Flaxseed and Oat Pancakes

All moms give their kids foods that aren’t the healthiest once in awhile, right?

But then that “mom guilt” sets in. My girls (ages 3 and 1) love pancakes so I try to think of ways to infuse them with healthy ingredients. I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we do. Toddler and mom approved!

Ingredients

• Pancake Mix (I add milk, but you can add water if you prefer)
• Flaxseed Meal
• Oats
• Olive Oil (or butter/oil of your choice)

Make regular pancake mix (according to the box instructions) and pour in some flaxseed meal and oats to your liking. Add some extra water or milk and mix it until well coated. Then pour oil in a skillet to coat the bottom and heat it till sizzling. I like to use a 1/4 C measuring cup to scoop the pancake batter and drop it onto the frying pan. When the bottom edges get crispy it’s time to flip it and cook until the edges aren’t gooey.

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Flaxseed meal has so many nutritional benefits. According to WebMD “preliminary studies show that it may help fight heart disease, diabetes, and breast cancer” (WebMD). That’s enough for me right there. Oats pack in added nutrients: manganese, phosphorus, magnesium, copper, iron, zinc, folate, and B vitamins (Authority Nutrition).

I try to add flaxseed meal to as many recipes as possible. For example, I’ll use them to replace or mix with breadcrumbs, add to smoothies, sprinkle in soup, and add to muffins. There are so many ways you can use flaxseed meal to add healthy flair to things you eat every day.

While I aspire to plan ahead, it doesn’t always happen, but these pancakes make it easy to do. Make an extra batch and refrigerate or freeze. They’re great to have on hand for busy mornings!

Yours in planning,
Paula

Sweet Apple Quick Oats in Crockpot

Ingredients

Cooking spray or butter (to grease Crock-pot)

1 C quick oats

2 C milk

1 T butter

1 tsp. cinnamon

2 T brown sugar

1 C chopped apple

Directions

Spray/grease the inside of the Crock-pot with cooking spray or butter. Toss all ingredients into Crock-pot and mix well. Cook on low for 3 hours or high for 1 hour.

Serving Suggestion

Add salt and extra cinnamon or butter to individual bowls to taste.

My daughter has swim lessons early tomorrow morning and our family is always starving when we get home. Sometimes we go out for breakfast after swim lessons, but other times we have lots to do at home and need to save some time. I always loved the overnight Crock pot breakfast recipes, but they usually require a bit of prep work and mess in the kitchen. So tonight I just took out the dry ingredients I will need tomorrow for this recipe and peeled the apple and stuck it in a freezer bag in the fridge. Now all I need to do before we leave the house tomorrow is chop the apple, take out the refrigerated ingredients, dump everything in the Crock pot, and set it on high for an hour. The best part is the apple cinnamon aroma that fills the house!

Some Tips for This Recipe

1. Grease the Crock pot really well to prevent messy clean-up or line Crock pot with aluminum foil and then grease.
2. Fry some sliced bananas or apples with cinnamon and butter and serve on top with a dollop of whipped cream.
3. Use raisins (or fruit of your choice) to make a happy face atop individual bowls.

Baby Books

After my mother-in-law showed me my husband’s baby book I was inspired to start one of my own before our daughter was born. I started an online pregnancy journal using Snapfish’s photo book feature while I was pregnant with my first daughter, Bella. It took dedication and time to sit down and update it every couple of weeks, but it was so worth it.

When she was born I decided to continue and make a photo book of her first year. Little did I know it would turn out to be 136 pages! Now, I’m working on her second year photo book and although time-consuming, it is very enjoyable. It is my time to get some peace and quiet and reflect on our family’s most recent memories.

Now that I’m pregnant with our second daughter I am keeping up with tradition and making an online photo book of this pregnancy as well. I used to love physical scrap-booking but I love the online photo books even more because they are so easy to maintain and it doesn’t take up the entire dining room table. The best part is the no mess part!

You can even add special touches like word clouds of your child’s milestones to capture each month on one page. My favorite parts of Bella’s baby books are the ones with her monthly picture in her chair and the word cloud on the next page with phrases like “FirstTooth,” “SleepingThroughTheNight,” “BananasAreYourFavorite,” etc. I used www.wordle.com to create my word clouds and Googled “HTML Color Codes” so I could edit the colors of the text myself. To use a Wordle in an online photo book you need to take a screenshot of the webpage and then crop the image before importing it into your photo album. It might say “low resolution” but the printed version of my photo book came out fine. I also printed the monthly Wordles and used them as decorations at Bella’s first birthday party.

Bella’s 2 Month Photo and Wordle in Photo Book

Another perk of online photo books are that they are stored in the cloud for long periods of time. If your child accidentally spills milk on the book you can re-order it.

Some tips for creating your child’s online memory book:
1. Download the app for the photo website you’re using to allow for fast upload of photos from your phone.
2. Upload photos in small batches (approximately every two weeks) and put them directly in folders labeled “Your Child’s Name-Month 1” (ie. Bella-Month 1).
3. Try to update the book every month so the memories are fresh.
4. Take notes in the Notes section of your cell phone when something important happens that you want to put in the photo book. For example, your well visits with the pediatrician, funny things your child does or says, your child’s first word, the day they took their first steps, etc.

5. Always use a coupon code. You can get these when you enter your email address when you join the site or Google coupon codes for the site you’re using. I never pay full price for a photo book.