Pancakes!!!

There is nothing that my 4 year old loves more than breakfast foods! Pancakes, scrabbled eggs, waffles, crepes.. Always asks for breakfast for dinner! So I had some energy this morning and figured why not make a double batch of pancakes and freeze some so we have them for later!
When we make pancakes and really any other 'baking" we add applesauce instead of oil or butter. This morning the only applesauce I had in the house was a gogo squeezer. Apple Peach.. hey why not try it! There was even a little left over for the Little Man to eat.



If you haven't seen these before, they are just what they say they are "applesauce on the go" NO spoons needed! We started little man on these pouches that we found at Babies R Us. A different brand has all sorts of baby food puree in the pouches. Now that the kids are older I try to keep some applesauce ones around. We find these at Henry's, Trader Joe's has applesauce and apple carrot ones that both kids like.

Ok, back to pancakes. Whenever I use applesauce I always add a dash or two of cinnamon, just think it goes nicely with it and I normally add a splash of vanilla too. :-)

Applesauce Pancakes

2 cups flour

2 tbs sugar

2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups milk

2 eggs

1/4 cup of applesauce

dash of cinnamon

splash of vanilla

Mix dry ingredients together (flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon) Then in a separate bowl mix rest of ingredients together. Then add wet ingredients to dry ingredients. If you have time let the mixture rest in the fridge for up to 30mins. It helps make them fluffier. I did not wait this morning.. :-)

Lightly spray skillet and heat to medium high. Pour 1/4 cup of mixture into pan. Flip once bubbles pop on the top side.

This makes 18-20 1/4cup pancakes. I freeze mine in 5 pancake batches because that's what we eat on weekday mornings. I just put them in freezer ziploc bags.

Enjoy!

Before And After

Here are some of our before and afters on our new house.

Let's start with the Kitchen of course!

Before- Viewing what island would look like!!

After- still more is planned.. thinking of new color of cabinets!

This is the Family Room Before

Notice carpet and brick hearth

During...

After Fireplace

Lil Miss's room- Wanted pink! Was able to convience her of one pink wall and the others green. Pink and green are best friends, you know!?

Little Man's room- Music themed! Not finished yet but good enough for awhile!

So that's the new place for now! There's been lots of painting and lots of fixing things inside, so the outside needs some tlc next!!

Getting Settled

Oh the joys of moving! Takes forever to pack things up and then just as long (if not longer) to unpack! Moving also means eating take out and super fast already prepared meals! We tried our best to stay semi healthy while moving but didn't always work out that way.

It's a month after closing and we are getting settled. Pictures are going up on walls and stuff is finding it's permanent home. Meals are also coming together. The kitchen is put together enough to actually want to cook a full meal and try new meals even!

Check out our beautiful new island!!

Last night's dinner...

Maui Maui with Pineapple Apple Salsa

3 maui maui fish fillets- Any white fish will work (We normally split a fillet between the two kids)
Pineapple- We used half of a fresh pineapple diced small- You could use a large can of pineapple chunks if needed
Half an apple diced small
handful of cilantro chopped
lime juice from half a lime- we only had the fake lime juice last night so just a few squirts (if you use a real lime and not the fake stuff in the plastic lime bottle, squirt the other half of lime over the fish before baking)
salt
pepper
paprika
red pepper flakes (didn't add this to the kids' fish fillet but did to the adults)

Preheat oven to 350. Place fish in sprayed baking dish. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, paprika, and optional red pepper flakes and lime juice. Bake for 10mins and check. Continue baking until forks easily. Ours took 20mins but they were thick and still slightly frozen.

Mix pineapple, apple, cilantro and lime juice in bowl. Let it sit until ready to serve (can be made a day before and store in fridge)

Place cooked fish on plate and top with salsa. Enjoy!

Can't wait for more cilantro meals!!!