Oatmeal-Raisin Pancakes.

Our first Valentine’s Day as new parents was a family occasion: we went to breakfast at the highly-touted Uptown Cafe in Bloomington. There I tried the special of the day, oatmeal-raisin pancakes. They were sublime… probably the best pancakes I’d ever had.

So tonight, for “brinner” (breakfast for dinner — any other Scrubs fans out there?), I decided to make my own. I found an oatmeal pancakes recipe over at Bees Knees Recipes as my jumping-off point. The result? Well, let’s just say that if they were this tasty even with an uneven-heating electric range & my atrocious pancake-flipping skills (if you could even call them that), they’ve gotta be great!

• 1 1/2 cups rolled oats
• 2 cups skim milk
• 1/2 cup whole-wheat flour
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 Tbsp. brown sugar
• 1 Tbsp. baking powder
• 3/4 tsp. salt
• 3/4 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 3/4 cup raisins (or to taste)

1. In a large bowl, combine oats & milk & let stand 5 minutes. (I let it stand while I got my frittata ready to go in the oven.)
2. In a smaller bowl, combine dry ingredients.
3. Add vanilla, eggs, & applesauce to oat mixture & mix well. Then blend in flour mixture. Finally, stir in raisins.
4. Use a 1/4-cup measuring cup to ladle batter for each pancake onto your nonstick griddle. You’ll likely need to stir the batter up again with each batch to keep the raisins from settling at the bottom.
5. Serve with delicious butter syrup (below). For some reason, regular old plain syrup doesn’t cut it anymore for us!

Butter syrup:

Just put a 2:1 ratio of syrup (doesn’t need to be pure — we use Log Cabin) to butter in a Pyrex measuring cup & melt in the microwave. Swirl, pour over pancakes, & enjoy!

Easter leftovers: Spinach Cobb Salad with Honey Mustard Dressing.

If you’re like me, you probably have about 8 lbs. left of your 10-lb. Easter ham & are hoping that it doesn’t go the way of your Christmas ham leftovers, which may or may not have sat forgotten at the back of the fridge for, oh, 2 months or so.

Again, if you’re like me, you had the best intentions of making slow-cooker split pea soup, but waking up to a high in the 80s just didn’t make soup sound that appealing. (Completely forgetting about it until lunchtime may have played a role as well. Maybe.)

Enter the Cobb Salad. Now, there are different types of salad eaters out there. Some like the iceberg, some like more veggies than lettuce, some like ranch, some like vinaigrettes, etc. I, personally, am a lover of fruity spinach salads with sweet dressings. So this is my version. The honey mustard complements the honey ham quite nicely!

For starters, here’s the easy dressing recipe. I found it at AllRecipes.

• 1/2 cup mayo (yes, this is a lot… feel free to sub lowfat, fat-free, or even Greek yogurt)
• 2 Tbsp. dijon mustard (I used the cheap stuff, so it was a little on the bitter side; I compensated by adding a little more honey. If you have the good stuff, great. If not, you can always use regular old yellow!)
• 2 Tbsp. (plus a little if you’re using cheap dijon) honey
• 1 Tbsp. lemon juice

1. Whisk ingredients together.
2. Chill until ready to use.

Easy enough, right?

Now all you need to do is mound some spinach on a plate, top it with some leftover ham, any fruits/veggies of your choice (think avocado, tomato, onion, etc. — I like Craisins), & one of your leftover hard-boiled eggs. Bonus points if it’s still got egg dye on it:

Top with the dressing, & you’re enjoying a perfect 80-degree-day way to use some of your Easter ham (& dyed eggs!).

Here’s what My Husband The Eloquent thought of it: “That was seriously good. & I’m a guy, so I don’t say stuff like that about salad.”

Can’t get any more rave than that!

How are you using your Easter leftovers? I’ve still got about 7 lbs. of ham to go!

Dr. Seuss breakfast.

This Wednesday is Dr. Seuss’ birthday! Did you know that? It’s also Read Across America Day. “On March 2, the National Education Association calls for every child to be reading in the company of a caring adult” (their website). This week I hope to bring you a few ways to get your kids excited about reading.

How about we start with the most important meal of the day?

Let’s have some Green Eggs & Ham (& cheese & sauteed onions) omelettes with some Cat in the Hat Pancakes!

We just made our usual weekend breakfast (or “brinner,” or in this case, “brunch”) the same way as always, except I added 4 drops of green food coloring to our 2-egg omelettes (The Munchkin’s 1-egg omelette got 3 drops), & my husband, the Pancake Master, made the white pancakes (including a slightly larger “brim”) & then added “lots” of red food coloring to the pancake batter for the last couple batches. Easy & fun!

