We love waffles! I mean what isn't there to love about a warm delicious, light, fluffy but also crispy waffle.  We've added everything from meat to fruit and have come up with some pretty amazing combinations (which we will share).  Recently we made banana bread waffles.  What made these guys super special was the secret lentils added to the batter without the kids knowing until it was too late (days later).


Ingredients:

• 1.75 c  all purpose flour
• 1 over rip banana
• 1 c buttermilk
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 c turbinado
• 1/3 c vegetable oil
• 1/3 c lentils (soaked over night)
• 1/3 c coconut flakes
• 2 Tbl baking powder
• cinnamon, nutmeg to taste

Honestly there is no method to our madness.  We aren't top chefs so we literally mix everything at once in a big bowl and then put it on the waffle griddle.  If you do not want the lentils to show up in the mix (which I recommend) blend them with the banana.  It may smell weird but you can't taste it in the waffle once it's cooked.  We paired ours with chamomile tea, and kids got to choose between chocolate sauce, honey or vanilla ice cream as their topping.

Like most people, we are always strapped for time.   With daylight hours lasting longer, summer playdates often run into dinner "prep time".  Rather than buy dinner every other night, were are looking for reasonably quick and delicious ways to create the meals we love.

This time we made pizza.  I love making my sauce from scratch, but you can use store bought sauce as well.  Add a four tortilla and cheese and herbs and you have the perfect crispy flatbread pizza. It literally took 17 minutes to create this meal and the kids loved it.  Looks like this will be a go-to dinner option at our house.

It's summer time and that means... ICE CREAM!  And the best way to enjoy it... MAKE IT!  Fortunately for us, when granny came to visit she got us an ice cream maker!  I remember having one growing up. We would make ice cream and experiment with fruit flavors and candy mix-in.  The flavor I remember the most was vanilla with M&Ms.  I remember how delicious it was but what stayed with me the most was the sound of the ice cream maker and the feeling of anticipation for our tasty frozen treat. 

Here we made a delicious Mango Ginger and paired it with raspberries.  We only used half the sugar required by the recipe and it turned out velvety, delicious and FLAVORFUL!   Happy Summer!

Brownies are pretty basic.  More basic than a box recipe. We were shocked at how easy it was to make these awesomely delicious treats!

Jell-o is a fun and quick activity that is a lot of fun for kids.  They love mixing the 3 simple ingredients and they LOVE looking forward to the cold snack that awaits them after all of their "hard work". 

It's always good to have a quick back-up meal...
One of our favorite, very quick dinner options is pasta!  We've gotten it down to a science.  We can be finished in 20 minutes and have made the sauce from scratch.  

One of our favorite things to eat is breakfast!  One of our favorite things to make is compote. It's a really simple alternative to syrup!  We paired our meal with sausage & chamomile tea!  Enjoy!