You guys, I’m awesome in the kitchen, mostly….we won’t discuss my brief moment in my early 20s that I thought grape jelly, orange juice, and who knows what else from the fridge wisked together made a nice sauce to bake or sautée chicken in…blech….so sorry to those who faked deliciousness… Thanks for your honesty…or confidence boost…whatever… 

{Also, unrelated to this story, here is a link of 83 (EIGHTY THREE!!!!!!) recipes* that successfully use grape jelly…  http://www.yummly.com/recipes/grape-jelly-chicken  *Mine is not one of them…}

Anyway, my skill, pallet, and repertoire have increased substantially since then, although there are still a few recipes that need improvements and tweaking and others that I completely avoid, especially baking and pancakes. Seriously…please don’t ask. (I’ve even been known to flub up fool proof boxed cake mix…I’m THAT fool.)

Tonight, however, the kids requested banana pancakes for dessert. I rarely serve dessert, much less make it, unless its a fruit salad, but it’s my anniversary so what the hell!

In full disclosure, the pancakes were actually supposed to be fried “frozen banana icecream*” but you know how frying frozen mush goes, as I discovered first hand, so I had to improvise on the fry. (*banana icecream recipe below)

I initially thought about just frying banana slices, but Lady J was insistent that she wanted real pancakes with three slices in each. (So glad we taught her to voice her requests using specifics so that miscommunication and misunderstanding could be kept to a minimum…)

So back to the pancakes: Mr. TheKing is, in fact, the pancake making king of our household. It’s a boxed mix and not at all healthy, but it’s full of fake-sugar-blueberries and yumminess so once or twice a month-ish, breakfast is his to make. But he’s not at the beach on weekdays, nor is the box that I could “just add water” to, so I again had to improvise.

Luckily, I did have a bit of whole wheat, non-bleached, GMO free, organic, leftover pancake mix from winter break (or, most likely, last summer, but we won’t discuss that).

The recipe called for measuring, eggs, oil, water, and the mix to make the batter. I guessed on how much mix was left, cracked a few eggs based on that, added the melted banana ice cream in place of the oil I didn’t have, and poured in some water until I thought the consistency was right.

Then I turned the dial on the flat top glass stove to 5 because I guessed that was around 450 degrees as the recipe called for and heated up the pan/skillet, using a coconut oil spray in place of butter. I then used an ice cream scoop to “measure” the batter and plop it in the pan. I sliced up some fresh-ish bananas and added three slices to each pancake. The result was luckily quite delicious!

Here is the short convo to follow this lengthy intro:

Lady J: Thanks, Mom! You’re my best mom ever!

Me: Am I the best pancake maker ever?

Lady J, without hesitation: No. Daddy is. But you’re still the best mom I’ve ever had, so you’ve got that goin’ for ya’

#truth
#outofthemouthsofbabes #keepingitreal

To make banana ice cream:

1) Peel bananas (I used over-ripe ones)

2) Mush and mash until smooth

3) Freeze

(Seriously, that’s it! It stays a soft, ice creamy consistency once frozen and if it gets too hard just let it thaw a few minutes before scooping. #whoknew?  Top with peanut butter, caramel, or chocolate for extra yumminess!)