Happy Valentine's Day!

This could probably be 3 separate posts, but in the interest of time I am combining them. It's a post medley!

Lucas is currently cooking up a Valentine's dinner feast: Pasta with Sausage, Basil, and Mustard, salad with homemade vinaigrette, garlic bread, and caramelized broccoli. He is the best!

Lincoln and I made strawberry swirl pancakes today for lunch. So festive! I thought they were pretty good. Lincoln only ate a few bites, but he had also eaten a sugar cookie, a yogurt cup, and half a banana while he was waiting for me to finish cooking the pancakes. It was a late lunch-2:30ish-so I needed to tide him over :)

Recipe, for those who might want it:

Multigrain Pancakes with Strawberry Swirl

adapted from allyou.com magazine, August 27, 2010 issue

Ingredients:

3/4 cup whole-wheat flour

1/4 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup quick cooking oats

2 Tbsp. cornmeal

2 Tbsp. brown sugar (oops...I forgot to add this. Mine turned out fine without it, so feel free to leave this out)

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1 cup milk

1/4 cup applesauce (or yogurt)

1 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla

Strawberry ribbon:

1 cup strawberries (fresh or frozen)

2 Tbsp. sugar (I used vanilla sugar, which was delicious)

Directions:

1. Make strawberry puree: place strawberries and sugar in a small saucepan over medium low heat. Cook until strawberries are soft and can be mashed into a puree (about 10 minutes).

2. Whisk together flours, oats, cornmeal, brown sugar (if using), baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk milk, applesauce (or yogurt), butter, egg, and vanilla. Stir milk mixture into flour mixture until just combined.

3. Spoon strawberry puree into batter and lightly stir--do not completely blend in! It should look ribbon like!

4. Preheat a large skillet or griddle, coated in cooking spray. Pour batter 1/4 cup at a time onto surface, spreading into circles or whatever shape you desire. Cook until bubbles form on tops of pancakes, about 2 minutes. Flip pancakes and cook until light golden and cooked through, about 1-2 minutes longer.

And now, an appearance from everyone's favorite robot....Wo-dat Lincoln! He gonna fiiiiind you....

And finally, my one Valentine's craft project. Soooo simple, and adaptable for other holidays, too!

1. Gather sticks from your yard.

2. Paint them white with tempera paint.

3. After they dry, stick them in a vase.

4. Cut out hearts from scrapbooking paper and hang them from the "tree" using thread.

Happy Valentine's Day!!