Grandma's Gingersnaps- Vegan Cookie Recipe

We have a lot of allergies at our house.  It is a pain, but over the last 18 years I have become quite good at adapting recipes to make them suitable for my family while still retaining the yuminess of the recipe.

I have adapted this recipe to account for my kids who are dairy free (one of them at least) and egg free (two kids).  We are vegans who eat meat.  I know it isn't really Vegan but it makes me laugh.

Gingersnaps are some of my favorite cookies!  I love fall and Christmas and this recipe is perfect for either occasion.....or let's be honest, any time you have a hankering for something delicious.

My favorite things about this recipe.

#1.  It makes a TON of cookies.  This is nice when you have to bring cookies to a party or cookie exchange because you get a lot of bang for your buck (or more importantly your time).

#2.  These cookies always come out really soft....and stay soft!  

#3.  Everyone in my family can eat these cookies and everyone loves them!

So here you go....from my Grandma (with some LiLo tweaking) to you.

Grandma's Gingersnap Cookies

1 cup shortening

1/4 cup butter (or butter substitute) 

1/3 cup molasses

1 2/3 cup sugar (plus some to roll the cookies in)

1/4 cup applesauce---one of those little cups (or 2 eggs if you are not vegan)

4 cups flour

3 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. cloves

1 tsp. ginger

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Melt shortening and butter over low heat.  Cool 15 minutes (or if you are impatient like me, just let it cool while you are assembling the rest of the ingredients and then have at it).  Mix shortening/butter mixture with molasses, sugar and applesauce until blended.  Stir in remaining ingredients.  It will be pretty dry.  That is okay.  Grab little bits of the dough and roll into a ball.  Roll the balls in granulated sugar until coated.  Place on an ungreased cookie sheet.  

I like to form a bunch of balls and then roll them all at once.  I feel like it is faster, more efficient and makes your hands less messy.  But do as you will!

Bake 7-9 minutes until they start to crack open.  Don't wait for them to get brown.  They are already brown and if you wait for them to get browner (it is a word....at least in my world) then they will be over cooked and crunchy and not good.  Better to err on the side of underdone than over done.

If you REALLY want to be a rock star, then take the cooled cookies and dip it half way into a bowl of melted white chocolate and watch this recipe go from amazing, to out of this world!  I opt not to do this very often because I have yet to have found a dairy free white chocolate and I don't want my dairy free boy to feel left out.

Store in a ziploc bag or airtight container to keep them soft and fresh.  Makes about 3-3 1/2 dozen depending on how big you form the balls.

Enjoy!!

If you want more recipes or pretty pictures, follow me on Instagram, Facebook or visit www.photolilo.com.

Blackberry Oatmeal Muffins

I love baked goods.  There.  I said it. 

I love to bake them almost as much as I love to eat them.  I cringe now to think about how I only used to use boxed muffin mix.  I didn't know any better.  Now that I have kids with tons of allergies, it has forced me to do more baking from scratch.  And you know what?  I have come up with some pretty amazing recipes!  I can't even remember the last time I bought an overpriced, full of processed crap muffin mix.

It doesn't take that much longer to make muffins from scratch.  You should try it.  They are so much better (and better for you-sort of).

I bought some blackberries the other day with the intentions of making my hubby his favorite Blackberry Sour Cream pie.  However, we are both trying to eat healthier so I didn't make it.  Now I have a ton of blackberries that I have been trying to use up.  I don't really love blackberries (I buy them mostly for the hubby who is the Blackberry King) so I needed to find a way to hide them in something.  I have also been craving some muffins...so today I made up a new recipe. 

I did some hunting on Pinterest and I couldn't find a recipe that fit the needs of my high maintenance allergy family.  So I adapted this recipe that I have used in the past that we LOVE.  And Voila!  I came up with this.  They are delicious!

Here you go:

1 1/4 c. Oats
1 1/4 c. milk (I use rice milk, but you can use any kind)
1/2 applesauce (I use this in place of 1 egg)
1/2 c. oil
3/4 c. brown sugar
1 1/4 c. flour
4 tsp. baking powder (and a dash of baking soda)
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
Blackberries (about a pint)

Topping Recipe- (Combine these 3 ingredients)
1/4 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. oats
1 tsp. cinnamon

Combine oats and milk and let stand for 10 minutes or so.  Stir in the rest of the wet ingredients.  Combine the dry ingredients and add to the liquid mixture.