The Munchkin was so excited to pull the books out for me to photograph. I didn’t take as much time as usual to set up the shot because we were hungry & the BYU-SDSU game was starting. Priorities, people!

BYU games aside, though, we do make time for reading every day. The Munchkin loves her books, & we love reliving some of the stories we grew up with (like those Dr. Seuss books — I had forgotten exactly how little of One Fish Two Fish really was about fish), as well as enjoying new ones (my parents brought Who’s in the Loo? back from London a couple years ago — it’s a riot!). It’s a great learning, cuddling, & bonding experience for all of us.

What’s your favorite thing about reading with your kids?

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Valentine’s breakfast.

Almost no effort, & so cute! (Yes, I know I should’ve gone with the pink plate, but a certain small human was getting hungry.)

Heart-shaped Egg in a Hole

1. Heat a nonstick pan over medium heat.
2. Use a cookie cutter to cut a heart shape out of the middle of a piece of whole-grain bread.
3. Melt about a teaspoon of butter in your pan, distributing it evenly.
4. Place the piece of bread into the pan & fill the hole with egg. I scrambled my egg in a small bowl first because runny yolks creep me out, & since I was using regular sandwich bread I only used half of the egg in each slice. But you could use Texas Toast & a sunny-side-up egg if it doesn’t give you panic attacks.
5. After a minute or two, when the egg is set on the bottom, carefully flip your toast. Place the heart shape you cut out in the pan too so it can toast as well.
6. Enjoy a balanced Valentine’s breakfast with a glass of milk & some of I am Mommy’s ingeniously festive heart-shaped strawberries! Just make sure you use the pink plate.

How to make a frittata.

I’ve been mystified by the frittata ever since seeing this frittata pan set in a Williams-Sonoma catalog. Something so special it needs its own pan? Granted, Williams-Sonoma seems to think everything requires a special pan, & my specialized egg pan fetish began & ended with my incredible All-Clad omlette pan, but still, this mystical frittata intrigued me.

Then my mom gave me the Cooking for Baby cookbook (fabulous cookbook by the way — so much more than baby food in here), & there was a frittata recipe inside! Guess what? It didn’t even require a special pan set!

Why make a frittata? Other than the culinary street cred it’ll give you, it’s actually quite easy, & the oven time makes it so that you don’t have to be flipping pancakes & making sure eggs don’t burn at the same time. Look at me looking out for you. Also, it keeps well in the fridge. The Munchkin likes eating it at room temp, so it makes for a protein-packed snack on our city jaunts: just pull out a wedge, nuke it for several seconds so it’s not cold anymore, stick it in a baggie, & pack it in the diaper bag.

Just look at that. The herbs & cheese float to the top, & the meat (& veggies, if you’re using them) stay on the bottom. Layers & layers of incredible edible egg goodness.

Here’s what you need. The recipe leaves lots of room for improvisation based on what you have on hand & what your kid likes to eat. There are suggestions below.

• 6 large eggs
• fresh herb of choice, 1 tsp. minced (or heaping 1/2 tsp. dried herb of choice)
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• 1/8 tsp. pepper
• 1 Tbsp. unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup finely diced onion
• veggies &/or meat of choice, 3/4 cup diced or grated, precooked or quick-cooking
• cheese of choice, 1/3 cup crumbled or grated

Ingredient suggestions (keep in mind these are Williams-Sonoma suggestions; take them with a grain of salt & use what you’ve got):
Cooked diced ham & potatoes, grated Gruyere cheese, & minced fresh rosemary (I use chopped deli ham, shredded Colby/Jack, & dried rosemary).
Grated or finely diced uncooked veggies of choice (zucchini, red bell pepper, tomatoes), crumbled goat cheese, & fresh basil or thyme. Or use cooked diced veggies.
Chopped black Nicoise olives & sun-dried tomatoes, crumbled feta cheese, & fresh dill.

1. Preheat oven to 350. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together eggs, herb, salt, pepper, & 1 Tbsp. water.

2. In a large ovenpoof frying pan over medium heat, melt butter. Add onion & saute until soft & translucent, about 3 minutes. Add veggies & meat, if using, & saute 2 minutes to warm through. Shake pan to spread veggies &/or meat evenly in pan.

3. Remove pan from heat & pour in egg mixture. Sprinkle cheese over top.

4. Bake until center is set & cooked, & edges are browned & pulling away from pan sides, 10-15 minutes. Remove from oven & let stand for 5 minutes. Slide (or if you’re feeling really daring, flip) onto a plate; cut into wedges or squares with a pizza cutter.

That’s it! Really!