Yuummmm!

I have been cooking up a storm this summer and enjoying every second of it! I already have my freezer meals pretty much done (minus freezer coleslaw) for the end of August (this is a rare moment, so let me enjoy it.....ahhhhhhh.......ok, I am done now). Johanna helped me make one of the recipes yesterday- Multi-Grain Waffles. Brian and I have both been pretty focused on trying to become healthier. Not that we were extremely unhealthy before, but I am becoming very diligent about what my family puts into their bodies. I wanted to do a waffle for freezer meals. They are great because you can just take out what you want and pop them in the toaster or oven for a quick and tasty breakfast. So, I felt like I should share this recipe. They were delicious and not difficult to make. I used a Belgium waffle iron, but a regular waffle iron would work fine.

• 2 cups buttermilk ( or 2 cups regular milk and 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice)
  
• 1/2 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
• 2/3 cup whole-wheat flour
• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour(I use unbleached of course)
  
• 1/4 cup toasted wheat germ or cornmeal
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Mix buttermilk and oats in a medium bowl; let stand for 15 minutes.

Whisk whole-wheat flour, all-purpose flour, wheat germ (or cornmeal), baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a large bowl.

Stir eggs, sugar, oil and vanilla into the oat mixture. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients; mix with a rubber spatula just until moistened.

Coat a waffle iron with cooking spray and preheat. Spoon in enough batter to cover three-fourths of the surface (about 2/3 cup for an 8-by-8-inch waffle iron). Cook until waffles are crisp and golden brown, 4 to 5 minutes. Repeat with remaining batter.

Tips: I doubled this recipe to make lots to freeze. To make even healthier you could use half brown sugar and half splenda. You could also use ground flax seed in place of the wheat germ or cornmeal. You could also use only half the egg yolks and sub in extra whites.
To make vegan: substitute the buttermilk with 1 c soymilk + 1T apple cider vinegar for every cup buttermilk. Then substitute egg with Ener-G egg replacer (or other egg replacer), or for a healthier version, 1 egg = 1T ground flax seeds beat with 3T hot water. This adds a nice flax taste. You may want to use the equivalent of 1 egg though (not 2 as recipe calls for) because flax is very gummy and could make the batter quite dense.

We're Baaacccck!

Many of you know that we recently returned from our trip to Florida. Overall the kids really did great. Driving that far with three adults and three kids 5 and under was quite an adventure. I will break it down to save you the 100 page post of details.

Day 1:
Left at 11:30 am. BAD IDEA! This meant that we didn't get into the hotel just south of Columbia, South Carolina until after midnight. This resulted in a huge mental breakdown by Johanna. She woke up when I got her into the hotel. She was so disoriented and scared (didn't know where she was) that she just screamed and cried for about 20 minutes. She kept trying to leave the room. It was horrible. She eventually settled down and slept with me until she fell off the bed at 5:30 am. Day one also involved numerous potty stops and us rearranging the van seating arrangements about 3 times. The good news was that we knew it could only get better!

Day 2: Much better than day one. We filled up on the continental breakfast at the hotel and were off. We made less stops since we had a potty chair in the van. GOOD IDEA. It is slightly dangerous, but with three potty trained kids, you'd otherwise be stopping every hour for someone to go. The van arrangement was much better. We got into Grandmas (just north of Fort Meyers) by about 7:30. We set up bed for the kids and let them get some sleep while we tried to decompress.

Day 3: We went to the beach which was a huge hit with Johanna. She LOVED the ocean! I had her in a life-vest and a waist float. She lover holding on to me while we jumped over the waves. She never wanted to get out, and still talks about going back to the beach!

Day 4: We went to Jungle Gardens in Sarasota. The kids loved it. It rained really hard right after we got there, so we left to eat lunch hoping that it would let up. It did and we went back and enjoyed the rest of the day there. It was hot and kinda crazy, but good. Johanna got to feed flamingos (she calls them "mingos"). It was so adorable!

Day 5: We tried to go back to the beach, but it was so windy. I was actually way to scared to take Johanna in the water. Luckily we found our way to a local pool where the kids had a blast all morning. We left just in time to avoid some rain.

Day 6: We hung around the house a lot more because we were leaving early the next day. With the thought of trying to pack wet clothes giving us morning nightmares, we decided to keep it low key and played around the house for the morning. We had an early birthday party for Sierra after Johanna's nap. It was a surprise! Grandma brought a cake and made goody bags for all the kids. It was a blast. We then went out to dinner and played at the mall until it was time for bed (for the kids that is). We stayed up late to pack and load the luggage rack.

Day 7: Thankfully Johanna woke me up at 2:30 in the morning. Yes, I am serious. Since I didn't want to wake up the whole house, I basically just tried to keep her quiet (and pointlessly tried to make her sleep) until others got up. We were on the road before 8, and got to our hotel in North Carolina by around 8 or so. We finally got the kids to bed...thinking Jo would sleep well after getting up so early.

Day8: Johanna woke up at 4:50 in the morning. I think this girl is allergic to sleep away from home. Luckily I could just take her out of the room so we didn't wake anyone else up. We hung out until the front desk lady graciously opened the continental breakfast early just for me (at 6:00 am). By the time we were done eating, others were up and we could get loaded. We made it back to Wooster by about 5:30 pm. Needless to say, I was glad to be home......and TIRED!

The next day (July 4th), Brian, Jo and I went out of town (because I am nuts). We went up to Mespo, Ohio for the annual ox roast and flea market. It was a good time, and Johanna did well (minus peeing all over her car seat while sleeping on the way home). We made it back to Wooster to go to our annual hangout for a cookout and fireworks (yay cicconetti's!). All in all, I survived. That's all I have to say about that.

I took all my pics on my new phone, and can't quite figure out how to get them onto my blog. So, until then, here is one of the only pics I took on my actual camera-