Put batter into muffin tins.  Put 3 blackberries on top of the batter.  Add a bit of topping to each muffin.

Bake for 15-20 minutes at 400 degrees.  Enjoy!  These muffins are moist and delicious with just a hint of sweetness.   Only 120 calories per muffin!

Delish!

So...I am learning to how be a stay at home mom again.  I am having to learn to unchain myself from the computer and actually be productive around the house.  From about August until the end of December I was so busy with my business that I didn't really feel like a stay at home mom.  There were some weeks that I was working 40-50 hours.  My poor husband, children and house suffered.  I felt the constant pressure of trying to do laundry, cleaning, dishes and take care of the hubs and kids.  It was a little overwhelming. 

However, now is a slower time for photography (a blessing and a curse).  I am not going to lie, it has been hard to get back into the role of housewife.  I keep sitting at the computer thinking I need to be working on something.

But this slower pace has forced me to be more domestic.  And I like it!  I have spent more time thinking about and planning for meals.  I have spent more time keeping up with the laundry.  If you are to randomly stop by my house you will find it generally in good shape (NOT the case in the last 4 months.....it was embarrassing).  And most importantly, I have spent more time with my kiddos!  That is my favorite.  When Jameson asks me to play a game of Candyland, I don't have to feel guilty about saying yes (because there are a million other things I should be doing), or even worse when I have to say "not right now".  I have been reading more books, playing more games and saying "yes" more often.  It feels good.  I know it is going to be busy again, so I am trying to soak up this time and enjoy it. 

I have also rediscovered my like (not really love, but a strong like) for cooking.  I have always enjoyed baking and cooking thanks to my mom.  She is a wonderful cook and I love to her hear her tell stories of cooking for all of the ranch hands during harvest on their wheat ranch when she was growing up.  She would talk about getting up at 4 in the morning to make biscuits and gravy, bacon, pancakes and sweet rolls for breakfast.  Then they would make a mid day meal to take to the men in the fields.  All afternoon they would make pies and cakes and then start a big dinner for when the hungry men would come in from working.  Then it was time to serve dessert and do all the dishes and get ready for the next day.  Those must have been some seriously LONG and really hot summer days in the kitchen.

My favorite story is when she petitioned my grandpa for more money.  Her older brother made significantly more money working in the fields with all of the men.  My mom went to her dad and explained that she had to be up before everyone, worked all day (15+ hours with virtually no breaks) and then had to do dinner, dessert and dishes after all the men were done working.  He was a loving, wonderful man and came to see her value and work ethic and from then on, she and her sister made more money during harvest season!

So my love for cooking came when my mom made encouraged me to help her in the kitchen.  Thanks mom!  I am pretty sure that is one of the reasons I hooked such a good husband.  Ladies...the way to a man's heart is through his stomach! 

I have been in a rut a little bit in regards to recipes.  We have a lot of allergies and one REALLY picky eater, so sometimes it is tough when it comes to cooking.  I have all of these good recipes that my kids can't or won't eat.  So I did what all modern women do.  I went to Pinterest.  I decided it was time to try out a few new recipes and see how it went.  I have also been trying to be more careful with my waistline and with the budget, so I have been working on doing more meal planning.

The other night I made hamburger patties for us and hot dogs for the kids.  I needed something to go with it, so I looked on my Sides, Snacks and Salads board and found this.

So, I thought I would give it a whirl.  It. was. amazing.  I didn't use the butter (so as to stay as healthy as possible).  I peeled one of the potatoes (to tempt the picky one who LOVES french fries but will NOT eat a potato in any other form...especially if there is skin on it).  The peeled one was REALLY good and a little crispier (more potato chip like) than the others.  I can't wait to make them again.  So much easier (and better/crispier) than making your own fries by cutting them up and then cooking them.  I think next time I will cook them at 400 for 40 minutes and then bump the temp to 425 or 450 for an extra 5-10 minutes to crisp them up a bit more. 

The next night, it was a bit chilly here so I decided I wanted something warm and soupy and the only thing I had on hand was bacon.  So, I found this recipe on my Pinterest "Recipes" board.  I altered it a bit as I wanted to make it more healthy and I didn't have all of the ingredients.

You can find the link to this recipe here.  I mostly used this as a base for mine and then I added/subtracted to it.  I liked it, but next time would change a few things, so I am going to put the changes into the recipe so that when I make it again, I know what to do.

