Life (and food) with baby: part II

Hello again from babyland! Yesterday I was excited to announce that I'm embarking on a new chapter - that of stay-at-home mom. I'm so happy to get to continue to spend lots of time with sweet little Emmett, and hopefully get more time to keep on cooking, recipe testing and blogging. In that vein, I promised to update y'all on what we've been eating, so I thought I'd share the skinny on breakfasts.

We're lucky to have a baby who already sleeps through the night -- sometimes. Some days he wakes up when Luke does, so they breakfast together while I catch a few more winks. Other days, we're all up together at the same time. Either way, Emmett loves his "party chair" that vibrates and has a little musical disco ball, so I'm able to cook with both hands while he's happy too. Then, when it's time to eat, E moves to his activity mat so he can bat around at his toys while I eat and read the paper - and make silly faces at him of course!

The "party chair" - E is a fan!

Breastfeeding is no joke. I'm ALWAYS hungry, but especially in the morning after 12 hours of not eating! Not surprisingly, pancakes are still one of my favorites. Smothered with some Justin's Maple Almond Butter (I buy these by the armful whenever they're on sale!), these pancakes have some staying power.

 

I keep a container of my homemade whole wheat oatmeal pancake mix in the cupboard, so whenever I spot a super ripe banana in my produce basket, I know it's pancake day! Then I just mash it up, add an egg, milk and vanilla and scoop in my mix. It takes less than 5 minutes and only dirties one bowl. Bonus points if I have berries to add in. Negative points when a piece of bacon sneaks in on the side. :) And did I mention coffee? ;)

Toast and eggs are another favorite, whether it's avocado toast with a hard boiled or fried egg on top, or scrambled eggs next to a piece of jammy toast. Always with fresh fruit on the side!

 

 Other breakfast favorites are:

• Microwave oatmeal with a scoop of nut butter, a scoop of jam or some homemade apple butter. Add fresh berries, banana slices or apples sauteed with a little butter and cinnamon and brown sugar. Don't forget a sprinkle of coconut flakes, pepitas or nuts!
• Overnight oats when it warms up a bit. Equal parts oats, Greek yogurt and milk stirred together and refrigerated overnight, these are so easy the next morning if you don't have time to cook!
• Breakfast tacos! These are still usually just a weekend affair unless I have already cooked potatoes around.

Being the breakfast lovers that we are, I have so much fun making it at home that we rarely go out for breakfast. But when Luke was still out on paternity leave, I couldn't pass up the chance to try Dai Due's new brick-and-mortar spot for breakfast. Y-U-M, whatever you do, get a place that has bacon on it! They cook it over an open fire so it's both perfectly crisp while melting in your mouth. Luke and I both loved it, and we rarely see eye-to-eye on the doneness of bacon :) We bought some from the retail portion of the shop to enjoy at home the next day - not quite the same, but still amazing.

Emmett did a great job as our breakfast date!

 

If you follow me on Instagram (apronadventures), I tag fun food photos with #newmomfood. You'll also get your almost daily #babyemmett photo fixes, if you're into that sort of thing ;)