This may be sacrilege, but I have never really liked pancakes. A piece of bread with an extreme amount of overly sweet syrup just makes me sick to my stomach. So, my poor kids only got them maybe twice a year. Until now! I named them camp pancakes because at first I was thinking of things that would be decently easy to make when camping, without too much mess. That and I wanted something that had some goodies beyond just empty carbohydrates.

So, first I thought of proteins, well I suppose you could add something like bacon, which believe me would be yummy, but it just adds another thing to make, so I figured the protein we put in our smoothies would work, right? It did, it did. We use hemp hearts for our smoothies, they are tiny shelled hemp seeds. These little gems provide not only protein, but a good amount of iron and some fiber. Hemp hearts have a slightly nutty flavor to them.

Next, I was thinking some fruit is always good for us, so we threw in some frozen blueberries (course you might used dried blueberries when camping, not frozen) and chopped bananas. YUM!

(You have to be careful though, who chooses the blueberries, because they may be all gone before hand)

Then, raw crushed almonds, I know it sounds weird, but I am a lover of crunchy food, plus I just like almonds.
(Sadly, I forgot to take the picture of Sugar Plum fairy using the mortar and pestle to crush the almonds, the kids love using it)

Last, but not even close to least, broken Hershey Bars. Or, if your a total health nut, we sometimes use raw organic cacao nibs.

As for the batter, you can use whatever you like. I don’t have a favorite, so perhaps you can recommend to us your favorite and I can try them out.

Oh, Oh! I almost forgot. We add our syrup to the batter, and in my opinion, maple syrup is the best. Plus, it doesn’t have that awful high fructose corn syrup in it.

So, after all that, you slap em on the griddle. (might be best to pour batter, not slap)

And, the let the most qualified flipper take over…

Then, you jump on the couch with your fresh camp cakes and ride with miss Sugar Plum fairy to the beach. (Well, that’s where she said we were headed anyway)

Or, you can just close your eyes and enjoy…

Linking up with Adventurez in Childrearing

This morning my sweet Little Old Man, asked for waffles. I wanted to oblige but I was lacking one of the main ingredients for almost all waffle recipes – MILK. Therefore it was time for me to come up with one of my crazy, “We can still do this, let me see what we can replace that ingredient with recipes”. Well, as most know this can majority of the time either lead to disaster or excellence (really not sure there is a gray line in this type of kitchen chemistry). Well, today I must say it was excellence! I have to say this produces crisp, slightly moist, seriously delicious waffles. So, I am posting this for y’all to decide if you think it was or was not as yummy as me and my kiddos thought it was. I am posting this recipe mostly though for my husband, because much to my chagrin I never right down the ingredients or how much of them I use in these experiments of mine.

Apple Cinnamon Waffles

Ingredients

1 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup wheat flour (or you can use just all purpose if you do not have wheat flour)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 egg yolks
3/4 cup cream cheese
1 cup apple cider
1/2 cup olive oil
2 egg whites

Directions

In a large mixing bowl stir together flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Make a well in the center.

In a medium mixing bowl warm cream cheese in microwave for 30 seconds. In a another small bowl beat egg yolks slightly. Add apple cider to the cream cheese and whip till cream cheese is completely dissolved into the apple cider. Stir in egg yolks and oil.

Add cream cheese/egg yolk mixture all at once to the dry mixture. Stir just till moistened (should be lumpy)

In a small bowl beat egg whites until stiff peaks form(stand straight up). (I did this procedure by hand, I highly recommend using a beater, I am pretty sure close to the end my arm was being held on by my guardian angel)

Gently fold egg whites into flour and egg yolk mixture, leaving a few fluffs of egg white, Do Not Overmix.

Spoon waffle batter into your waffle iron, making sure not to overfill it. (if your feeling froggy, then once in the waffle iron before you close the lid sprinkle in some diced apple pieces on top.)

Serve with real maple syrup (oh yeah!), and unsalted butter.

~Tidbit – if you double the recipe, you can freeze the rest and defrost them a tiny bit in the microwave then throw them in the toaster and they are just like you took them off the griddle.