Ingredients:
1 16 oz. package of bacon
1 small onion (chopped into TINY unrecognizable pieces so as to trick the children into thinking there aren't any onions in it)
2 cups skim milk
3/4 c. flour
1 can mushrooms with juice (I didn't add this to mine because of my 'shroom hating children, but I think they would be a delicious addition).
2 cups rice (I used brown rice but next time I am going to do a mixture of brown and wild rice)
3 cups chicken broth
2-3 cups of water (to make it as thick/runny as you want.  Mine was a bit thick so I think next time I will add more water to make it more soupy than casseroly).
Salt, garlic and pepper to taste (sorry I never measure this stuff.  I just add until I think it tastes good).
Cheese for the top

Cut the bacon into small pieces and then cook it over the stove- set aside for later.  (Save some for the top as garnish if desired).  Cook onions and garlic in bacon drippings.  In a separate pot (while the bacon is cooking) cook rice in the chicken broth (for as long as it takes to cook the rice- depending on what kind of rice you use).  Add the bacon and onions/garlic to the rice.  After removing onions/garlic, use the same pan to make the white sauce.  Add flour, salt and pepper to the pan.  Slowly add the milk until it is thick and yummy.  Add the "sauce" (and mushrooms if desired) to the rice mixture.  Add water until it is the thickness that you desire.  Simmer for a bit to help the flavors blend together. 

Don't you love how specific my directions are?  Sorry, I am kind of a throw stuff in and keep adding until it tastes good.  This was warm and yummy on a cold winter's night.  Sorry I didn't take any pictures of these.

Last night, we had yet another new recipe.  That's right.  Three home-cooked (non-rushed) meals, eaten at the kitchen table together, in a row.  Yeah!

Last night's meal was probably the best.  Why, might you ask?  Because the SUPER picky eater ate it all AND asked for seconds.  It was a holiday miracle!

We had "Cheeseburger Wraps" found here.

This recipe was really easy and SOOOOOOOO good.  I even used whole wheat tortillas and a mixture of ground turkey and ground beef to make them a little healthier.  It only called for 1 lb. of meat, but I used 2 lbs. and we ate it all!  I didn't add lettuce or tomato inside because I was afraid it would get hot and gross.  I did, however, use pickles and avocados inside and it was so good.  I think next time I will use slices of my favorite Tillamook chedder cheese on the inside instead of the shredded cheese that I used.

The best part about this recipe was the genius idea to throw them on the George Forman Grill to firm them up and bind them together.  Oh. My. Gosh.  I will be doing this on all burritos in the future.  It just takes 1-2 minutes on the G.F. Grill and it is worth every second!  It makes them stick together and makes it so all of the deliciousness stays instead and you don't have to contort your mouth/face and/or have half of your wrap fall out onto the plate.

Did I mention that Mr. Picky Pants ate all of it (with no weeping and gnashing of teeth as per our usual dinner ritual) and asked for seconds?  Six Sisters, I am deeply grateful to you for this recipe. 

All of these recipes will be making a repeat appearance at the Lord household.

Have you tried any new Pinterest recipes lately?  You can check out the other recipes that I have tried on Pinterest at the following links below.

Lemon Quinoa Cilantro Chickpea Salad and Chile Colorado Burritos
Avocado Eggs and Healthy Vegan Pancakes

Let's hear it for delicious leftovers tonight!

Pinterest Challenge: Days 19- 22

This weekend was full of Baseball, swim meets and BBQ's.  Makes for a fun, but insane weekend.  I had the house perfectly clean in anticipation of our busy weekend and after 2 days of only coming home to drop something off and pick up something new, the house was trashed.  Does anyone else have this problem?  House clean on Friday.....start over on Monday.

Our boys have been in baseball for 6 years now (Makai 3 and Tanner 3).  Five of the six years, the boy's team made it to the championship game.  They have always lost.  Always the bridesmaid.  Until yesterday!  Tanner's team finally WON!  They beat an undefeated team and played an amazing game.  Way to go Storm!

I did manage to do a few Pinterest things over the last few days.  But I am still playing a little bit of catch up! The kids are really into it now (and have used the fan-fort every single day) and can't wait to see what we are going to do next.

Day 19:  Lens Friend.
I do a lot of photo shoots with little kids.  Sometimes it is really hard to get them to look directly into the lens.  So I found this on Pinterest.



I thought I would take a whack at it and make it myself.  Here is mine.

I think the nose could be a little bigger.  I made this at baseball practice so I couldn't use a glue gun, but next time I think that will make it lay better.  It is still really cute and will totally help when I am working with the littles.

