I didn't feel quite right when I got up yesterday morning, just tired, no biggie. I volunteer with our church's MOPS group on Tuesdays. I babysit the one's and two's. It's a big group. Most weeks I rise to the challenge. But this week, the challenge chewed me up and spit me out. I was feeling so incredibly tired throughout the morning. By the time the mommies all came back, I was wiped.
I love babysitting these kids. One's and two's are so sweet. They like to be held, read to, and they don't mind if I sing badly. I often look into their sweet, cherubic faces and wonder what God's plans are for their lives. Maybe the little boy who every week finds himself in trouble, is actually destined for something great. I just always wonder.
Anyways, what I really wanted to do was come home and crawl back under the covers. (I've been fighting a virus all week, and I think it won.) But I had things to take care of that had become urgent, and couldn't be put off another day. Then I had to run out and get my girls from school. Once home, I had about 1 hour to put together a decent dinner before taking one daughter to ballet class. I made myself a half cup of coffee (something I haven't done in the afternoon in over a month now), thinking I just needed to perk myself up. I was just so tired, knocking things over in the kitchen, staring blankly at my mess, and wondering where do I start to get this thing called dinner going. I could not pull myself together.
As a result, my dinner plans for a nice vegetable-rich repast, became a dinner of pancakes.
One of my daughters suggested gingerbread pancakes. If you haven't tried these, and you're a fan of gingerbread, you really should. They're a wonderfully warming treat. So, gingerbread pancakes it would be, along with homemade applesauce (which by the way is brownish due to being natural-style and it has cinnamon in it, in case you're wondering at the photo).
To make gingerbread pancakes, you simply add cinnamon and ginger to any pancake batter, along with about 1/3 cup of molasses.
I was feeling rather punk, and holding that molasses jug upside down was tiring my arm, so I didn't add nearly enough molasses to the batter. I cooked up the batch, then at the very end, went to taste one, and thought, "gee did I add salt? I don't remember getting the salt out".
So, the gingerbread pancakes, turned out not molasses-y and very low-sodium. I tried to compensate when making the syrup, by adding a pinch of salt to the water, sugar, maple flavoring, and molasses. And, as I was serving up the applesauce at the same time as making the syrup, I turned the almost empty jug of molasses upside down over the syrup container. A lot of molasses dripped into the container before I caught it. So the syrup was extra molasses-y, and gingerbread pancakes, not so much.
But if you can get this right, good molasses flavor, with the ginger in the pancakes, and a good maple-y syrup, you'll find these to be delectable. All I can say is they were edible (though they looked very good). Today's another day, and I'll squeeze in an extra serving of vegetables or two, if I can.
Some days, when I try to pull a rabbit out of my hat, I reach in, and all I find is a skunk.
How about you? Any days not gone according to your plans lately? And what do you fix for dinner when you just can't seem to pull it all together?