Popcorn is a big snack in our family. It could be because it is cheap and easy, but to me its easy to manipulate. While Geek Adonis loves his naked, the rest of us guys like to dress ours up a bit. What is your favorite popcorn recipe? Here are two of our favorites…

Salty Sweet

1/2 cup popcorn kernels
1/4 stick of butter
2 tablespoons honey
sprinkling of sea salt

We use and air popper, but this could also be made on the stove. The main thing is to have your popcorn kernels popped into popcorn. Then mix butter and honey together and melt. Drizzle half of the honey butter mixture over popcorn and then shake popcorn to evenly cover popcorn. Sprinkle some salt onto popcorn and shake again. Taste! If it needs more honey butter mixture add more. I end up using the whole mixture, but some people like it lighter. (if you do not use all of your honey butter mixture it will keep for a couple of weeks in the fridge for the next time)

Cacao Almond Butter Bliss

2 Tablespoons Cacao powder
2 tablespoons Almond Butter
2 tablespoons coconut oil
2 tablespoons honey
Sea salt
1/2 cup popcorn kernels

Pop your corn. Mix together the cacao, almond butter, coconut oil, and honey, then melt it. Drizzle on popcorn, shake, add salt, shake. Wash, rinse, repeat.

I have been making my own homemade pesto (oh my goodness yum!) and wouldn’t mind trying next some pesto popcorn. I’ll try and remember to let you know how that turns out.

I have loved hummus for a really long time and have just recently tried making it at home. It is easy to make and it is so simple to jazz it up a bit.

So, the first step is to remember to not try and make this the same night that you want to eat it. You have to soak those chickpeas overnight.

Make sure to cook your chickpeas according to the recipe on bag.

Have the tiny hands that want to help peel the garlic.

Now, you have three beautiful and yummy cloves of garlic. Add, these with…

one cup of chickpeas to the blender, with a …

half of a lemon (well the juice from half of a lemon, not the whole lemon)

And, if your children are like mine they will take care of the other half of that lemon for you.

Put a tablespoon of vinegar in your blender, plus…

1/2 of a tablespoon of cumin, with…

a 1/2 of a tablespoon of paprika, and…

a 1/2 of a tablespoon of salt, and finally drizzle some…

olive oil in the mix as you blend. I do not measure my olive oil out because it is different every time. Plus, it depends on how creamy you want your hummus to be.

I sadly do not have a picture of the finished product because I got so excited that I immediately scooped it out of the blender and started to chow down.

Yet, if you want to spice it up a bit, like I did for the second batch (after we ate the first one), then add what ingredients you like or would taste good to you. We added organic sun-dried tomatoes…

I dice them up pretty small and blend a few in with the rest of the ingredients and then leave a few to fold in as well. This is the finished product…

~Oh, and technically, you could make it the same night, you just have to buy the canned chickpeas instead of the dry ones.

Ingredients

-1 bag of chickpeas (cook them) – you will use 1 cup of cooked chickpeas at a time in a blender or food processor.
-3 cloves of garlic – (I love this much garlic in mine, but my kids did not, so if you are not a huge garlic fan then you may want to dial it down a bit.)
-Juice from 1/2 of a lemon.
-1 tablespoon of vinegar
-1/2 tablespoon of cumin
-1/2 tablespoon of paprika
-1/2 tablespoon of salt
-1 tablespoon to 3 tablespoons of olive oil

Directions

Add all ingredients to blender or food processor. Slowly blend to desired creaminess. May need to add more olive oil as you blend.

Enjoy. Experiment. Enjoy again.

I had two pounds of ground turkey meat in my fridge and I was craving meatballs. Well I didn’t have a recipe and decided to Google some meatball recipes. There was not one that I could find that was gluten free or had turkey in them. So, time to improvise I said. I found a meatball recipe that was supposedly old world Italian and changed it up a bit.

Ingredients

2 lbs ground organic turkey
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
2 eggs
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 1/2 tablespoons chopped Italian flat leaf parsley (yay, for my herb garden)
sea salt & fresh ground black pepper to taste
2 cups fine ground raw pecans
1/4 cup raw oats
1 cup lukewarm water
1 cup organic coconut oil

Directions

Mix turkey, eggs, cheese, parsley, salt and pepper.

Blend pecans and oats into meat mixture. Slowly add the water a 1/4 cup at a time. The mixture should be moist but still hold its shape if rolled into meatballs. (you may not need the entire cup of water)

Heat coconut oil in a large skillet. Fry meatballs in batches. When the meatball is very brown and slightly crisp remove from the heat and drain on a paper towel. (if your mixture is too wet, cover the meatballs while they are cooking so that they hold their shape)

*I know putting water in a meatball sounds weird, but it makes them crispy on the outside and nice and moist on the inside. If you do not have crushed pecans and you do have kids then put them to the task of crushing them. Mine love using the mortar & pestle.

~And, if for one minute you think, oh; these can’t be good, because they are so off base from the original. They were delicious and had so much flavor and the pecans gave them a little bit of nutty crunch which for me was an added bonus. Well and my two year old daughter ate four of them! (that should say it all right?)

