Yummy Pancakes

This was an absolutely crazy week. I had to go somewhere every day except today which meant that I was more rushed in getting things done in the kitchen and around the house. On top of that, poor Matt is sick and we have not been sleeping well because of it. Yucky Mountain Cedar! We're pretty sure his sickness was spurred on by the cedar allergies. So he's home early today getting some rest and I just put a pot of chicken and veggies on the stove to make a broth that will hopefully be soothing for him later on.

So due to my crazy week, I was super tired last night and didn't feel like cooking anything at all. Unfortunately, whenever I get that tired, what I usually want to do is eat pizza and chocolate chip cookies with a huge scoop of ice cream. But since it was not our splurge night, I had to come up with another plan. Breakfast for dinner. Yay for my husband who loves breakfast any time of day. I had tried some pumpkin pancakes a few months back and they were OK, but not something I would make again. But I had this pumpkin in the freezer that was calling to me, so I decided to use my normal pancake recipe and substitute pumpkin for some of the milk. They were SO good! Topped with some chopped pecans, unsweetened whipping cream, and a smidgen of honey (we were out of maple syrup), and I felt like we were having dessert night after all. Of course I also made us some eggs with grated zucchini and chopped spinach and we had salads on the side, but those pancakes sure hit the spot. Wanna Try em?

This recipe is one that I grew up with that I have adapted to be 100% whole wheat. Now I just need to figure out how to soak them without changing their fluffiness and they will be perfectly healthy!

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Griddle Cakes

1 3/4 Cups + 1 heaping Tablespoon Whole Wheat Flour
3 teaspoons Baking Powder
1 teaspoon Sea Salt
2 Tablespoon Sucanat or Rapadura
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1 Cup Milk
2 eggs
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil or melted butter
3/4 Cup Pureed Pumpkin

Mix dry ingredients together. Mix wet ingredients together and stir into dry ingredients just until all is moist. Drop by spoonful onto hot griddle. Serve with butter, unsweetened whipped cream, chopped pecans, honey, peanut butter, or real maple syrup and enjoy!

Pictures from the Week

Benjamin is growing up SO fast! This week marks one year since we finalized his adoption. I can hardly believe it. We plan to make this a special time each year and celebrate as a family. Since the actual date of his finalization was the 14th and Matt had to study that night, we will be celebrating tonight by going out for ice cream. As Benjamin grows and begins to understand adoption more, we hope having this little tradition will help him understand how very special he is.

Here are a few pictures from this past week:

I am so thrilled that Benjamin is still such a book lover. Since Matt and I are both big readers, it's so fun to see Benjamin enjoying it too. He's doing great at pointing out the different animals when we say them and naming several of them too.

He loves to color and he's getting better about not putting the crayons in his mouth. I still had to pull some chewed up crayon out of his mouth this time, but he mostly just enjoys coloring. I'm glad that crayons seem to wipe off the table pretty easily. :)

After attempting to cut Benjamin's hair a few times and struggling because he moved so much, I decided to take him to Wal-mart and let them try. I thought it would be cheap. Ha! $12 with the tip is not what I call cheap, but at least now I was able to watch what she did and I can definitely do it myself next time.

I love this picture. Matt was reading his Bible one morning and Benjamin climbed right up and sat beside him reading his own books. So sweet!

Resolutions Part 2

Well life has certainly felt busier since I began in earnest to get us eating healthier. At times I feel like I spend all my time in the kitchen. But after a week I am noticing that I have more energy on most days and well, I just feel better knowing that we are eating better. Last week was a fun week of experimentation and along with making regular meals, I made some homemade whole wheat crackers and made yogurt for the first time. Very fun! Benjamin is such a cracker boy, so it's great to have a healthy alternative for him, especially in the church nursery. Oh and I also made an Asian Sesame salad dressing that is amazing.
This week I will be starting a sour dough starter following the directions given here, as well as trying a new bread recipe that is soaked.

Now on to my other resolutions.

This year in our church is "The Year of the Bible" and we will as a church be reading through the Bible in a year. I have attempted this in the past and usually get bogged down in Numbers and either skip on to Joshua, or stop altogether. But I love accountability and doing it along with our church is just what I need.

