Friday Night Fun

Dinner time can be a challenging time, especially at the end of the week. My kiddos are tired from a busy week of school and Mommy's tired from the weekly juggling routines. Lately my oldest gets particularly cranky at dinner time and just about any "normal" dinner will reduce her to tears for one reason or another...there are red things...it is spicy (not really)...she doesn't like ____(insert name of food she typically loves)_____. Today I decided that I would try something different. I wanted to get through dinner and to bedtime with as little tears and arguing as possible, so we made pancakes! BIG pancakes :)

I used the easy pre-made pancake mix where you add water. I made a lot of batter because I knew I wanted to make a few big pancakes. 3 cups of mix and 2 cups of water is what I used with my store brand mix. We sat at the kitchen table and took turns stirring and counting to 10 (can't pass up a teachable moment!).

Once we were satisfied with our batter, the kiddos went to play while Mommy worked on figuring out exactly how she was going make these pan-sized pancakes...As you can see, the first one wasn't pretty...

 

But I got better each time!

And by the 3rd pancake I was a pro! I knew that I needed to be patient and let it cook really well on the first side before flipping. It was just a matter of learning how cooked it needed to be :)...and the fact that the pan was hotter probably helped a bit too.

  

Then the real fun began! I put wax paper down on the table and got out some cookie cutters (shape recognition). The pancakes weren't easy to cut through but with a little help from Mom we were good to go.

We got out the mini chocolate chips to decorate (fine motor!) and practice counting (the preschool teacher in me couldn't resist).

Any extra pancakes you have can be wrapped up in plastic wrap and put in a ziplock for the freezer. They will make a great, fast, hot breakfast one morning before school. All you'll have to do is take them out of the plastic wrap, wrap them in a paper towel, and microwave for about 1 minute.

All in all a success...we might be doing this more often. Its an easy, fun dinner that is cheaper than ordering a pizza and easier than making one. An added bonus--the kids loved the fact that they were helping me cook dinner.