The Sneaky Chef

A couple years ago I heard about this book/idea from a friend and have been curious about it ever since. Last week we went to Brused Books (which is one of my favorite and most dangerous places to go!) where you can buy, sell, and trade used books. I decided to take a peek in the cookbook section, which is pretty overwhelming, but I came across this book and decided to give it a shot!

The idea is to "sneak" healthy foods such as fruits, veggies and whole grains into other foods, the majority of which are kid friendly foods. There are about 15 different "blends" you can make such as a flour blend (1/3 white, 1/3 whole wheat and 1/3 wheat germ) to use in these recipes that make them healthier but still taste good. Many of the blends are pureed fruit and veggie mixes that you can add to the recipes.

This morning I decided to try my first recipe from it to see if it was any good, so we made chocolate chip pancakes! Yummy right? They were delicious and VERY filling as well. Eric and I were both pretty impressed with them. I'll post the recipe if anyone wants to give it a try! I'm excited to try some more recipes from this book and see if they're worth the little extra effort to plan ahead with the blends. I'll let you know what I decide!

Chocolate Chip Pancakes

Makes about 8 pancakes

3/4 Cup flour blend (1/4 C white, 1/4 whole wheat, 1/4 C wheat germ)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 C slivered almonds, ground in food processor.

1/2 C unsweetened applesauce or grated fresh apple

1/4 C plain yogurt (i used vanilla)

1 tsp. vanilla

2 Tbsp. milk

1 egg

2 Tbsp honey or pure maple syrup

1/4 C chocolate chips

1/4 C blueberries (optional)

Mix together flour blend, baking powder, salt and almonds. Set aside. In another bowl whisk together wet ingredients. Add to the dry ingredients until just blended. Add chocolate chips and mix lightly.

Butter or spray large skillet over med heat. Drop ladles of batter onto skillet in batches. When bubbles begin to set around the edges and the underside is golden brown, gently flip and continue to cook 2-3 minutes more. Serve with warm maple syrup or berry syrup...or whatever you want. :) ENJOY!

Upstairs Remodel

So, in preparation for the baby, we needed a room for it. Instead of being like most people and turning an extra room into one for the baby, we turned our extra room (upstairs) into our room, and will turn our room into the baby's. Needless to say, its been quite a mess!

We started out by covering everything with plastic in preparation for the dust that will soon fill this room.

We then took out a small closet in the area that will soon become our finished, and much larger closet (you can see the outline of the old on in the paint here).

Next came the fun job of laying out the outline of the new wall that we are putting in. This should normally not be a difficult task, but the floor is about 1/2 in unlevel over 2 feet, across the whole room, so that definately made things interesting (made the drywalling even worse).

Here is Eric as we are putting the studs in. If you notice in this picture, there seems to be a weird corner in the wall after the window; this is where our computer desk will go. In the end, what we are going for is about 1/2 of our upstairs to be the bedroom, with the other half split up to create a walk-in closet (right in this picture), and a loft office (left).

Finished view of the closet. This is after a lot of electrical work, followed by insulation and drywall. We wanted the insulation mostly for sound. When we are done (also known as Molly's dad coming and taping/mudding for us), we will add shelves into this between the drawers on the left, and a hanging rod on the right.

A view from inside our bedroom out into the office. The closet is on the left.

And finally, our new bedroom...that looks very empty! We couldnt fit the boxspring up the stairs, but Eric was already planning on building a new bed frame with storage, so we will just sleep down here for a little while until that is done!

Happy Valentines Day!

I came home earlier this week to a nice little surprise waiting for me on the table! It was a little early Valentine, but a very nice surprise! Now I have beautiful pink roses spread all through the house! Thanks Eric!

Last night our church had a Valentines Dinner (Luau) which was a lot of fun and a little embarrassing...especially for Eric who got chosen to participate in the hula dancing in front of everyone. He did great, but won't be changing professions anytime soon! The pics turned out a little blurry though. :(

Eric and I were asked a couple weeks ago if we would play the newlywed game as well during the evening! We did pretty well overall, though definitely got a few answers wrong...I thought my toothbrush was pink and it was blue (Eric was right!) Oh well, we still tied for first place in the end and got some chocolates and duct tape for our prize! :) It was pretty fun!

Happy Valentines Day Everyone!!

Sleepy boy!

I had another ultrasound yesterday (pretty sure it's like my 5th one!) because they couldn't see the placement of the placenta...or something like that...at my previous one. According to the ultrasound tech it was a "beautiful" ultrasound, apparently because i don't have thick skin and fat blocking the way. :) She got this picture randomly as she was quickly scanning by and caught a big yawn! Kinda funny to think that he's yawning in there! I thought it was kinda cute though, so thought I'd share it!

And here's a picture for Vickie of the new glider and ottoman we got. :) It's very comfy and I'm sure it will be well used! Right now it's in a corner of the living room since the baby's room doesn't really exist yet.
Eric finished all the sheetrock upstairs today though, so we're well on our way! It's looking great so far!

Registration time!

A lot of people have been starting to ask me where I'm registered at for baby stuff. I hadn't decided for sure if I was even going to register, but figured that for the shower back home it would probably be easiest to do it. So...we're headin up to Spokane for part of the weekend to get it started! Fun, fun!

I'm wondering if there are ideas that you all might have of things I might not think of right off the bat. Suggestions for things you "couldn't live without"??