Pancakes and a Thankful Heart

Our family really enjoys having breakfast for dinner.  This is something that we typically do once each week!  My five year old son can be a somewhat selective eater.  But serve him something with eggs, plus a grain and some fruit and he is a happy kid!  I had found a delicious recipe on Queen of Quinoa a few months ago and have since tweaked it to make it just right for our family.  I will include my recipe below!

Favorite Healthy Pancakes!
                     * Recipe Makes 8 Hearty Pancakes

1 Cup Whole Grain Oats (I use Silver Palate)
1 Cup Quinoa Flakes (I use Ancient Harvest)
1 Teaspoon Baking Powder
Pinch of Sea Salt
1 Ripe Banana
1 Egg
1 1/2 Cups Almond Milk (I use Silk Original 60 calorie)
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
3 Tablespoons Almond Butter (I love the Wegmans brand!)

* Warmed Berries of Choice (I use a frozen Triple Berry Medley from Sam's Club.  As the berries thaw they create a delicious sauce of their own.  No need to add a thing!)

1) Warm oven to 250 degrees in order to keep first pancakes warm while cooking remaining pancakes.

2) Use a food processor to create a "flour" out of the Oats, Quinoa Flakes, Baking Powder and Sea Salt.  This step is VERY important and is key in creating pancakes that have a lovely texture.  You want to make sure to spend a moment turning these ingredients into a very fine blend.

3) Add remaining ingredients and pulse until smooth and well-blended. 

4) Warm a non-stick pan to medium heat.  No need to use any sort of oil or butter on the pan.  As long as you have a good non-stick pan, these pancakes will cook beautifully.  Drop batter onto pan and cook for approximately 1 minute on each side.  

5) I place my Pampered Chef Large Bar Pan (stoneware) in the 250 degree oven.  As I cook two pancakes at a time, I then transfer them to the oven until the entire batch is ready to go!

6) Top with warmed berries or maple syrup.  Enjoy!!

And now for the "thankful heart" part of this entry.  :)  Lately I have been thinking so much about how I am just deep-down thankful to be where we are right now.  Life is definitely very full, as always!  The kids keep my head spinning and homeschooling my first-grade daughter this school year has been a whole new chapter in our lives.  Last year at this time I had read a one line post that a friend had shared on FB.  It said, "What you plant is what grows".  Very general statement and just plain true!  But it was one of those moments to stop and take stock of my life.  I knew that I wanted to shift gears in few areas that related to my children and husband.  It has been a good year and I am excited to see what the future holds for our family!  Change is just around the bend as I look at taking on a new role at our church (First Alliance in Erie, PA).  I am prayerfully excited and filled with anticipation but also realize that this is going to challenge me more than I can begin to picture from my current vantage point!  This evening I was in the car alone to make a quick run to Wegmans, our local grocery store.  A song/band that I had never heard before came on the radio and it was just what I needed to hear.  I love when that happens!  Check out Rend Collective and their Lighthouse Song!     

I had first read these words almost two months ago and have pondered them often ever since. I think that when I look back on this time in life, the memory of this particular beacon of light will still resonate within me.Approach to Life