Corn Fritters AKA Pancakes for Dinner

Toddlers. One day they amaze you by hoovering everything in sight. The next day nothing will get them to eat. Fun times in our house.

We've been super frugal lately and my husband went a few months working overnights. This meant that I spent a couple of months alone with the kiddos for dinner and bedtime. (Sidenote: sarcastic "Yay") This meant that we ate pancakes for dinner. A lot. I'd strap the baby to my back and serve the toddler pancakes one by one as they came off the skillet. Pancakes are an awesome dinner because:

- They're cheap.
- They're fast.
- If I put fruit in them and use whole wheat flour they're healthy.
- Great excuse to use the amazing Grade B maple syrup a client of mine makes.
- Watching me cook them qualifies as dinner and a show to the toddler.

Now here's where we figure out if my mom reads my blog. She used to make "corn fritters" when I was little. I HATED them. I was never a big corn fan, she thought I was nuts. Basically she was serving pancakes for dinner and I was turning up my nose at them. Now I am an adult and I get it. It was an easy dinner for her to make and at the end of some days pancakes are about all I have the energy to make. So the other day I (gasp) made corn fritters. And you know what? They've grown on me.

Corn Fritters
(Serves 4)

1 cup masa harina (you could use cornmeal but the masa harina is finer and cornmeal and less likely to break apart)
1 cup frozen corn (if you use canned add a little extra flour)
1 egg
1 cup millk
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp coconut oil

1. In a bowl, beat the egg. Add the milk and masa harina. Stir until blended. Add the baking powder and salt. Mix.

2. In a skillet, melt the coconut oil. Dump it into the batter. I love coconut oil because just the residue from that little bit melted was enough to cook the entire batch of pancakes in.

3. Add corn kernels and stir.

4. Make circles of batter on the skillet and cook over medium. Flip after 1-2 minutes and try to achieve a golden brown color.

Serve warm with real maple syrup (please don't defile them with anything that didn't bleed out of a maple tree). 

Dish Soap & Underpant Helmets

One of the challenges of having two young kiddos who are only 20 months apart is the dreaded "schedule". I'm not a fan of being locked into a schedule but have found that designated nap times are a must follow in order to keep the baby from turning into a growling ball of fury.

And so with the baby quietly sleeping upstairs I attempt to keep the toddler busy. It goes something like this.

Toddler: Ayayayayayaya. (at this point I notice she has pulled underwear out of the folded clothes and is wearing them on her head)

Me: What are you doing?

Toddler: Is my helmet.

Me: Stay still I want a picture.

Toddler: (running) Hehehehehehee. Mommy, chase me. (takes underpants off of head) Your turn.

Me: Really?

Toddler: Yup. (I put them on.) Now you run Mommy. I chase you and take picture.

At this point I accept defeat and go back to my coffee.

So now I've started planning little activities to do during nap. While on Pinterest I came across a dish soap foam sensory activity. YouPinspireMe made it look easy, and it was. I've seen it repinned since then with different colors of foam courtesy of food coloring but I don't dig on green toddlers so we go dye-free here. Since I knew the toddler would immerse herself in the foam I made sure to use Seventh Generation dishsoap figuring it would be gentler on her skin.

All you need to do is put about 1 TBS of dish soap in your food processor and add 1/2 cup of warm water. Turn it on and let it spin away. The froth will grow filling the whole processor and you can dump it into the bathtub or into a container for the kids to play in. We've done both and it buys me some quiet underpants-on my head- free time.

Happy bubbles!

Pinterest Savvy: How to Become the Queen of Pinterest with A Free Book

Pinterest and I are tight. I'm fairly open with the fact that I would rather sit, wine in hand, and pin pictures about cleaning and organizing than actually clean and organize. At this point 50% of my blog traffic is coming from Pinterest so I convince myself it is a wise investment of time. (Then I pin time management ideas to balance out my delusions.) Occasionally, I look at folks who have millions of followers and I ask myself- How the heck did they get there? Because I want to be there, I dream of being there!

I was lucky enough to be introduced to Melissa Taylor, who runs ImaginationSoup.net and happens to be an award winning educator and writer. I'm not sure if I've shared this before but I was all signed up for education classes when I went off to college until a relative (who was a teacher) sat me down and talked me out of it. And that folks is how I ended up as PR/Marketing major. Melissa obviously did not have any disgruntled relatives to talk her out of educating so she went on to become a famous face on Pinterest (obviously this is the root of my problems). Melissa joined Pinterest and in less than a year had well over a million followers. And she has great hair, life just isn't fair sometimes.

Today marks the launch of Melissa's book on how you too can become a Pinterest goddess. The book, Pinterest Savvy How I Got 1 Million + Followers, is available free on Kindle for today 2/7/13 only. After that it will be $4.97. With the purchase of the book you have access to free worksheets. I adore worksheets. There is something satisfying about having instructions laid out for you and checking things off.

Melissa's book is packed full of all sorts of handy tips and tricks. Having used Pinterest for awhile I was surprised by how much I didn't know I didn't know! It is written in a conversational and easy to read style. I read the entire thing in one sitting and keep going back to re-read the sections I'm currently working on.

I've prettied up my boards, streamlined my description, and seen an increase in re-pins.

Do you want to learn more about:

* How to attract more Pinterest followers?
* How to achieve marketing & sales goals online (Did you know that average Pinterest users spend $80 vs. Facebook users $45? And that's not all in washing soda and glycerin so they can make their own detergent and body wash!)
* Success stories & tactics

Then head on over to Amazon and get Pinterest Savvy FREE today! 

As if that all isn't enough Melissa is giving away a Kindle Fire over on her site. Check out the details and enter to win here.

I challenge you to use Melissa's tips and report back. I'm starting dedicated Pinterest time today and I plan on reporting back on how my follower growth is in a month! Will you beat me?


* I was given access to Pinterest Savvy ahead of it's release date for the purposes of a review. My opinion is always my own as I am very bad at pretending to like things that I don't. I don't like Pinterest Savvy- I freaking LOVE it and hope to begin my slow takeover of Pinterest as soon as the kids go down for their naps!