some time in the kitchen

you'll never guess what i made yesterday... haha. my sister thinks i'm gross...

let me back up and say: i always like to give erica a "real" breakfast. pancakes, french toast, eggs, oatmeal. something besides just cold cereal. the problem is, she's too impatient. there's no way i can get a batch of french toast or pancakes made soon enough. so i've started making three or four batches at a time and just freezing them. i even "portion control" by putting only three in a bag.

now, i also try to make things as "healthy" as possible. [i recently read a blog by 'liya where she went on about the junk parents feed their kids. i try very hard not to be like that!] so i make substitutions from the normal varieties. first of all, i use wheat bread for my french toast. some people may think that's gross, but oh well. Also i decided to add in a jar of pureed blueberries. It made my french toast purple, but at least it adds a bit of fruit.

my pancakes are totally different from the recipe. I use wheat flour. sometimes i'll use half white/ half wheat. but yesterday i used just wheat. Instead of putting oil in them, i use applesauce. [my sister was over last week and had some banana pancakes i had made. she could actually taste the applesauce in them. i've never noticed it, but ah well.] i figure that even though its just 2 tablespoons, i'll still make the substitution. it calls for one tablespoon of sugar-- i use splenda. [i read in Parents Magazine that splenda, in moderation, is fine for little kids.] And finally, i always add fruit. its different every time. i tried blueberries-- what a huge mess! often i'll use peaches or [as mentioned] bananas.

WELL-- back to my initial comment. You'll never guess what i made! i added something extremely odd to my pancakes. awhile ago i saw a recipe for it but never gave it a shot. well, i finally did. i put in shredded carrots!!! crazy, i know. They are extremely orange. But you know what??? they taste good! you actually can hardly taste the carrot. it doesnt have a really strong flavor to it.

i considered trying zucchini next, but decided against it. I have my Zucchini cookies; thats good enough. they're pretty good. again, i used splenda. And theres not really butter/oil because the zucchini is so moist. Erica really liked them-- until her daddy started feeding her animal cracker cookies. Now she wont eat the zucchini ones. arggg. Ah well.