IHOP at Home

Since I cut milk out of my diet I've been trying different pancake recipes to mix up breakfast a little. I worked at IHOP when I was in college and I'll admit, I ate more chocolate-chip pancakes than any other. But I also loved their Harvest Grain n Nut pancakes and the first recipe is a good imitation of those. Trevor isn't a big fan of the nuts but he likes the pumpkin pancakes and it sneaks in a veggie. Both recipes have a lot of ingredients but once the pancakes are made you can freeze them and pop in the toaster the rest of the week.

Grain and Nut Whole Wheat Pancakes

3/4 c old-fashioned oatmeal
3/4 c whole wheat flour

1 t baking soda

1/2 t baking soda

1/2 t baking powder

1/4 t salt

3/4 c buttermilk

1/2 c milk

2 T vegetable oil

1 egg

3 T sugar

2 T chopped walnuts (optional)

Grind the oatmeal in a blender until fine. Mix dry ingredients together, then add wet ingredients. Makes about 10 pancakes.

Pumpkin Pancakes

2 c flour

3 T brown sugar

2 t baking powder

1 t baking soda

1 t allspice

1 t cinnamon

1/2 t dry ginger

1/2 t salt

1 1/2 c milk

1 c pumpkin

1 egg

2 T vegetable oil

2 T vinegar

Mix the wet and dry ingredients separately, then combine. Makes about 18 pancakes.

Six Years and Going Strong!

This week Birch and I celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary! Sadly, there was no candlelight dinner or roses. Instead we were driving up to Flagstaff to visit family and had two crying kids as we looked for a good rest stop in the middle of Phoenix. How romantic!

I thought I'd post a few pictures of us growing up together. We are one of those rare couples who dated in high school, actually got married after the guy's mission and even knew each other as kids. Sounds cute, but we weren't friends at all until high school. Enjoy!

3rd grade class picture

6th grade class picture (There are also pics from 4th and 5th grade, but you get the idea.)

Spring Break in Rocky Point, 1998. The first time we talked, became friends and started to fall in loooove. Cheesy, I know!

Junior prom, 1999.

Hiking Picacho Peak after Birch's mission.

Wedding day, nice and hot in August 2003.

So Sorry, Sandra Lee

First I'll admit I'm not the best cook but I love to do it. I love being in the kitchen, love meal planning, love the whole deal. I was a big Rachael Ray fan for a while and used a lot of her recipes. Maybe not Eggplant Stew with Honey and Golden Raisin Polenta--can anyone's stomach get excited about that? But I love watching cooking shows and since we don't have cable I get to watch Rachael.

Here's a link to my favorite recipe of hers: Cold Chicken Satay Noodles, some yummy Asian-style noodles. I've made it enough that it's now on the list of "banned dinners" at our house. The next time Birch is gone for the evening I'll make it again.

But since Haley was born I haven't had the time to cook like before. Rachael's recipes are good, but let's be honest: a 30-minute meal for her is 45 minutes for the rest of us and up to an hour if you've got kids running around. So I decided to switch teams. Semi-Homemade by Sandra Lee sounded like a great option! Someone on the Food Network publishes recipes that use ready-made ingredients? I'm sold!

But...so far I've been disappointed. I tried three of Sandra Lee's recipes and NONE of them turned out. Then I checked out another cookbook of hers from the library, thinking maybe her newer recipes would be better. But it was the SAME recipes, just a different cover with new pictures inside.

So sorry, Sandra Lee. I won't be following you like I did Rachael. But you did give me some ideas about products to try and what I can buy ready-made at the store rather than making it myself.

Tortellini: Love it!
Frozen meatballs: Good
Refrigerated pie crust: Not the best, but a huge time-saver.

Do you have any favorite ready-made products at the grocery store? Or any you've tried that just didn't cut it?

Mud Day!

When I was a teenager my favorite church activity was the annual Tug-of-War Mud Fight. If you're going to get dirty, you'd better go all out! It's been a while since my last mud party and I was SO excited for Tucson's Mud Day to come.

The best part was that this year was Birch and I got to go through the adult obstacle course. Thanks to our friends who took shifts watching kids and holding babies so we could go through. Because everyone was busy juggling kids there aren't any pictures but it was SO worth the long wait in line. Kids can't have all the fun, right?

Trevor doesn't love mud as much as we do. He's trying hard to keep those legs up and dry.

He finally got dirty but was happy to stay on the side, not in the middle of that nasty mud puddle!

Cooling off with some free Eegee's while dad waits in line.

I think Trevor spent more time in the bucket washing off than in the mud.

Happy dirty family!