Protein Pancakes

I've had some requests for the protein Pancake recipe spoken of in the previous post. So here it is:
1/4 cup egg whites (I used the whites of 2 eggs)
1/4 cup fat free cottage cheese
1/4 cup old fashioned oats
1 tsp. vanilla

Blend in blender or food processor and pour onto a WELL-greased pan/griddle on medium heat. This makes about 3-4 pancakes. Add any toppings you would normally. OR, if you want a healthier version: use cut up fruit (bananas,strawberries,blueberries), cocoa powder, butter spray (instead of the real stuff ...boooo!), Agave nectar (whatever that is), or honey.

The total nutritional value:
135 calories
15 grams protein
1.5 grams of fat
2 grams of fiber

FABULOUS!

Plus: My friend Kim already tried the recipe and even added flax seed meal to it to make it even higher in protein/fiber. And flax is a good source of omega-3! Not too shabby. She said she loved them, by the way!

If anyone comes up with other great add-ins/toppings etc, let me know!

Note: I haven't tried tripling the recipe yet. Haven't needed to since it's just me and the girls eating them. Let me know if it doesn't work!

p.s. Marcee, that's Emmie in the top picture! I was feeling nostalgic!

Wishes, A Ladder, and Pancakes

This is a Wacky Wednesday for the books! It was a different kind of wacky...not the ones where the girls choose ice cream for breakfast or get to wear dress up high heels to Wal-mart. In fact, all 4 of us girls were looking pretty fab today and we all had sensible breakfasts.

However, let me give a quick back story: Today was the day we had to take my car in to get some major work done. It is now over 100, 000 miles and therefore was over-due for a major tune-up and over haul. On top of that, a couple weeks ago, my air conditioner stopped working. Luckily, it hasn't been blistering hot yet! :)
So, as the good husband he is, McKay took my car to the dealership early this morning. Then I drove his car to his work because he needed to leave for a busi-trip. Well, the dealership gave him a new Acura TL as a loaner. And we needed to trade. . .too bad for McKay!

This leads me to the "Wishes" portion

Because, I WISH...

Yeah! It has a camera in the back so I can see the neighbor kids as I run them over!!!

It seems so ironic to have this kind of clean, awesome vehicle in our child-toy-ridden/should-be-in-our-finished-basement-crap garage! But I'll take it. Even if only for a day or two. Oh wait! I forgot to mention that it also has amazing throw-your-body-back-in-your-seat kind of power when you hit the accelerator! How do I know? Well, it was McKay's fault for "warning" me that "it goes fast, so be careful!" Are you kidding me? I felt like a race car driver. Shh...don't tell the dealership! Or McKay for that matter! Just as a last thought to a small matter of awesome-ness, it also doesn't have keys. Just a fancy little remote and when it's in the vicinity, the car automatically unlocks and starts with a push of a button. I know other cars have this, but mine, which is almost 10 years old, does not!! I don't want to give it back.

Ladders:

Well, while I was wrapped up in the sweet rapture of racing around corners and re-living the days of driving a small vehicle, I completely forgot that I didn't have any keys or even a garage door opener to get in to my house. Problem? Maybe for most, but not for this crafty lady who desperately needed to put a child down for a nap! After double checking doors, I remember that my sliding door on the deck outside our master bedroom is almost always unlocked due to us having it open during the warm nights. Now all I needed was a way to get up there. McKay can do it from standing on our lower deck. I, on the other hand, am not as long or brave. SO, I needed a ladder! First I asked my neighbor who happened to be out gardening (as usual). But she couldn't reach hers and her husband wasn't home. On to the next neighbor; she had a handy ladder that goes in different directions and goes up and down, and probably even doubles as a shovel or something crazy. It took me and another neighbor to try to figure out how to get it just to the right height and still sturdy enough for me to climb up and over my deck. Finally, I made it up and got the doors and garage door open. Now...where did the kids go? Dang! Just goes to show you can't always do two things at once and do them both well!!! I found them, by the way!
If only I had a picture of that!

Pancakes:

For dinner, we had pancakes, which is common when McKay goes on a busi-trip. I wanted to try a new recipe. For some reason those two words, "new recipe," don't get my family all revved up like it does me. However, I tried it and they loved it. Kid tested, mother approved (those two things almost never appear together at our house)! And they are super healthy! The recipe is meant for only 1-2 servings so I definitely need to double next time. It has egg whites, oatmeal, cottage cheese (I know, weird!), and vanilla. They were fabulous. The best part, the "wacky" part, is that one serving, which is about 2-3 medium pancakes is only 130 calories, and has 15 grams of protein! In fact, they're called protein pancakes. New favorite for me! Of course, all that health goes out the window, when I'm drizzling butter and sugary syrup all over them, but whatevs! They're healthy-er! I had to use the picture off the Internet, because mine didn't turn out nearly as pretty...just tasty!