Ready to Link up your Super Juice Recipe for this week?

The Vampire Fighter

Well, you would definitely not have to worry about any vampire biting you after drinking this super juice. Seriously though, this juice/smoothie is a powerful antiseptic (wards off bugs) from the garlic, has heart protective tomatoes and immune boosting carrots.

Ingredients

Tomatoes – 6 medium
Carrots – 2 unpeeled organic (peel if they are not organic)
Celery – 2 sticks
Garlic – 2 cloves peeled
Ice – crushed
Lemon – 1 with peel, cut in small chunks

Directions

Juice the vegetables, then blend with crushed ice and lemon chunks.

This juice/smoothie is rich in vitamin a, c, and folic acid, plus potassium.

The “Green Machine” is one of my morning drinks that packs a healthy punch. Besides this drink being a great way to get raw green veggies into your kids bellies, it is also very tasty and good go get em drink for in the morning. Their are two ingredients in my green drink – bananas and romaine lettuce.

Do you know I always knew that these two things had loads of good stuff for you, but until researching further for this post, I really had no clue how really good this is for you. Okay, so listen to this –

Bananas – Energy, fiber, folic acid, magnesium, potassium, and vitamin A

Romaine – Beta carotene, cancer-fighting phytochemicals, carotenoids, iron, and vitamin C

So, look beyond the two ingredients and seriously try this one out. I make enough for two (one head of romaine & 4 bananas) and either save some for later, share it with my husband, or on crazy days drink it all by myself. My two and four year old drink this too!

It really fills up the blender, but all of that romaine will blend down and everything will fit soon enough. I also add about 1/4 cup of water and have to help push the bananas down some while it blends.

Seriously, YUM! (believe me I was as skeptical as the next person, till I tried it)

Extra info on the goodness that this one drink has in it –

Vitamin A – essential for:growth, skin, color, night vision, and immunity.
Beta Carotene-essential for:protection against heart disease, cancer, and an immune booster. Not a vitamin in its own right, but the body converts it into vitamin A.
Vitamin C-essential for:natural immunity, wound healing, iron absorption, extremely powerful antioxidant that protects against heart disease, circulatory problems and cancers.
Folic acid-essential for:blood cells, prevention of birth defects, protects against enemia.
Iron-essential for:red blood cells.
Magnesiumessential for:energy producing processes, the functions of vitamins B1 and B6 growth and repair.
Potassium-essential for:Normal cell function, nerves, control of blood pressure.

*I do not drink this every morning – I switch it up with other super juices or yummy smoothies!

I have wanted to try this for years. It seems like every time we went out to eat somewhere that offered this on the menu, I have been pregnant or nursing. Therefore, I have not been able to eat raw meats. Now, (crossing fingers) that I have finished with having babies, I decided to try making this dish at home. It was extremely easy and oh so yummy. Nowadays, you can find tuna steaks at most of your grocery stores. I actually got mine frozen at Sam’s. Okay, so get this… All you need is salt, pepper, oil (I used coconut), and chinese five spice.

Ingredients

2 Tuna Steaks
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
2 tablespoons chinese five spice ( I used McCormick brand ).
1/2 tablespoon coconut oil

Blend together salt, pepper, and chinese five spice. Dry Tuna Steaks. Rub spice blend onto steak, covering completely. Warm pan to medium and add coconut oil. Cook steaks for two minutes on each side. Slice thinly and serve. (They are supposed to still be slightly cool on the inside when done.)

Now proceed to eat and then lick fingers.

My dear Geek Adonis asked what I wanted for Mother’s Day! He gave me everything I wanted and more. He started out my day with some oh so yummy Lemon Blueberry Pancakes and BACON! (cause if you do not know yet, I have an affinity for bacon) I am afraid I do not have a picture of the pancakes, but I can give you the recipe to try. The sweetness of the blueberries and maple syrup together with the tangyness of the lemon was just sublime.

