daycare setting. This morning I walked him into the daycare and let the ladies working know we had been having issues with him pushing other kids and being mean. I figured it's my duty as a parent to let them know. I thought maybe a little pep-talk before playtime would keep him from being a mean little boy, however on my return I find we had not one but two more "mean" incidents with other kids.  WHERE DID MY LITTLE ANGEL GO!?!?!

I arrived home with my son without saying much to him the car ride. When Mom is quiet, he knows he is in big trouble! After talking with my husband, we both agreed that we really had no idea what to do about this mean behavior. The normal timeouts just don't seem to be a big enough punishment in situations like this. Hurting others and being mean is not OK and he needed to learn that. We decided the best punishment for him would be to remove all toys and books from his room. He HAD to figure out that this is not good behavior and maybe being bored with no toys in his room will teach him that.

While my toddler took his nap today I still couldn't get over his attitude and all the questions I have about why he is acting this way. Where did our sweet toddler go? Where did he learn this? Are we yelling too much? Is it something he is watching something he shouldn't? Is he not getting enough attention? Are we not punishing him enough? The questions went on and on.

I felt the sudden urge to go for a run, even though it was raining and we were having threats of tornadoes (in October??) I went anyways. On my run, there was something I figured out. I am not quite sure if I am more upset about my toddler acting out or was I more upset with myself? Don't get me wrong --my toddler was being extra naughty this week, but isn't that what a toddler does? No one says, "Oh, the toddler years are so easy!" They wouldn't call the the terrible twos or horrible threes without a good reason. I wonder if I am more upset because these incidents have me questioning myself as a parent. I don't like the feeling of being judged by others as a bad parent because of the way my toddler was acting. I don't like thinking that maybe we really don't know how to raise a good child. I don't like questioning if we are raising him to be a good adult or maybe another Dexter? How does a parent really know if they are doing the right thing with their child?

Later that evening, I happened to be at the grocery store and watched another child about my son's age throwing a tantrum in the produce section. He was yelling at his mom, smashing the children's cart into stacks of produce, and pushing his sister to the floor. The mother looked at me with embarrassment and then looked away quickly. It was at that moment I decided to walk up to her and say to a perfect stranger, "I know how you feel, my son was having a bad day too. Don't you just love this age!" She smiled and laughed a little with both of us in silent agreement that these toddler years are tough. We all have our bad days and it's important to remember that toddler's do to. They are learning to become little adults and all of these new found social skills are tough. That doesn't mean that we let them get away with murder or throwing tantrums that hurt others, but we do need to realize that this is part of what they have to learn in life. Parenting a toddler takes patience and true understanding that none of us are perfect parents. We just need to keep trying our best, stay consistent in the disciplining, and say lots and lots of prayers that our children will turn out fine.

UPDATE: I wrote this blog a month ago and can say that the "mean" behavior has gotten much better. Being consistent with timeouts, losing books before bed, and taking toys away has really helped him realize that there is always a punishment for bad behavior. He is back to being a sweet little boy again...on most days!

source

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Losing The Baby Weight With The Second Child

This has been the post I have been dreading the most about writing. I have not had any time over the last few months to really post as much as I would like, but this post has been weighing on my mind  ---literally. It's the dreaded "losing the baby weight" post.

If you follow our blog regularly, you know that I was SOOOO good about documenting this baby weight battle with my first child. (Read previous posts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, & 8). At the time I wrote the final post of this series Aiden was 9 months old and I weighed 124 pounds. I had lost 46 pounds in 9 months!

Here's a nice before and after pic:

As of right now, my daughter Remy is 9 months old and can't be any cuter!

However, being that this is now my second child I wanted to confirm the rumors that are true....losing the weight with the second child is harder! At least it seems that way!

There are a number of reasons I think it seems harder...sleep deprivation, chasing around two kids, lack of time, lack of energy, and honestly I love my nightly glass of red wine with chocolate! Whatever excuses I want to give you, the honest truth is I just decided not to put the pressure on myself the way I did with my first child. My mother always told me that it takes you 10 months to put the weight on and it will take at least 10 months to take it off. I decided to take it easy this time around, spend more time with my kids instead of time with my treadmill, and try to eat healthy most days.

