Chickpea Tacos

These are sooooo gooooood.  A must try.  Enjoy.

Chickpeas:

3 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas (2 cans or 1/2 lb cooked dry beans)

1 recipe taco seasoning

1 tbs soy sauce or tamari

2 tsp lemon juice

1 green bell pepper

1/2 onion

2 cloves garlic

cilantro

your favorite salsa (we used Herdez, green salsa)

avocado

corn tortillas

taco seasoning:

1 tbs chili powder

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp dried oregano

1/2 tsp paprika

1 1/2 tsp cumin

1 tsp salt

1 tsp black pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Mix taco seasoning and then stir in soy sauce and lemon juice.  Spread chickpeas out on a cookie tray and toss in taco seasoning/lemon juice mixture.   Bake in oven for about 20 minutes or until chickpeas are slightly crispy.

While chickpeas cook, slice bell pepper and onion and saute on medium heat until soft.  Add pressed garlic near the end of cooking.  

Assemble tacos with chickpeas, pepper mixture, cilantro, avocado, and salsa on lightly toasted corn tortillas.  I prefer them soft enough to fold into a taco, but Rob prefers them toasted in the oven until they become tostadas (with cheese and sour cream for Rob, of course).

When I make a vegetarian dish that even Rob loves, I know it's a success.  Rob approved.  These are goooooood.

Pancakes.

Not just any pancakes, my friends, oatmeal-banana goodness.  These are my new favorite pancakes.  Let's be real for a sec...if you know me, you know that I go through pancake recipes like I go through chocolate chip cookie recipes.   I just can't settle until I've found the best.  And BELIEVE ME!!!  I've tried them all.  Pancakes and chocolate chip cookies, I mean.

On to the recipe.  This is my adaption from several recipes I've used over the years.  You should make them just like this or they won't turn out and then you'll think it's a bad recipe.  So listen to me, ok?  I have pancake experience.

Ingredients:
1 cup old fashioned oats
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 tsp aluminum free baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

2 eggs
2 very ripe bananas
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 cup rice milk (or whatever milk you fancy)
2 tbs melted coconut oil (or butter if you don't have any...but you should invest in some because it is great)

First things first.  When I say very ripe, I don't mean spekled with brown spots.  That is just ripe enough to eat...I'm talking black bananas.  If this is not your thing, then you have found the wrong recipe.

Directions:
1.  Pulse all dry ingredients in your blender until oats are smooth.  Pour them into a mixing bowl.
2.  Add wet ingredients to blender and blend until smooth.  Please, PLEASE do not blend your wet and dry ingredients together in the blender.  That will make for some tough pancakes.
3. Preheat you pan to medium/medium high heat.  I don't use a griddle, but that is just personal preference.   I find when you are working with bananas that lower heat and longer in the pan is better.
4.  Mix your wet and dry ingredients just before you start to pour because the batter will thicken as it sits.  Best if its not given the chance to thicken.

5.  Pour onto un-greased pan and cook about a minute on the first side and about 30 seconds on the second (or until desired done-ness).  Contrary to what you may think, you do NOT need butter or grease in your pan to cook pancakes. You'll get a more even brown if you don't use it.  When they pull away from your pan, they are ready to flip, if they are stuck to the pan, they need more time (this is, of course, only true if you have decent pans).

We like ours with a little unsweetened coconut on top and we typically use agave instead of syrup, but pure maple syrup is delicious as well.

Enjoy!

All the GOOD things.

Took this little gem a few days ago.  Glad her priorities are in line.

Hard not to love this one.

Banish the Winter Blues

I had a friend ask what we do in the winter time when it's too cold to be outside.  Here is my list of things that we find interesting....not all my own ideas, but all good.

We're all girls over here....so we play with a lot of DOLLS....I'm not kidding.  Sophie carries, nurses, changes, wipes, dresses, undresses, bathes...basically she is one good momma to those babies. 

We love it, but we do take a break from raising these dolls into responsible, respectful young ladies to have some fun.  Here is my real list:

My Secrets for Banishing the Winter Blues

My secret weapons (yes, I have these):

**Laurie Berkner Band.  The  Goldfish song here and the Dinosaur song here are our favorites.  We listen to them 80 times a day and I'm pretty sure dancing with my kiddos makes me the coolest parent ALIVE!  She has a bunch of other songs that are all good too. And also on Youtube. 

**Sesame Street on Youtube.  3 minute songs.  These are my kids favorites:

Adam Sandler

Ricky Gervais

Bruno Mars

Will.i.am

(Thank you Steff...I must credit her for introducing me to the real gems of YouTube)

**Make these Egg Shakers (they are the coolest) and dance to this song.

**Buy some of these clear water gels on Amazon and soak them in water overnight.  Cheap and best entertainment EVER....

Other obvious, but good ones:

-Hide and seek

-Playdoh.  Get out every cookie cuter you own and your rolling pins....your kids will love you.

-Build and kick over towers.  We use our blocks sometimes, but I also get out all of my small acrylic paint bottles because they stack easily and it's more fun to kick over towers that are not made out of toys.

-Mom school. I usually pick a new letter everyday and we practice drawing it on her easel and make up stories and songs about it.

-Make movies on your phone or computer and watch them together. Ours are typically dancing and workout videos....don't ask.

-Make movies to send to your relatives.  My family loves getting personal video's from my kids and my kids are obsessed with making them.  Win/win.

-Play kitchen/pretend cook.  We have a play kitchen, but even if you don't you could set one up with your pots/pans and other things around your kitchen.

-Pretend school

-Tell stories. Make props to go with them.

-Write letters to missionaries and cousins.

-Call grandparents or cousins.

-Pretend church meetings.  This one was my daughters idea.  She gets out my YW's binder and pretends to write in it while I ask her questions about nursery, prophets, and Jesus.

-dress-up in mom or dads clothes

-paint nails (we do this so much my 2 year old can paint her own....I kid you not)

Things you have to do anyways:

-Clean (I give Sophie her own squirt bottle filled with water, vinegar, and essential oil and a rag and she goes crazy...it's awesome)

-Cook together
-Workout together (Sophie get's really into it....I'm in the process of making her a set of 'dumbells')

SIDE NOTE--I'm a big fan of letting kids do daily tasks with you.  It will take you longer, but your stuck inside anyways, so who cares?

**A bit more complicated:

-I have a ton of fun ideas on my 'Fun for Kiddos' Pinterest Board HERE.  We've done almost all of them and I think they are all fun.  Not all winter ones though.

Enjoy!