Lemon Blueberry Pancakes

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup Cake Flour
1 Tablespoon (additional) Cake Flour
1/4 teaspoon Salt
1 Tablespoon (heaping) Baking Powder
3 Tablespoons Sugar
1 1/2 cup Evaporated Milk (more if needed)
1 Whole Lemon (more if needed)
1 Whole Large Egg
1 1/2 teaspoon Vanilla
2 Tablespoons Butter, Melted
Zest from 1 Lemon
1 cup Heaping Blueberries
Extra Butter
Maple or Pancake Syrup

Preparation Instructions

Heat heavy skillet or grill over medium low heat. In a medium bowl, mix flour, salt, baking powder, and sugar. Set aside.
In a separate bowl, mix evaporated milk, juice of 1 lemon (more if lemon isn’t very juicy), and lemon zest. Allow to sit for five minutes, then add egg,
vanilla, and melted butter. Mix to combine.
Pour wet mixture into dry ingredients. Stir gently to combine. Splash in more evaporated milk if mixture is overly thick. Stir in blueberries. Again, check to make sure mixture isn’t overly thick.
Melt butter in heated skillet. Drop batter by 1/4 cup measures and fry pancakes on both sides until golden.
Serve with softened butter and warm syrup.

Get ready to lick your plate!

Next,

We went to Stones River National Battlefield and spent the day picnicking and frolicking. It was an absolutely gorgeous sunny day outside and we found a perfect place to lay out our blanket under some huge sweetgum trees.

We enjoyed a yummy lunch of salami, cheeses, olives, nuts, salad, pimiento cheese sandwiches, pretzels w/ mustard, and a small smorgasboard of drinks.

After our picnic…

We threw gliders, and…

sisters stood at the ready to throw gliders at us unbeknownst to us…

no worries though the glider plummeted and all brothers got to stand proud that day. After the small dog fight, we…

rested and came in and refilled with root beer and ginger ale. (Notice, mommy and young smiley all the while have been resting on the blanket). Refreshed, we are off to climb…

cannons, and…

rocks. As with all picnic’s there were an abundance of bugs…

including cicada exoskeleton’s. Meanwhile, back at the blanket…

Geek Adonis and Smiley called Nana to wish her Happy Mother’s Day too! After a glorious day at the battlefield Daddy decided we all needed one more treat.

Oh my, I must tell you this is one of my favorites places to go now! If you have never been to a Sweet CeCe’s I am so so sorry. They have a variety of frozen yogurts that you first choose from and then, you get to pick from crazy topping like captain crunch and gum balls to chunks of cheese cake or fresh strawberries. Oh, and speaking of the gum balls, that was one of the topping Miss Sugar Plum Fairy chose, so be careful of this happening …

This was the end of my perfect Mother’s Day! My sweet husband gave me just the experience with my family that I wanted. Thank you my love! I hope all of you other mamas out there had a wonderful mother’s day as well.

How much water do you drink a day? I figured up the other day that between nursing a baby, possible kidney failure, and the normal how much everyone needs to drink at my age and size, that I need somewhere around 120 ounces a day. Dang tooting, that is a lot of water! Well, for me anyway. So, to get that much water into my day I thought I would have a certain cup that I kept with me all day and when I finished drinking it I would refill it as the day went on and stop when I had drank the 120 ounces that I needed. Well, that didn’t work for me, because either I would forget to refill or a baby would cry, you know whatever. So, Geek Adonis had this great idea of having ever how many water bottles it would take to get me to 120 ounces a day and fill the them up first thing in the morning and then drink them as the day went on. This works very well for me. It is almost like a checklist. I line them all up in a row on the kitchen table in the morning and know that the last one needs to be empty before I go to bed each night. Now, granted there have been a few times that at 4pm., I still have 3 bottles left to drink.

So, along with drinking this water I decided to try out a few different kinds of bottles.

Here are the three different types I tried. Just in case you are looking for a new water bottle just like I did, I thought I would give my opinion on each one of these.

While in the past, I have always loved Nalgene bottles, especially for their toughness, I honestly dislike this one the most. I have in the past used their big mouth screw on lid bottles for when I go hiking, but for at home and for the ease of it, I decided to try this version bottle. The green circle on the lid is the push button and while it opens easily, it does not close easily and it makes me feel like I am going to break it each time I try to close it.

I have never tried Aladdin bottles before, so I gave it a try. I neither love nor hate it. It works I suppose. The flip top is a tight fit which is good, so it does not open easy or close easy like a push button, but when I say does not open easy, I suppose it is no harder than say opening a refrigerator door.

This one is my absolute favorite! I love the design work on it, it is not just any other bottle, plus it opens and closes like a charm. Oh, and it keeps my water cooler longer than the other two. So, five stars to THERMOS & Threadless for coming together and making one awesome bottle. (as I was editing this post, I realized that I didn’t give you a good shot of the artwork on the bottle, hmm may have to rectify that when the kids are not screaming for my attention)

All of them are dishwasher safe and leakproof!

I am in no way getting paid for this post (although,that would be super cool), I just thought some other water drinkers out there might benefit from my experiences before they run out to there local Target (which is where I bought all of mine) and buy a few water bottles.