I started out this pregnancy weighing 8 pounds more than my ideal weight and ended the pregnancy at a whopping 181 pounds. With the help of myfitnesspal, endomondo, total insanity, p90x (parts of it), and a few other workout videos I can say I am getting there! I may not be as far as I was the first time around, but at least I am working at it and focusing on not putting too much pressure on myself. I currently weigh 133 pounds. And for those math majors out there, that's a lost of 48 pounds which is surprisingly more then I lost with my first at this time. (BTW, this was a surprise to me as I wrote this post!)  I still have a good 13 pounds to lose to be back at my pre-baby weight, but I am not sweating it (except when I workout!)

The moral of this story for all you second time moms out there is:

You will lose the weight.

Focus on eating healthy, take your kids for walks to parks (far away), and reward yourself periodically so you don't deprive yourself and binge. You will lose the weight!

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The Joys of Toddlerhood: Potty Training

It's that time in every parent's life where you have to tackle the fun 'potty training' adventure. My son is officially 2 1/2 years old and we felt like it is time to begin this somewhat interesting (difficult) process.

For the last 6 months we have taken him to the potty on several occasions, but nothing really serious. I could tell he just wasn't quite ready, until now. We went on a week long trip down to Oklahoma to see GG (great grandma) and while down there Aiden told me very loudly that he needed to use the potty...and he went...not once, not twice, but five times. It was time.

That is where this guy came in:

Meet the Potty Penguin.  I had this genius idea to order this timer for him to set every 30 minutes to remind him (really me) that it was potty time. And boy, did I build up this Potty Penguin. While on our trip I kept telling him, "You know when we get back the Potty Penguin is going to have to you sit on the potty!" and "Are you excited for the Potty Penguin!" and "It is going to be so fun for Potty Penguin to live with us!" Really I think I built this guy up WAY TOO MUCH! I think in his mind, this Potty Penguin was cooler than Santa. I seriously wonder what was going on in his mind and it makes me laugh a little at all the scenarios he was thinking about this Potty Penguin. 

The moment arrived when we returned from out trip to find a small Amazon box sitting on our porch. We waited until the morning to open it up. His excitement was unreal! As I opened the box, he looked in --almost disappointed-- at this little tiny penguin timer. Then I showed him his new Mickey underwear and he became a little more excited. I explained to him "Aiden we are done with diapers. The Potty Penguin will make a noise and that will mean you need to sit on the potty. The noise sounds like this..." and I set the timer to a minute. The minute went by and nothing....no sound. We were both disappointed now. I forced it to ring and he became very excited! I put him in his new Mickey undies, set the timer to 30 minutes and waited for the "potty time". At 15 minutes, the timer went off for about 2 seconds....what?!?! was this! Needless to say, after a few attempts this awesome idea of the Potty Penguin was over. The timer was broken to start with.

Even though my original idea fell through, I thought I would just write on what I felt has worked so far in this potty training adventure. We are going into day 3 and other then naps/night he is very potty trained. Here is what I have done so far that has seemed to work.

1.Wait until they are ready: Advice I have received from so many of my friends who were mothers before me was to wait until he was ready to start. They all said the same thing. It's something that will happened eventually, but don't force it. Some kids just do it later then others. When I tried in the past, he just wasn't that interested but really was showing the signs now. This post on baby center is a great resource.
2. No Pull-ups: The first time he went in pull-ups he didn't care --it was just like a diaper. The big boy undies work best. He knows when he is wet and doesn't like it. Honestly, most of the day I have let him go commando around the house and he has no accidents. The two accidents he has had, he was wearing the undies and forgot to hold it. The naked method seems to work the best.
3. Timer: Even though it's a plain old timer, it works. I set it for 30 minutes and he knows he needs to sit on the potty. He stops it and starts it on his own each time.
4. Potty Chair: Some parents hate dealing with this but I don't have to lift him up to get on it which is great for me. It is always close by and when the timer goes off he will run over and sit on it himself.
5. Routine: It helps to make a routine. The timer goes off, he shuts it off & starts it again, sits on the potty for a few minutes. When he goes, I pick up the potty bowl and carry it to the toilet, he dumps it in the toilet, flushes it, washes his hands and gets a treat. He likes the routine and gets mad if I don't stick to it (totally a first child!)
6. Treats: Have lots of them --I didn't and wish I would have. I started with gummy worms, but ran out. I went to fruit snacks, but ran out. Now since I haven't had time to make it to the store he is eating all my Dove dark chocolate :) Whatever works right?
7. Rules: Make rules like "No sitting on the couch or bed" and "You must wash your hands after going potty" Also, I no longer buckle him in his chair for meals so we have an easier escape to the chair if needed.

