Baking Day, and taking back my household!

Man, the past few days (excluding today and yesterday) were just weird. Off. Not 'normal.' I had so many errands it seemed like I had to run, and Micah's whole nap schedule got off. Or as soon as I'd lay him down, we'd have to go pick up Cara from preschool (monday and tuesday). I am actually totally looking forward to her not being in preschool next year. We have some 'homeschool' type things planned for reading and writing, and hopefully it will be conducive to letting Micah get the sleep he needs instead of it always being interrupted. He would be passed exhausted in the evenings and it was of course, then really hard to get him to sleep. I missed my alone time with Cara in the mornings, and my alone time with myself in the afternoons! So, I took back our household and declared that things again would revolve around nap schedules for a few days. Man has it done wonders for little man, and little girl, and big Momma!! Yesterday, I had some 'plans' for being at home. Baking!! I've already raved about all the great meals we have been eating thanks to my big cooking day. And breakfasts have been one of them. Maybe we're enjoying them a little too much, because we only have a few muffins left!!

Ok, here is the main reason I decided I needed to bake:

All my mixing bowls were clean!! I had a 12 pack of eggs I got for 79 cents because they expire on 5/7 that I needed to cook. I had 2 brown bananas, which through past experience making this recipe, my most favorite,

from this great cookbook:

is exactly enough brown bananas! Plus, I had set the timer for my bread machine and awoke to this awesome yumminess. When the kitchen already smells good, it's easy to just keep on going.

We first started with the banana muffins. No nuts as I didn't think I had any on hand! I only made 12 as I only had 2 bananas, but from Cara and my experience with them already, they are totally yum!!

I also found this recipe online. I altered it a bit because I had similar items, but not all the items that I needed. Here's the post from who I got it from, I'm still searching trying to find out which blog it is from. Here's Katie's post (I have her name, just not her blog!!) I will find it and post a link:

These taste great are really good for you: so high in fiber and protein and notice that there's NO butter or oil! Because they are somewhat of a process with all the shredding (I use my food processor), it's worth it to make extra to freeze them. You can find flaxseed meal and the 5 grain cereal in the health food section of your grocery store, the breakfast aisle or the baking aisle, depending on how your store is organized.

Guilt-Free Bran Flax Muffins

1 ½ cups whole wheat flour
¾ cup flaxseed meal (or grind flax seeds in a coffee grinder)
¾ cup 5 grain cereal (old fashioned oats also work well)--I used oats
¾ cup brown sugar (or Sucanat for a more natural sugar)
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1 ½ cups shredded carrots
2 shredded apples
½ cup raisins--I used dried cranberries...out of raisins
1 cup chopped walnuts--I used chopped almonds that I found...out of walnuts
¾ cup milk
2 beaten eggs
1 tsp vanilla

* Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix together flour, flaxseed meal, cereal, brown sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon in a large bowl.

* Stir in carrots, apples, raisins and nuts.

* Combine milk and beaten eggs with vanilla and pour into bowl. Stir until moistened.

* Fill greased muffin cups. (or line with paper muffin liners if you're out of spray like I was!) Bake for 15 minutes or until a tooth pick comes out clean.

I made a double batch of these. Here's Cara after helping me stir.

If you love health food stuff, you'll love these :) If you don't....well, Cara calls them the black muffins!! She will eat them, but she and I usually trade off eating them with a banana muffin (we share one of each). I found that if we have a little dip (pure maple syrup), they are amazing. But I love crunchy stuff!!

Next was on to Money Saving Mom's WW Waffles. I made a double batch. What's funny is that I actually ran out of Whole Wheat Flour!! So I used about half white half wheat!

I think I ended up with 10. That's after Cara had one for 'brunch' after having a full breakfast! "Mommy, can I have a waffle???" :)

Here's most of our finished product. When Micah woke up after his hour and a half nap, we were all done, except for a few waffles. I just went in every 4 1/2 minutes and poured a new one.

I love having quick and easy breakfast foods, and a variety to choose from. Today we didn't have ANY plans, except to go pick up Micah's 6 month pictures, here's a preview:You can see the rest on facebook or flickr. Today was a lazy day. When Micah napped this morning I did a quick blog post and then Cara and I 'worked' on our numbers (i.e. played with these number things from discovery toys my friend Erin gave her for her 1st birthday a long time ago!) :) She loves them and it's helping her learn 12-20 better. She can now say seventeen instead of what she thought it was..."Eleventeen" Everyone took a decent afternoon nap, although Cara woke up cranky. I asked her if she ever went to sleep (she was quiet for 2 hours in her room), and she said no. Although she said no to 10 questions in a row, so I'm pretty sure she DID nap she just wanted to say no! Anyways, lazy friday evening, after a homemade pizza for dinner, we 'helped' daddy outside mow the back yard. I cut all Micah's pictures, and now need to get off the computer to write out notes to send them in. Thank you God for 2 blessed days with my babies. Thank you for patience and perseverance. Thank you for a sweet big sister and a loving adorable baby brother. And most of all for the best Daddy a gal could ask for!!