making mornings special

I just love fall. I personally think there are few things better than sleeping with the windows open, a nice chill in the air and waking up on the weekends to the smell of hot coffee and a griddle cooking up something amazing.

This past weekend, my husband did just that. I crept downstairs to see what was waiting for me only to find my children had devoured every last one and I got a lousy pop tart. They, however, were ecstatic and told me their daddy had made them special pancakes (which they pronounce panpakes) ... with peanut butter!

Peanut butter? Yieew. Not sure that'd be something I'd really dig but after rummaging around for some food later that morning, I found he had made extras and froze them for later so I decided to give 'em a whirl. I popped two frozen pancakes in the toaster, one for me and one for my daughter. Then we sat down at the table to take a nibble.

I took a bite and OMG! We had to take a moment of silence to honor this great thing which I quickly inhaled. It was like eating a peanut butter cookie for breakfast. Mr. Pancake, take a bow ... you are officially my idol.

It took a little convincing but I was able to wiggle the recipe out of him which I'm sharing here. And since these have been in high demand in this house, I'm also sharing a little extra tip we're using to make pancakes even more fun.

I happened to have one of those plastic ketchup bottles that you find for sale in summer or at dollar stores. I snipped the tip off, filled it with the pancake mix and made shapes of all kinds. You can also do this with a Ziploc bag. Use whatever you have on hand.

This time I made hearts and pancakes out of my kid's initials. My son is learning the alphabet and he was so excited when he saw the 'm' screaming, "Mom, that's my name!!"

So here's how to make the delicious little nuggets of which I speak.

PB&J Pancakes

2 cups Pancake Mix*

1 cup milk

2 eggs

2 heaping tablespoons extra chunky peanut butter

Put all ingredients in bowl and use a hand mixer to smooth the peanut butter into the batter. When it looks like this (oooooh, see those peanut chunks??), you've got it!

Serve on a plate and top with your favorite flavor of jelly, or maple syrup if you prefer. Extra cakes can be frozen in a Ziploc Brand Freezer Bag and reheated in the toaster for a quick weekday breakfast treat.

Enjoy!

*Note: We used Bisquick Pancake and Baking Mix. The amount of milk and eggs listed here are as called for on the package. You may need to tweak depending on your brand of choice.