Anyways, those little tips have seemed to work for us. We are on day 3 and he is doing great. I figure once we tackle the daytime we will work on naps next. I predict some wet sheets in the future...

If you have any potty training tips, I would love to hear them! Anything to make this toddler adventure easier!

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DIY: Valentine's Day Heart Bird Feeder

Is there anything sweeter then a little boy and his Grandma?? Or in my son's case his Farmor? There is! And that is watching them make these super cute heart shape bird feeders together!

Here is what you need to make these super cute bird feeders ---btw a GREAT gift idea for Valentine's Day! 

1 1/2 cups of birdseed
2 (1/4 oz) packages of unflavored gelatin
heart shaped cookie cutters
cooking spray
wax paper
twine

Step 1:  Mix 1/2 cup of water and gelatin together in a bowl.

Stir until dissolved.

Step 2: Pour in 1 1/2 cups of birdseed.


Step 3: Measure about 7 inches of twine out and cut it.

Tie the twine in a knot to make a loop.

Step 4: Lay heart shaped cookie cutters on some wax paper and spray with cooking spray.

Step 5: Fill the cookie cutters half full of the birdseed mixture.

Step 6: Press the birdseed down into the cookie cutter.

Step 7: Lay the twin loop on the birdseed.

Step 8:  Top the twine with more birdseed until cookie cutter is full.  (Look at those cute little hands!)

You will end up with a couple really cute heart-shaped filled cookie cutters.

Step 9: Let the cookie cutters dry for a few hours and then gently unmold the feeders. Let the birdfeeders dry for another 72 hours until hard.

 Step 10: Find a nice spot, preferable near a window, to hang your finished heart bird feeder.

And enjoy the view as you show the birds in your neighborhood some love!!!

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Printable Toy Car Road Map

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day and for many families that means traveling to see relatives. We now have a two year old and a two month old so I am anticipating our five hour road trip might not be the most enjoyable experience for any of us, but it is totally worth it to see family! I have been racking my brain with ideas to keep my toddler busy on this drive!

The other day, I purchased this great car seat tray from a friend of mine for Aiden to play on while on the trip:

source

I already have crayons and coloring books packed, but I was trying to think of some more fun toys he can use on this tray. The picture shows toy cars, and seeing this I came up with a great idea! A small Toy Car Road Map!

I looked all over online to see if someone had one of these available that I could just print off, but the search resulted in nothing :(

That is when I decided to use my skills as a graphic designer! I found some free map elements online and created my own little road map for Aiden to play with online.

I printed them on two 8.5"x11" sheets of photo paper...but really any paper will work. I wanted a little weight to the paper and I am out of white card stock, so photo paper was my next option. 

Next I put them in a sheet protector, back to back. The tray isn't big enough to have them side by side, so he can flip this over and change the map if he likes. Also, the sheet protector will hopefully protect it from spills and food in the car.

 The size is just perfect for the map! There is also space on the side to store extra cars.

As I am writing this blog and taking pictures, Aiden can't help himself to play with the map as I am doing so :) Hopefully, he will feel the same way in the car tomorrow! 

Here are the road maps up close:

If you would like your own road map, you can click on the pictures above and download the pdf. In case there are other graphic designers out there, I left the pdf to be editable in illustrator if you would like to move the buildings and roads around. 

Happy Thanksgiving and safe travels!!!

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