Apple Picking & Apple Cinnamon Pancakes

We had our family's annual apple picking day yesterday - one of my favorite things to do in early fall. I hadn't realized until yesterday that in the 9 years that we've been doing this, we always go before Columbus Day weekend. Unfortunately for us, pretty much all of the apples on the trees at the orchard where we've been going for years had already been picked! They had giant bins with loads of different apples, separated by variety for latecomers like us. 

Frankly, October 12 doesn't seem particularly late in the season and this was a big disappointment for my adventurers who like to wield the heavy apple picker each year and carefully inspect their findings before adding them to our bag. Rather than go straight to the bins, my crew checked out what still remained on the trees and apple-picked the old fashioned way. When we exhausted our on-the-tree options, we headed for the bins.  

For the next week or so, it'll be round-the-clock apples. This morning, we began the day with Apple Cinnamon Pancakes and there's enough batter left over for tomorrow morning. 

Apple Cinnamon Pancakes (makes enough for about 6-8 servings, depending on size)

1 cup plain kefir
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 tablespoons honey
1/4 teaspoon salt
1.5 teaspoons baking powder
1 large egg
2 tablespoons coconut oil, plus more for frying pancakes (or use butter)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 large apple, shredded (I used a cheese grater) 

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well, making sure to eliminate flour lumps. Fry with coconut oil or butter and serve with fresh apple chunks for extra apple goodness! 

Last Day of Summer

white nectarine, red pear, egg and Applegate organic turkey bacon

My kiddos start school tomorrow, so today, I'm basking in the relaxation of a non-school day morning and at the same time, dreading the whole 'getting back into a routine' thing. I guess we all have back-to-school jitters. When you have kids in different schools with different start and end times and a third who doesn't go to school but takes a midday 2 hour nap, figuring out a new schedule with all of the moving parts is dizzying. I still don't know how it's all going to work. The kids have put in their breakfast and lunch requests for the first two days of school so that's not part of the problem. I guess it'll be one day at a time and eventually (aka, in April or May) I'll figure out a routine. 

In the meantime, we had a Sunday breakfast on this sunny Wednesday morning and leisurely read some of our favorite books (many of them school-related) at the table. 

Banana Oatmeal Bars: Breakfast, made simpler.

I'm a morning person. To me, that means I get up and have energy, even on nights when I get less than 6 hours of sleep. Stressful mornings drive me up a wall. But realistically, there are so many moving parts in a house with three kids in two different schools and while I understand how hard it is to get everyone up and at 'em, I keep wondering what we can do to make the mornings a little easier on everyone. Breakfast is the one meal that my family has where we are all reliably together. As a gal who grew up on family dinners but can't yet get it together to make that happen with my family of five, I rely on breakfast as our time to connect. The food needs to be ready quickly so that we maximize our time at the table. 

Experts say breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It needs to be healthy and balanced so that kids make it to lunch. I've said it before: to make life easier on busy parents, breakfast likely needs to be assembled at least in part, the night before (and of course, chosen in advance). Voila! These Banana Oatmeal bars fit the bill. In a nutshell, it’s like making oatmeal with bananas. Only you do it in advance. And there’s no messy pot to clean. And it’s super easy, with just four ingredients, absolutely yummy, and a very healthy meal.

I have seen various iterations for bars like these. Many have seeds or nuts or raisins or dried fruit and those are certainly great options or additions. I’ve tinkered with several recipes to create this one that my family devours - and it's a straightforward recipe to make with kids. I love that it doesn’t require elaborate steps or ingredients or even things like flour, eggs or milk. There are four ingredients! This is nut free, dairy free and vegan and has great fiber, potassium and protein. There is zero added sugar. And for those mornings when we’re literally running out the door with part of breakfast tucked into a paper towel, these really come in handy. They also double as a fantastic mid-day snack for parents and kids alike. 

Will these eliminate your morning stress? No. But they may lighten the load, and that can make all the difference.  

Banana Oatmeal Bars

3 super ripe (aka brown) bananas

2 cups of rolled oats (not instant)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

½ teaspoon salt

How to:

1. Preheat oven to 350. Line an 8×8 dish with parchment paper.

2. In a mixing bowl, mash the bananas until they are smooth.

3. Add the oats and mix to combine.

4. Add the vanilla extract and salt and mix until the ingredients are evenly distributed.

5. Pour into baking dish. Bake for 25-28 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes and enjoy.

Here are some other recipes you might like: 
Guide to Safe, Nut-Free Lunches
Banana Sweet Potato Muffins
Banjo Muffins
Banana Pancake Kebabs
Carrot Soup with Ginger and Sweet Potato

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Resolution Food #1: Ricotta Cheese

Ricotta is one of those things I only think to buy if I’m making lasagna. My kids don’t currently like lasagna, so it’s been a while since we’ve had ricotta chez moi but with the onset of cold weather, I thought it might be a great opportunity to reintroduce the warm comfort of gooey lasagna to my kiddos. Here’s the not so great news: my 7 year old gave lasagne a sideways thumb (aka, it's so-so) and my 3 year old gave it a thumbs down. Apparently, tomato sauce is only okay on pizza. Hmmph. Here’s the great news: we were able to use one container of ricotta for breakfast, lunch AND dinner - nothing wasted! (recipes below)

My kids gobbled up Ricotta Apple Pancakes for breakfast. They had a hint of sweetness, thanks to vanilla extract and were packed with flavor. These pancakes are based on the quick pancake recipe from Mark Bittman that appeared in the New York Times Magazine recently and are super fast to assemble (in other words, you can do this on a hectic school morning because it's not so involved). 

I used the remaining ricotta cheese to make Ricotta Carrot Roll Ups for lunch. I still had lasagna noodles, which is what I used as a wrapper here, but this can be made with any kind of wrap or tortilla. This was a fun project for my kids to get their hands dirty with - my son loved rolling his own lunch!

Check out other New Years Resolution foods right here.

Ricotta Apple Pancakes

Ricotta Apple Pancake batter

Ingredients
2 eggs
4 tablespoons of flour
4 teaspoons of water
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup ricotta cheese
1/2 small apple, peeled and diced

Method
Whisk together the eggs, flour and water until there are no lumps. Add vanilla extract, cinnamon, ricotta and apple and combine. Fry these little pancakes in a pan until golden brown on each side - takes about 2 minutes per side. 

Ricotta Carrot Roll Ups

Ricotta Carrot Roll Ups

Ingredients
4 lasagna sheets, boiled OR 4 small tortillas OR wraps
1/2 cup of ricotta cheese
16 baby carrots
Pinch of salt
Pinch of garlic powder (optional) 

Method
Set out your wrapper of choice on a cutting board. Spread out the ricotta cheese evenly along the edge. Cut the baby carrots in half and place them evenly along the ricotta cheese. Roll up and cut into bite sized pieces. Enjoy! 

French Toast Kebabs

We're back from vacation and thinking about getting back into the swing of things before the back to school mayhem begins. This morning my kids slept past 7:00 am. We have just over a week until the new school year begins and they *finally* slept late. Ugh.   

Getting back into a routine can be a challenge. I'm procrastinating the whole thing and holding onto summer as long as possible. Let 'em sleep late! Let 'em have the extra books before bedtime. Let 'em discover the constellations with the Sky View app (translation: let 'em stay up late). 

This morning, as a celebration of the fact that it's a weekday but the kiddos are in no hurry to get anywhere, we had these french toast - banana kebabs: 

French toast banana kebabs

This breakfast is a family affair. My eldest cracked the eggs and helped cut the bread. My three year old cut the bananas and placed the bread in the egg-milk mixture. These are fun to eat and filling too. I realized that with a little advance prep (cutting the bread and slicing the bananas ahead of time) these might be feasible for a school morning (well, if the stars align properly on all other fronts). 

Here's the recipe:  

3 slices of whole grain bread
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (optional) 
2 bananas
butter for frying the french toast
kebab sticks

Cut the bread into squares (approximately 1-2 inches). Scramble the eggs in a shallow dish and add vanilla extract, milk and cinnamon (if using). Add bread and let it sit for several minutes. Turn to coat the other side of the bread with egg mixture. Heat the butter in a pan on medium heat.  Add the bread pieces and flip after a few minutes. When french toast squares are done, place on kebab stick alternating with banana slices. Enjoy!