Tea for Three

There is a magical place I know of. It's McKay's mom's house (grandma Johnson). There you can find anything in the cupboard to make a new recipe, find something that has been missing for years (so we thought), and it is the ideal setting for tea parties! Grandma Johnson loves old things. Some are heirlooms, some she bought new and then made them look old, and some she practically stole from unsuspecting garage sale-ers. But where she got the treasures doesn't mean as much as the fact that she allows 3 very happy little girls to use them! Grace is quite possibly the favorite cousin with our girls. Every time we go to Idaho, Grace is the #1 topic of conversation and annoying reminders we get from our girls that she is the only reason for coming to Idaho!!! We LOVE Grace! Having tea parties has become a new and welcomed tradition with these 3. This particular picture says it all. . .Grace is being very calm and proper, Morgan is pretending to be older and apparently model-esque fish faced, and Emmie is looking to see what the older girls are doing so she too can follow suit! Trying to take good pictures with a camera you know little about is very hard. It's my camera, by the way. . .I'm just retarded! This is the only semi-decent picture I got with cute Gracee! The following pictures are in a shutter burst sequence. My favorite way of taking candid pics. It's not often you can capture a true gut laugh. So I'm glad I did.


The little ladies and I will be venturing to Idaho again in June for about 2 1/2 weeks! I'm really looking forward to it! I love visiting and then coming home with the thought of , "Man I'm glad I don't live so close to all those crazy people!!!" Of course, that's not entirely true. . .not all of them are crazy! Okay, really, I love our family. Most of the time it would be lovely living close by, then the other most of the time, I'm glad we don't! :) Let me tell you why. These are all the things that I look forward to and wouldn't be nearly as special if we lived close: Tea parties with old hats and gloves, treasure shopping, staying up entirely too late talking, sharing good food and new recipes, doing sewing or other projects, sharing good books, doing some new fandangled brain exercising game with my mom, watching our girls talk and play with their grandparents who have missed them, talking about the "old days" (for me that's any time before I was married, for others, it's 30-40 years ago), me and my sister talking like black girls (mckay's favorite), Maurny (grace's mom) and I stretching and teaching yoga to the little girls, laughing until our guts hurt, and occasionally getting in on some juicy family gossip (which could go both ways, it's fun, but it's also the reason to NOT live by family!) Oh, it's all so exciting you see. Can't wait!

It Is Done....

Well, I talked to the principal at Morgan's school. Why people don't like her, I haven't quite figured out yet. So far, I'm pleased with her and the involvement she has with her staff and students. She graciously took some time this morning to discuss what was on my mind. I didn't want to go in there with the angry-mom-on-a-mission kind of attitude...I knew it wouldn't go very far. So, the night before, I wrote down my real concerns for Morgan and not just with the idea that it would be nice to see "Mrs" leave the school premises. I wanted her to know that I have noticed big changes in Morgan in a way that I didn't expect until jr high at least! And that I knew the relationship, or lack there of, with Mrs. was a primary reason. Morgan is NOT a self learner. Morgan is sensitive. And Morgan loves everyone. Even Mrs! Much to my dismay, or envy, Morgan gives everyone the benefit of the doubt. Bless her little heart! And she needs a teacher with a gentle but firm personality to guide her, not leave her behind so she'll toughen up!

I felt really good about the whole meeting. The principal was not surprised by my concerns, but she was surprised that I was the first parent to see her, and we only have a month of school left! She said that all my concerns have been hers as well for a while, but she wanted to be fair and make sure she wasn't "catching her on a bad day. . .over and over." So I encouraged those moms that I KNOW have had a few issues to talk to the principal as well. I now feel like I have "the boss" on my and Morgan's side. We aren't supposed to make requests for teachers because they feel like it's unfair and sometimes it can make classes lop-sided with either really smart or really behind kids. But, I am hoping she remembers us when she decides to place Morgan in her 2nd grade class next year. If Morgan didn't have parents that cared she would be waaaaay behind by now, but we do care and we do way too much homework because she has all but checked out when she's at school!!! Here's to hoping for an AWESOME 2nd grade teacher. . .