Wordless Wednesday–Life Outside–Airplane Watching

Blueberry Banana Yogurt Pancakes

I almost never make pancakes. I made some off hand comment that used the word pancakes (what on earth could that be? I cannot for the life of me figure out how you use the word pancakes without saying something like “let’s have pancakes”). Regardless, Gordie thought this was the best idea he had ever heard. I managed to get out of making pancakes for lunch but promised he could have them for dinner.

I put this together so I could feel like even though we were having pancakes for dinner, we were getting some decent nutrition too. Whole wheat pancakes always seem to be lacking something so I decided to add things to the pancakes instead. Plain yogurt, a banana and blueberries make these a lot more nutrient dense than your average pancake as well as sweet and moist.

Blueberry Banana Yogurt Pancake Recipe

(Adapted from Bed & Breakfast Inns Online)
1 Cup Flour
1 Tablespoon Sugar
1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
½ Teaspoon Salt
2 Large Eggs
1 Cup Plain Yogurt (Balkan is nice)
1 Ripe Banana Mashed
2 Tablespoons Butter, Melted
2 Handfuls of Blueberries

Directions:

1. Mix dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl.
2. In a large bowl, beat eggs, add yogurt, melted butter and mash in the banana. You can do this by breaking it into pieces and then mashing it up with the whisk or you can mash them first. They need to be small but do not need to be completely mashed. If you hate mashing you could even just slice them thinly.
3.Add the dry ingredients to the wet (half the time I do this backwards, but this way you don’t have flour mixture stuck to the bottom). Mix just enough so that you no longer see any dry flour.
4. Add the blueberries and gently fold them in.
5. Cook the pancakes on a medium-high heat for about 2 minutes per side. If you haven’t cooked them before try doing a test pancake before making a whole bunch.

Easy Outdoor Fun–Spray Bottle

As part of our “Life Outside – Fall Challenge” I’m trying to find simple things to do outside. I had a spray bottle hanging around the house (used only for water) that I gave to Gordie to try out.

  

It was seriously, the best thing ever! For something so simple, it amused him all week. It was a little difficult for him to figure out at first, especially since it was a bit too big for him to handle but he persevered. The best thing is, because we were outside it didn’t matter what got sprayed (well except for when it was me!)

Life Outside–What Does it Take to Say You Went Outside Today?

After starting the Life Outside Fall Challenge I started to think about how I would decide whether we had achieved success for that day. How will I define “going outside” with Gordie?

Time

Although I can’t see counting the amount of time it takes to go from the house to the car, on really busy days, or days with bad weather, I’m not sure that requiring a minimum amount of time is going to be helpful. I think even if it’s a short time any time outside is a win, particularly if you don’t feel like going out in the first place.

Activity

At first I was thinking that this would be about playing outside. But that’s really just part of what we can do outside. Going for a walk is still good time, so is raking the leaves or watering the garden. I’m going to try to do some different things and make it fun for me and for Gordie, but just being outside is enough.

What I’ve Realized

It turns out that I have more expectations and “rules” for outside time than I thought I did. Unfortunately this makes it so we go outside less. It makes it seem like a lot of work. Instead of spending whatever amount of time doing whatever outside, it seems easier to just stay in. This is something that I’m really going to try to work on this Fall – taking advantage of time outside no matter how short and not worrying so much about what we are doing once we are there.

How do you define spending time outside with your kids? Are your expectations making it so you don’t go out as much as you’d like?

Easy Roasted Beets

I starting making these when we had a community garden plot. I had planted things like beets and turnips that I read grown well in Siberia. I figured it they grew well there, I  shouldn’t have a problem. And it totally worked, they were awesome. This year, I tried a square foot garden and had no luck whatsoever with my beets or turnips. I’m not entirely sure why, but if you had more luck than I did, this recipe is great.

Simple Roasted Beets Recipe
Beets trimmed and washed
Extra virgin olive oil
Balsamic vinegar
Freshly ground pepper
Aluminum foil

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400F.
2. Line a baking tray and wrap each beet with aluminum foil.
3. Roast beets for approximately 40 minutes. Longer if you have big beets, less if you have small beets.
4. When the beets are cooked through, take them out of the oven. I recommend covering your hands when you work with the beets, gloves are good, but I hate now they make my hands smell so I usually just use two sandwich sized ziplock bags.
5. Peel the beets. If the beets have been cooked long enough, the skin should slide right off with your fingers.
6. Cut each beet in half and then slice into half moons. It looks pretty to have full circles but the beets can be pretty slippery. Halving them first can really save your fingers.
7. Put the beets into a bowl and toss with the olive oil, vinegar and pepper. If you think they need a bit more flavor, add more vinegar. You only need enough olive oil to coat and the pepper can get to be too much pretty quickly.

Note: Beets contain quite a lot of natural dye. When you eat them this goes through your body with predictable purple/red results. This is perfectly harmless but can look a little alarming if you are not prepared. :)

8 Things I Love About Cooler Weather

I can be a bit of a weather whiner – I don’t like it too hot, or too cold, or too windy. Luckily Calgary weather provides a lot of opportunities for people who like to complain about the weather. If you’re not unhappy with the weather right now, just wait, it’ll change soon enough. To shake things up a bit, instead of complaining I thought I’d write a list of things I look forward to with the cooling temperatures.

1. My Winter Duvet – there is nothing better than snuggling into a big fluffy duvet.

2. My Oven – Most of my favorite recipes involve my oven. Cooking is so much more fun when you don’t melt while you do it.

3. No Bugs! – The best thing about freezing cold weather – it kills off all the bugs.

4. Hot Drinks – I love warming my hands on a hot mug of tea.

5. Jackets – my seatbelt always sits better when I’m wearing a jacket, I hate it rubbing against my skin.

6. No sunscreen – I don’t have to worry about Gordie getting a sunburn while we are playing outside.

7. You can always put on more clothes but there is a limit to how much you can take off.

8. Fall TV – What can I say? I love my TV shows.

I was going for 10 things but I still really miss summer. Maybe I’ll have to read my list again.

Fall Sensory Box

While Gordie and I were out on a walk, we picked up leave, pinecones and sticks to use for a Fall sensory box. It was a little harder than I had expected to get the leaves, most of the trees still hadn’t started to drop them, but it was still fun. We also used some other items from around the house.

What’s inside?

• leaves
• pinecones (check them for sticky sap)
• sticks
• fork (rake)
• small bowl
• small gourds
• decorative corn
• large rock

This bin wasn’t as bit a hit as the last one. The process of creating it was a lot more engaging for him than the bin itself. I also think it would have been better with a larger quantify of leaves so you could really run your fingers through them and rake them around.  I think we’ll try it again when more leaves have fallen.