All it took was a red scrunchie ($5 at Target, but it came with 8 scrunchies.  I couldn't buy just the red one, but I needed some new ones anyway), some white and orange felt ($.25 for each one), black buttons (which I already had in my button stash) and some thread.  It literally took me about 10 minutes to make it.

I would highly recommend this for any photographer or mom of little ones.  It is a great way to get them to look directly at your camera.  Another hint is to ask them to watch your camera wink at them.  They can see the camera wink when the shutter closes.

You can find this pin on my "Prop Ideas" board.

Day 20: Couples

Couples are sometimes hard to get to express themselves.  Many couples (especially guys) tend to feel shy in  front of the camera, especailly when asked to be affectionate.  I did a shoot on Saturday with some newlyweds.  They eloped a few weeks ago and wanted some "formal" wedding pictures.  I like this shot on Pinterest (for two reasons).  The picture is by sylemepretty.com.



Initially, I loved the chalkboard and how it is almost forgotten because they are so into each other.  I recreated this shot last year with a cute couple for their engagement pictures.

However, I like this one even better.  It is just slightly different, but so much more expression!

Beyond the obvious cuteness of the chalkboard, I like the way the guy is kissing the girl on the forehead in the Pinterest picture.  So I had my couple this weekend do that.  This is what I got.

Cute, hu?  For more nice ways to pose couples, look at my "Couples" board!

Day 21:  French Dip Crescents

I actually did this one a little while ago.  I have been saving it for when I had a busy day and didn't have time to do anything.  Well, now it is time to pull it out.

Here is the recipe on Pinterest.



I thought this looked fun and easy.  The kids are starting to like french dips (except the picky little one) and they all love crescent rolls so I thought I would give it a whirl.  All you do is take a crescent roll and put some roast beef in it and roll it up.  I also added some cheese.  I didn't have any sliced cheese, so I used a string cheese.  Use what you got, right?  Just bake it at 375 for 12 minutes or so, just like you would with

It was really easy to do and I was excited to try it.

We all liked them, but they were nothing spectacular.  They were easy, which was nice, but I am not sure I will make them again.  I like french dip with a big ol' hoagie attached.  I would skip this one if I were you, unless you are looking for an easy recipe to incorporate roast beef.

You can find this recipe on my "Recipes" board if you are interested in trying it.

Day 22: Watermelon Frosty (Today!  Finally I am caught up)

In the summer it is always nice to have a sweet treat to drink.  For me it is usually an ice cold fountain coke (the best being from McDonalds).  But today I decided to make a frosty treat for the boys and some of their friends that were over.

My mother in law gave me a watermelon that she wasn't going to use, so I thought this was a perfect way to use it up.

I even thought ahead and cut it up and stuck it in the freezer it this morning!



This afternoon when it was hot and the kids were starting to get bored, I pulled out the blender and got to work.

This is what I used.  Frozen watermelon cubes (I only used 2 of the 6 bags of watermelon), applesauce (I didn't have a banana as she suggested and I hate how banana tends to overpower), maple syrup and some lemon juice (I didn't have any real lemons).  I am lucky that I had all of this stuff.  I avoid going to the grocery store at all costs with three kids in tow.  Maybe I will go tonight when the kids go to bed because I am out of everything!

This is the finished product.  It made a lot.  Enough for glasses this size for 5 kids and a little left over.

Here is the behind the scenes of what most Pinterest posts don't show you....

The aftermath

This recipe sounded good, but was REALLY sweet.  Why do you need to add maple syrup to sweet watermelon?  Tanner is the only kid who finished his.  One kid didn't even take one bite and the other 3 got tired of it after a few minutes.  I didn't love the flavor.

I think I will use the remaining watermelon to make fruit smoothies and add other fruit like strawberries, oranges and blueberries.  Now that sounds delicious!  I do like the idea of frozen watermelon and now I am pretty excited to have 4 more baggies of watermelon in my freezer.  I had run out of large ziplocs (see, I really need to go to the grocery store) so I put them in little baggies and now I am really glad.  I can use them one at a time!  I love it when things work out like that.  Who knew you could freeze watermelon?  I will remember that when I have tons of watermelon left after a party.

If you want to look at the full recipe (and maybe tweak it to your own liking- the consistency was really good with the frozen watermelon) you can find it on my "Liquid Refreshment" board.

