Today is Chris’ 29th birthday, so we welcomed the day with chocolate chip banana pancakes! Instead of using a mix such as Bisquick (which has trans fats) its fun and surprisingly just as easy to make them from scratch. Here’s my recipe:
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup skim milk
2/3 cup organic vanilla yogurt
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 large egg
1 banana
few handfulls of chocolate chips

1. Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda and salt.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk milk, yogurt, butter and egg. Add dry ingredients and mix until just moistened (a few small lumps are just fine.) Fold in thinly sliced banana.
3. Let the mix rest for 30-60 minutes so it gets fluffy and airy.
4. Drop 1/4 cup of batter onto a hot skillet and sprinkle a few chocolate chips. Flip.
5. Enjoy!

We have a birthday plate that is used only on special days in our household. I made it at a pottery store and I hope it will become a family tradition.

Evelyn also had her first taste of chocolate chip pancakes. She LOVED them and did a very nice job feeding herself!
While we’re on the topic of birthdays, this might be a good time to talk about gift wrap. It drives me CrAzY! All those trees taken down to create paper that is literally torn up and thrown away in seconds. Eek! Instead, I use newspaper and often jazz it up with fun ribbon or markers. Now that my husband is getting the salmon-hued Financial Times I think it is pretty just as it is: