Lazy Morning Breakfast

There's nothing like a 3-day weekend. This Columbus Day was special because the whole family either had or took the day off. My plan for the Monday holiday was to drop the kids at my gym's babysitting and take a great cardio class while my dear husband spent some time at home painting the bathroom that we're remodeling. Well, that plan was dashed when we all slept until 9 am! I guess we all needed our beauty sleep. We also needed a lazy, quality-time family day since I'm now headed into an 11-day work week that includes a trip to the American Dietetic Association conference in Denver this coming weekend. So instead of exercise and home improvement, we spent some fun time in the kitchen trying a few new things.

The kids wanted pancakes so it was the perfect time to try out the Aunt Jemima Whole Wheat Blend Pancake mix that I picked up on a recent shopping trip. I figured that it must get a better NuVal score than the Original and I was right!




Aunt Jemima Whole Wheat Blend Pancake Mix 24
Aunt Jemima Original Pancake Mix 5

I also will confess right here that I used to give my daughter Aunt Jemima Frozen Mini Pancakes - until I found out that they scored a 6! I'm still getting over the guilt.

Here's what the pancakes looked like. You can see that they are pretty wheaty!



Somehow the kids could sense that Mommy & Daddy really wanted to hang out, read the paper & drink coffee. The sight of Mommy & Daddy relaxing on the couch is foreign to my children. Mommy & Daddy must be busy, busy, busy. So, they next asked for fruit smoothies. No problem. I got out my old blender (a 12-year old wedding gift that my sister makes fun of) and put in the following ingredients:




some plain Greek yogurt (Score of 91)
some skim milk (Score of 91)
a banana (Score of 91)
some strawberries (Score of 100)
some frozen blueberries (Score of 100)

That was one healthy fruit smoothie. And somehow, everything is more exciting when you put a straw into it.



The kids loved the whole wheat pancakes so we made a whole bunch and put the extra in the freezer for quick heat-ups during this crazy stretch of work that I have ahead of me.

In the meantime, I'll be preparing for my absence from home for four whole days. Thankfully, my mom will come to the rescue, my DH is SuperMan, and my BFF can't wait to take by daughter to ballet (she has 2 boys!). The bad news is that I will be away for my daughter's School Picture Day. Horrors! I mean my DH is amazing, but his talents end when it comes to doing my daughter's hair. One of my friends suggested that I cancel my business trip. Oh well, there's always Picture Retake Day!