Happy Pinning Everyone!  Stay tuned for some 4th of July ideas coming soon!

Getting Caught Up: Challenge Days 12-15

Summer time has caught up with me.  I have been spending time doing swim meets, baseball practices, swim practices, crawdad catching, swimming, going to birthday parties.....you get the idea.  All fun stuff, but the kind of stuff that makes an extremely dirty house and very tired kids.  It is the stuff that memories are made of.  So, I guess what I am saying is that I don't feel too bad getting a bit behind.

I think I left off last Thursday.  On Friday we tried out something I have been dying to do, especially during the summer.  How many of you hear..."I'm bored" so many times during the summer that you want to gouge your eyes out.  I am not saying I am like that (I am totally like that) but I am sure some of you can relate.

Day 12:  I saw these fun idea on Pinterest.





So, I set out to make our own Bored Jar.  I found a jar we had laying around the house and put some ribbon around it and printed a sign that said "Bored Jar" and stuck it on.  It all came from stuff I had around the house.  I also used the leftover Popsicle sticks from this project.  So this one was FREE!

Then we set out to figure out some boredom busters.  I had the kids help me with this so that they were invested in the project.  I thought I was going to have to go to my Pinterest page to get some ideas, but the kids were full of good ideas.

We came up with 40 different things.  We had 10 chores, 7 educational ideas, 8 outdoor activities and 14 other ideas.  Not bad.  The kids had so much fun coming up with ideas!  As soon as we were done, they started saying "I'm bored" just so they could reach in the jar and get out an activity.  We have been pretty busy so we haven't had to draw from the Bored Jar.  But I can't wait for the day....especially if they pull out a chore!  It was a fun activity and I think it will serve us well over the summer!

You can find this on my "Summa Time" board.

Day 13:   A new hairdo.  I get stuck in a rut when it comes to my hair.  My hair is pretty long, but I get tired of just pulling it back in a bun all of the time.  In the summer it is too hot to dry it and then if I do dry it is SO HOT on the back of my neck.  So, pony tails, braids and buns are my status quo during the summer.  So I was pretty excited when I found a new kind of bun to try.  Here is the picture from Pinterest.



Here is what it looked like on my hair.  Sorry for the terrible picture!!  But it is hard to take pictures of my own hair.

I want to try this again sometime soon.  I only looked at the picture one time so I didn't realize that I had to have the "end pieces" in the front and not the back.  I like how it turned out, but the ends stuck out funny.  If I would have had the end pieces on the top and then looped it to the back it would have looked much better.  However, I was trying to make my "usual bun" look more presentable to go out with the adults for my sister-in-law's birthday.  I didn't have much time to "wash the mom off" so this is how it looked.  I think it worked well, but I need to tweak it a bit next time.  I also think that the longer your hair is, the better.

You can find this pin on my "Just for Me" board.

Day 14:  Recipe Time!!!!
For the most part, I have loved the recipes I have found on Pinterest.  And yesterday....I found another one. I just might possibly be the best new recipe I have found in a while.  It is super healthy, vegetarian and DELICIOUS!!!

Have you heard of quinoa (pronounced keen-wa)?  It is a superfood!  It is a whole grain, but has a ton of protein in it too.  I have a couple of good recipes that use quinoa, but I am always on the look out for another good one.  If you have ever tried quinoa plain....I am sorry.  It is terrible.  You really have to add some stuff to it to make it worthwhile.

Here is what I found on Pinterest: (note- once you click on this within Pinterest, you have to scroll down a bit to get to this recipe).


I didn't totally have all of the ingredients for this recipe, so I had to improvise a bit.

Here is what I put in my dish.

1/2 cup quinoa
1 cup of vegetable broth (boil it and then cook covered on low for 15 minutes or until almost all of the water is absorbed, then remove from heat and set aside for a few minutes).
1 can of cannellini beans (I didn't have garbanzo beans but I bet that would have been really good)
A large handful of cherry tomatoes halved
Fresh Cilantro
Fresh Basil (her recipe calls for spinach, but I didn't have any so I used Basil and it MADE the recipe)
2 avocados diced
Garlic (I always use lots of garlic and I use the fresh bottled minced garlic)

Dressing:
2 tsp. Dijon mustard (I used spicy brown...is that the same thing)
2 tsp. Olive Oil (I used grapeseed oil)
A dash of Cumin (she called for 1/2 tsp. but cumin is pretty strong)
The juice of one lemon (she calls for 2 but I only had one and it was really juicy)
The zest from one lemon
(whisk this together and put over the above ingredients)

It was so delicious.  It is my new favorite.  It is a perfect summertime recipe.  It is light and refreshing and pretty easy to make.  It would make a great side dish (however we ate it for our main dish and it was nice to have a vegetarian meal that was really filling).