I have also set myself a goal to read one Christian non-fiction book a month. One a month doesn't seem like much, but I think it's reasonable for this season of our lives. I am currently reading "A Hunger for God" by John Piper and it's really good. I need to come up with a list of others that I should read. I'd love suggestions on this one. :)

As I've mentioned before, I struggle with taking time to just play with Benjamin. I love spending time with him, but often I get to the end of the day and realize that while I've been with him as he's followed me around the house, I haven't spent time teaching him or playing with him. So my goal is to do this for at least 30 minutes 4 days a week. I'd really like to do more than that, but for now that is my goal. When he gets older, I am truly going to have to be more organized or homeschooling will never work. So I guess I'll start gradually now with the organization.

Well, those are pretty much my big goals for the year. When I look at them, they don't seem like much, but I still like having a few goals to begin the year with.

Nourishing New Years Resolutions

I just love having a new year in front of me. I love that feeling of a fresh start to life. I love to think of God and how He is not bound by time and never needs a fresh start, but I think He knows that we do. And so as this year gets started (and is already passing far too quickly), I thought I would share a few of my goals for the year.

I struggle with health related goals because I get so excited about a new thing and put my whole being into it only to get tired after a couple of weeks and decide it's not worth the effort. But this year is my fresh start and I really want to stick to the plan. So, here are my goals:

-Cut out refined sugar and flour from our diets completely
-Dessert only once a week made with healthy flours, sweeteners, and fats
-Find ways to include more variety of vegetables in our meals. (get outside the box of carrots, peppers, celery, and lettuce) On this one, we tried eggplant this week and well, I just cannot stand the texture of it, so I will continue my search for other varieties. This will also include learning about what vegetables are in season at particular times in Texas and eating what's in season.
-Learn about cultured veggies and hopefully incorporate them into our regular meals.
-I want to learn more about soaking grains so I can add that step into my baking. I have been making our bread for a while, but currently I purchase WW flour from the store. I would like to do more research on purchasing grain and a mill so I can incorporate different flours into my bread making as well.
-Lastly, this may be a stretch, but I'd love to find a way to get a few fresh eggs and some raw milk so I can begin making our own mayo and yogurt.

This post is part of the Nourishing New Years Resolutions Carnival found on the Nourishing Gourmet website.

I'll try to share some of my spiritual and family related goals in the next few days.

Meeting the family

One of the blessings of open adoption is that often you get more family. Kind of reminds me of when you get married. Suddenly you have another set of parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. Well with open adoption, you get that too. We have been blessed to get to know Olana over the past year and a half of Benjamin's life and this past weekend we were blessed again to get to meet Benjamin's birth grandmother, great grandmother, great aunt, first cousin twice removed (actually we had met her before, but hadn't see her in a while, ) and his second cousin once removed. (I'll admit I had to draw myself a diagram to figure out all those firsts and seconds and removed things.) It was really fun to get to meet them and to have them meet sweet little Benjamin. We are so thankful for the blessing of adoption!

Four generations sitting on the couch - Benjamin's birth grandmother, his birthmother Olana, his first cousin twice removed, Benjamin, and his birth great grandmother. (left to right)

Just being silly with new friends

Benjamin quickly warmed up to Eric, his second cousin twice removed when gingersnaps were being offered

You Know you live in Texas when...

It's January 2nd and your son is playing in the sprinkler!

OK, well it was actually only 72, which is a little chilly for the sprinkler, but you also know you live in Texas when your grass is dying because of lack of rain and you have to water it on January 2nd. I turned the sprinkler on in the back and proceeded to the front with Benjamin to pull some of the weeds that were taking over our yard. Since we don't have much of a front yard, keeping Benjamin away from the street was a bit of a challenge. So eventually I opened the back gate and let him into the back to play while I finished up. But, I totally forgot about the sprinkler and a few minutes later when I finished and went to the back, there he was, enjoying himself thoroughly. At least it was a warmish day!

Thank you Grandpa and Grandma Davis and Uncle Joel

Last week we were at our friends Brian and Katie's house and they had a super cool basketball hoop that their son Cale had gotten for Christmas. Benjamin LOVED it! We had been given a couple of gift cards to get things for Benjamin, but we were having a hard time deciding what he would really enjoy. So when we saw him loving playing basketball, we decided that a hoop would be a great idea for him. So far it's been a hit. He loves to bring the ball to us and have us put it in the hoop. He's also getting better at throwing it in himself. For months he has been watching some of the neighborhood kids outside playing basketball and calling out "ball" every time he sees a hoop, so it's fun to see that he likes it. Plus his mommy really likes basketball. :) Thanks to Matt's parents and my brother Joel for the gifts cards!

His first dunk
He's a little confused at times about which part to put the ball through

Oh yes, and the box the hoop came in is tons of fun as well!