Recipe #3: Banana Coconut Pie Yogurt

I love plain yogurt.  I especially love when I can make it myself for less money and with better ingredients.  But, just like everyone else, I get tired of eating the same ol' thing all the time.  So, I frequently try to find recipes to jazz up our go-to snack/side.  One of my favorite websites from which to snag recipes is Fix Me a Snack.  This particular recipes is wonderfully delicious, just the way that it is depicted on the site.

Banana Coconut Pie Yogurt

1/2 ripe banana, mashed well
1/2 teaspoon coconut extract
1/3 cup plain yogurt
1 tablespoon sweetened shredded coconut, toasted (I don't toast the coconut)
 
Mix together the banana, coconut extract, and yogurt. Top with shredded coconut. Serve. This makes a generous amount of yogurt. One serving easily serves one adult and a preschooler.

Recipe # 2: Whole Wheat Pancakes

It was Sunday night and we had nothing to eat.  Well, technically, we had nothing prepared to eat. So, I went to a time-honored stand-by: brinner (aka- breakfast for dinner).  We had some beautiful blueberries in the fridge, so the menu quickly became blueberry pancakes, scrambled eggs and coconut/banana yogurt.

Overall, we all thought the pancakes were good.  I will say, however, that the recipe required some modifications.  The batter was THICK.  As in, too thick to pour.  The texture and the taste were good, though not exactly the same as their buttermilk counterparts.  Overall, I think that we can put this recipe in our arsenal to have again.

Whole Wheat Blueberry Pancakes

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 egg
• 1 cup milk, plus more if necessary  (I ended up using almost three cups)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon artificial sweetener (I used 1.5 tablespoons of brown sugar)
• 1/2 cup blueberries

Directions

1. Sift together flour and baking powder, set aside. Beat together the egg, milk, salt and artificial sweetener in a bowl. Stir in flour until just moistened, add blueberries (I did not add blueberries at this time), and stir to incorporate.
2. Preheat a heavy-bottomed skillet over medium heat, and spray with cooking spray (I used a cast iron skillet with 1 tablespoon of butter). Pour approximately 1/4 cup of the batter into the pan for each pancake. Drop a few blueberries into each pancake after placing the batter in the pan. Cook until bubbly, about 1 1/2 minutes. Turn, and continue cooking until golden brown.

PreK

Today was Lil G's first day of PreK.  Most of you know that Lil G has a phonological delay of speech.  Basically, he has a crazy number of words but he doesn't always pronounce them well.  So, he is headed to a class here in town that focuses on his condition.  The awesome thing is, everyone in the class has the same issues that he has:  they are all completely normal cognitively but have some issues with pronouncing their words.

Today was very bittersweet for me.  I love spending time with my little man but I know that he has to grow up.  This is an intrical part of that process.  So, it is a necessary transition for our family.

Lil G was very excited about the first day of school..  Clearly, excited and nervous, judging by how wacky he was acting this morning.  He is generally a good listener (for a three year old) but this morning, he was having major difficulties.  But, we perservered and he was extremely excited to go to class with his teachers.  No tears or shyness around here!

Here he is showing off his new backpack for school.  He was so proud to tell EVERYONE that it had "a rocket ship and a flag".

Sweet Lil Smunchie

A voracious appetite for reading.

Goofy siblings

 On Monday, the kids were having a great time playing together.  I grabbed the camera and snapped some photos.  I adore how much Lil G loves his sister.  And, she can't get enough of him!  Smunchie gets the biggest, goofiest smiles when her big brother is around.

Bottle time!

Saturday night was a rough night around here.  Smunchie was up A LOT, and therefore, so was mama.  So, on Sunday morning, Greg offerred to let me sleep in.  Imagine my surprise when I woke up FOUR AND HALF HOURS later!! 

I came running downstairs to find that Greg had thawed some breastmilk and fed it to Smunchie in a bottle, so that I could rest.  Of course, it is always bittersweet to have someone else feed the baby but it felt so good to get some uninterrupted sleep!!

The neatest thing about the whole experience was that Lil G got to feed Smunchie too.  Daddy was cooking breakfast, so he let Lil G hold the bottle while he ran back and forth to check on the food.  Lil G was so proud to feed his little sister and she looks pretty contented to have him feed her as well! 

Playtime

Smunchie has become so expressive lately.  She loves to have floor time (particularly if naked) and is getting close to sitting up.  It is so fun watching her learn to manipulate new things!

 Concentrating hard