Lisa Version

This is on my "Recipes" board and I would HIGHLY recommend it.  By the way quinoa can get pretty expensive but they sell it at Costco and it is SO much cheaper.  A big bag will last you a long time!  I only used a 1/2 cup for this recipe and it made 4 large main dish sized servings.

Day 15: Recipe....again.

I am a sucker for a good recipe.  I am always looking for good, easy recipes that my allergic family can eat!

This one looked delicious (and easy) so I decided to try it out today.

  

The best part about this recipe is that you make most of it in the crock pot.  I know you think of crock pot meals in the winter, but they are perfect for the summer when you don't want to heat up the kitchen.  I found my stew meat in the freezer and I just dumped it in the crockpot.

The only bad thing about this recipe is that there wasn't enough of it!  Next time I will double this recipe.  It was so tender and delicious!

I didn't take any pictures.  Oops.  Forgot and we had to eat in waves tonight due to overlapping baseball and swim practices.  Plus their picture is so much better and mouth watering that you don't need a mediocre picture (see previous post) from me.

This is definitely a keeper!

You can find it on my "Recipes" board.  And now I am caught up....until tomorrow!

Day 5 Challenge

Okay, so I am consistently a day behind. 

Yesterday I was an over achiever and did TWO new recipes.  I was short on time last night before I had to get T to baseball at 6.  Evening practices are so hard.  You are either eating really early dinners, or really late dinners.  I usually opt for the early dinners because my crew tends to get hangry (hungry+angry= hangry) and if they are hangry ain't nobody happy!

So at 4:45 I started to make dinner and I still was rushing around like a crazy woman and shoving food down throats (including my own) to get us out the door on time.  I didn't have a whole lot on hand, so I went with a recipe that I have been wanting to try and that sounded good.  The only meat that wasn't frozen was....bacon.  So I went with the Brinner (breakfast for dinner) theme.

For the adults, we had avocado with bacon and egg inside.

Sorry for the blurry pictures.  This is how it copied from Pinterest.

 This recipe was Delicious!  However, I had a few problems making it.  First of all, my avocados weren't quite ripe.  This made it difficult to scoop out the insides and create a large area for the egg.  Problem #2- the avocados are round (duh) and when I put them on the cookie sheet, they didn't lay flat and when I poured in the egg mixture half of it went onto the cookie sheet.  So, I cut a tiny bit off of the bottom of the avocado skin and they laid flat and filled nicely.  Thankfully I put down tin foil, so it wasn't too big of an issue.  I used 4 egg whites and 1 egg with the yolk.  Too many!  I think 3-4 eggs would have done the trick.  I just wanted to be a little healthier and use egg whites.  I also added some sea salt and pepper.  They were really good!  I would totally make them again.  They were pretty filling and super healthy!

Here are my pics:

Meet Whitey.  He is my egg white separator.

Don't you love how he spews out the egg whites without breaking the yolks?

This is the only way to make bacon if you are in a hurry.  425 for 15 minutes.  Be sure to line the pan with tin foil.  Easy clean up too!

See my mess? 

 Sadly, there is no "after" picture as I was 10 minutes late getting to baseball because these took longer than I thought to cook.  I ate mine in the car.  That is how I roll.  Better than eating french fries, but much more difficult.

For the boys, I decided to go with pancakes and bacon (since I had to cook it for our special dish anyway).  I knew I had a few pancake recipes on Pinterest so I picked on and went with it.

This one was nice because it doesn't have eggs in it which is nice for the 2 boys who are allergic to eggs.  Again, it was pretty easy to follow and turned out really well.  The boys could taste the banana in it, but the flavor wasn't too strong as I used one banana (and some applesauce) instead of 2 bananas.  I also added chocolate chips to entice the boys into eating them.  NO problems.  They gobbled them right up.  The only downside is that they are a little dense and the consistency isn't the same as quick and easy Bisquick, bot bad for a vegan recipe.  I also used Rice milk instead of almond or soy milk so that my dairy free boy .

I was skeptical of making it in the blender but it was easy!

They look normal, right?

Another great day of Pinterest!  You can find both of these on my "recipe" board.