Tots and Me... Growing Up Together

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Friday Blog Hops: February 25, 2011

Time to find some cool new blogs. I'm looking forward to making some new friends. I hope you can take the time to check out my blog, if you like what you see I would love for you to follow my blog. I also have a Facebook page you could "Like" and if you have a second, could you take the time to vote for my blog on Picket Fences. Click here to follow me on Twitter.
I have a new weekly link up I invite you to check out:
Breakfast For Dinner Thursdays
Looking forward to visiting some new blogs this week. Have a blessed day.

Breakfast for Dinner Thursdays February 24th, 2011

Today is the first official day to link up for Breakfast For Dinner Thursdays.

Today we had a pancake "buffet" with sausages.

I just recently started making a variety of pancakes instead of plain old pancakes. I use the recipe that comes out of my Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book 10th Edition. This book is quite old actually. I had it before Steven was born, and it is now in five pieces.

Here is the original recipe:

1 cup flour

1 tbs sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 beaten egg

1 cup milk

2 tbs cooking oil

I usually double this recipe for us and Steven will make is own batch with rice or soy milk because of his cow milk allergies.

Today I added 2 tsp of vanilla (which is one tsp per batch), that really made them yummy.

The instructions say to combine the dry ingredients in a bowl. In a smaller bowl you need to combine the egg, milk and oil. Then you add it to the flour mixture all at once. Believe me they turn out better if you follow these instructions. Make sure when you stir the final mixture who leave it slightly lumpy. I've actually read some advice on allrecipes.com for other pancakes that said to refrigerate the batter for a while to help the pancakes become fluffier.

Today our "buffet" included plain, cinnamon and cinnamon apple nut pancakes.

I cooked about 6 with the plain batter, then I added cinnamon and cooked up 4 more, because I knew the girls don't like nuts. Then, in the remaining batter I added 1/4 cup chopped walnuts and 1/2 of an apple chopped fine. I realized as I was making these that I used to make "apple fritters" all the time. This is what my friend calls pancakes with chopped apples in them. The girls ate cinnamon pancakes and daddy really seemed to enjoy the cinnamon apple nut pancakes. In fact, he took some leftovers to work. If it hadn't been for Hannah finally feeling better and eating some of the plain pancake they would have been completely ignored. I'll have to remember that.

I think each batch makes 10 pancakes if measured out in 1/4 cup increments.

We also had our favorite sausage links. They are Banquet Brown'N Serve sausages (I believe they used to be Armor brand or something like that). We usually buy maple and turkey variety. The turkey ones were for Steven who is also allergic to pork. Now we are going to start buying just the turkey, because they contain 100 fewer calories and only 7 grams of fat (compared with 19 grams) per a 3 link serving size.

I'm looking forward to seeing what others may eat when they have breakfast for dinner.Please link you post up below and leave me a comment. The linky will be open until next Wednesday.

You Capture:Things That Start With "L"

Once again here is another photography challenge that I have been neglecting for far too long.

This week we were challenged to take some "L" pictures. I definitely miss the Alphabet Shoot Challenge I used to participate in. Funnily enough the last post I did for this challenge was the letter "L"

I invite you to head on over to that post if you would like to see it.

However, here are my new photos taken this week.

My "line of weight loss"

The lights on our ceiling fan

My lounging son

Head on over to Beth's blog to see more photos.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Breakfast for Dinner Thursdays Introduction

Stay tuned for a new weekly link up here at Tots and Me.

I am looking forward to starting Breakfast For Dinner Thursdays. As I was creating my first menu for Menu Plan Monday this week I decided we would have pancake for dinner on Thursday. It dawned on me that since I was going to be planning my menus from now on (I hope) I could plan to always have breakfast for dinner on Thursdays. I know I am not the only one to serve my family breakfast at dinnertime. This is not a new concept. However, I thought it would be fun to create a linky so you could join in and share what sort of breakfasts you serve your families at dinnertime. Whether you serve them on Thursdays as I plan to do, or on other days of the week, I would love for you to link up here on Thursday. Maybe we can all get some ideas of something different or unique to serve, so our families will not get bored.

I think it would be great if we could also share the recipes we use, if applicable, in the post.

So, stay tuned for the first linky tomorrow. I'm looking forward to your participation!!!!

Wordless Wednesday: February 23, 2011: Poor Sick Baby

Tiny Talk Tuesday: February 22, 2011

A little late posting this, but I was busy improving my blog today (I have been adding pages).Here are a couple of the amusing things the girls have been saying today:
We were in the bathroom, drying the girls off after their bath and Tabitha was talking about the ladybug crawling along the wall. Here is the conversation:Tabitha: I think it's eating our wall, that's why it stopped.Amelia: Yeah, cause it's hungry.
The next morning we were again in the bathroom, just Amelia and myself, and she noticed the ladybug was on the tiled ceiling. She said something about it not being on the wall, then she said, "It's eating our 'skee-ers'" translation: squares
Also during the bath, while daddy was drying Tabitha off he was getting her to show her arm muscles, you know, arm at an right angle, let's see those muscles.Tabitha: It's muscle enough.
One day last week daddy was up for about 24 hours straight. He went to work, had to stay late, and when he got home we had to deal with car problems. So that afternoon he understandably crashed on the couch. Tabitha was making sure he had a blanket and a pillow. The she started talking about dreams.
Tabitha: If it's a scary dream stay asleep so you don't wake up.
A little bit later:Tabitha: Daddy, did you have a dream or not. I know dreams are kind of scary.
Hannah may only be babbling still, but she is now signing two words"milk" - her first word, which also means drink to her"please" - which we so far have only seen when she wants her cup at meal time