Happy Single Parent’s Day!

I completely missed that this was a holiday! (Probably too busy being a single parent) 😉 So in honor of today I am reposting my top 18 list of awesome things about being a single mom.

A heavy burden, and that much more impressive when you hold it…

For the full article click here.

1. I decide what we have for supper. No one (who gets a vote) tells me “that’s not healthy enough” or, “what do you mean you’re too tired? What did you do today?” or my favorite “no, I’m just not in the mood for that”.  Side note, I also get to decide when! 🙂
2. I choose haircuts & if I want my little boy to have longish hair, no one tells me no. Or if I want bangs, I’m not disappointing anyone.
3. I do not have to shave in the winter, unless I want to.
4. No one has more authority than I do in my house.
5. I don’t have to share the remote after 9pm… EVER
6. My parenting philosophy is LAW, no one to compromise with.
7. My house is as clean/dirty as I damn well want it to be.
8. If I want to blow money on something, I don’t have to discuss it with anyone.
9. I can leave clean laundry in a basket unfolded for weeks!
10. Merchants have to talk to me, not “don’t you want me to just explain it to your husband, dear?”
11. My bank account is the exact balance I left it at, always.
12. If I decide we should not get dressed all weekend and watch movies and eat pizza in the living room cause it’s raining, no one judges me.
13. There is no “I’m telling Dad”.
14. If I get the opportunity to move for a promotion there is no one else’s career to consider.
15. I don’t have to be nice to/pretend to like anyone’s lame, annoying friends. (Only my lame, annoying friends show up at my door. Love you guys, lol!)
16. My stuff is always where I left it and organised the way I want it to be.
17. I can decorate however the hell I want to. (there is a pink wall coming, I’ll tell you about that later lol)
18. I get to be proud of what I am doing with no qualifiers, it’s just me, and I AM doing it, thank you.

I also found these cool little bits as well:

20 Reasons to Appreciate Single Parents

10 Single Mom Secrets

30 Reasons All Moms Deserve a Paycheck

So, if you are a single parent, congrats! It’s your day! If you know someone who is doing it alone, take a minute today to tell them what a great job they are doing. I can promise you, having an adult say, “You are doing great, I am proud of you.” means sooo much to those of us who don’t have a partner to say it to us ever.

Oh, and maybe offer to babysit? 😉

However you celebrate, make sure you do. Have a great day all!

Harvest Pancakes

A friend suggested that I write the Harvest Pancake recipe first and then emailed back & said “don’t forget that gross spider web thing the kids love”. So both of these recipes are dedicated to “the kids” (who really do love the idea of webby bug riddled pancakes) and Ree.

What you will need:

2 eggs, slightly beaten

1/4 cup Truvia (or Splenda)

3/4 cup milk

¼ cup water

Vegetable oil

1 teaspoon vanilla

12 oz canned pumpkin

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Optional: Syrup

Powdered Sugar

Dried cranberries

Crushed Pecans

Diced Apples

Stewed Apples

What to do: (Wow, just typing all that I’m hungry)

Mix all ingredients except oil and things listed under optional.

Add any diced apples, cranberries, or crushed pecans you would like to use.

Heat oil in pan or on griddle until it bubbles.

Pour out circles of batter. Leave to rise and begin to brown on bottom edges. (There will be bubbles all over top side of pancake when ready to flip)

Flip allow, rising again. Remove from pan when cooked through (about 45 seconds after flipping).

Top with butter, syrup, stewed apples, and/or powdered sugar.

Halloween Treat:

Do not add any “extras” to batter, but do remove water and add 3 Tablespoons more flour.

Pour into Ziploc baggie.

Cut small corner of baggie open.

Pipe batter onto hot pan/griddle in spider web shapes!

Allow to cook as usual.

*Dropping a few raisins on the plate before the syrup add a little to the spider feel of these pancakes.*

A Fall Look

Whatcha think? It occurred to me that the background/theme I have been using here at the table has a “fall” setting. Cute huh? Way easier than decorating the house… Sniff, sniff, mmm pumpkin coffee. *contented sigh*
Hope you all have a great day, I’ll be back later this evening with some pumpkin recipes. Until then thanks for all the responses!

A Seasonal Romance

Fall! Yup, cold at night and not ever hot during the day. Fall is totally here in the south. You all know that summer is my favorite, but that doesn’t mean I plan to be a whiny mope the rest of the year (unless I’m sick, duh). The beginning of Fall rekindles my yearly romance with the pumpkin. RedBird and I start buying up all the pumpkin flavored foods as soon as they hit the shelves. We go crazy, then by Thanksgiving we are all, ugh, pie? *shudder*. It’s definitely one of those flash in the pan, hot and heavy romances, that’s comes on too strong to last. But, it’s been a whole year so it’s totally time for crazy amounts of pumpkin related stuff. Yay! I already made Pumpkin Bread, and when I was drinking my pumpkin coffee this morning while eating my pumpkin bagel I realized this might be an obession others could benefit from. I mean, if it exists, I have at least tried it (as far as pumpkin goes). So I’m going to try to remember as many pumpkin successes as I can (and as many failures, I can think of at least 2, and I know there are more) and post them here, well, until I get over pumpkin for the year. Do you have any suggestions or recipes you’d like to see? Like, are you searching for a pumpkin cookie that has an entire serving of veggies in it, but is okay for a diabetic to eat? I have one for that. Comment below, or email me at mamaskitchentable@gmail.com with any requests, I will try to fill them all. Enjoy the pumpkin love!!!

Pumpkin Bread

Braided Pumpkin Bread Wreath

Harvest Pancakes

Spider Web Pumpkin Pancakes

Pumpkin Spice Bars

Pumpkin Soup

Easiest Iced Coffee Ever

I love coffee. If you have read anything here at this blog, you know that already. I once wrote a really bad love poem to my coffee at about 3am. In general, I prefer my coffee regular. You know, brew regular coffee (no flavors) add some cream (I don’t like sugar in mine, but to each his own) and drink away. Hot, fresh, fairly plain coffee to the tune of about 3 pots per day, that’s how I prefer it. Sometimes I’ll get all fancy and use flavored coffee or creamer, but it’s super rare for me to do things like get a cup from a Starbucks or something like that (think 2 to 3 times per year). The only time of year that I am not toting my to go mug with me everywhere is when the thermometer is creeping past 80 degrees, at 9am, in other words Summertime. I still wake up have a cup (or 4) before I leave the house, but trying to drink hot coffee in 100 degree weather is a bit hard-core even for me. So what’s a girl to do? Iced coffee to the rescue! But I’m still not shelling out $3 or more a pop to support my coffee habit (that’d get crazy expensive, fast). So I developed this easy iced coffee recipe. It has to be easy, since I’ll be drinking about 10 of these a day. I decided to share this simple recipe after reading about how good it can be for you. Enjoy!

 

Brew coffee, full pot of whatever you usually drink. As soon as it is done brewing, turn the coffee maker off. (this is when I go to work)If you are gonna be around longer when it gets mostly room temp pour it into a small pitcher and store in fridge.

When you are ready for an iced coffee, fill cup with ice.

Add creamer (whatever your favorite is) and cold coffee. Stir & Drink.

 

I use fat-free hazelnut creamer in this ratio over the ice: 1/3 creamer, 2/3 coffee.

 

How crazy easy is that? I keep leftover coffee in a small pitcher in the fridge in the summer for me to use in the afternoons and just add coffee to it as I brew new stuff.

 

If you don’t want ice to water down your beverage you can get reusable ice cubes at places like Dollar General and use those.