Make-Mom-Proud Kale Pancakes

It's Mother's Day! 

Eat your greens :)

Make-Mom-Proud Kale Pancakes
Ready? It's an easy one this week.
Choose your favorite pancake recipe or boxed mix.
Add 1/2 c. pureed kale (2 c. loose, stems removed) and 2 mashed bananas.
We also like to add 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract to every batch of pancakes we made. Soaking the mix (without the bananas) overnight makes the kale softer.

A little sweet, a little crunch. You barely notice the kale. A nice change-up. And rich with potassium, Vitamin B6, Manganese, fiber, iron, Vitamin A, calcium, beta carotene and more.

Happy Mother's Day to every mommy-to-be, mommy, grammy, auntie and nanny out there!! Wishing you foot rubs, homemade cards and breakfast in bed.

Here's the card I received from O.

I have many treasured memories of sleepovers at my Grandmother's, although I don't remember 

any pancakes the next morning. 

Breakfasts with Grandma Dottie featured the Entemann's Pop'ems-of-the-season and 

cheese-y scrambled eggs with her own backyard tomatoes. 

The best part?

Leftover New York pizza. Your choice: cold or hot. 

Once my belly was full, we'd walk to the Bellerose Library. Then, read 

books underneath an oak tree in her driveway where we could feel a cool breeze. 

I can still see us girls: sipping our homemade lemonade 

from her sweaty, old-fashioned Coca-Cola glasses.

Grandma Rosie was the sugar-gramma, saying "yes!" to ice cream for breakfast and handing me a $2 bill each time we visited. She was ever smiling, even after a sleepover when I'd kept her up at night like, "a mess of monkeys" in bed. Still sleepy or not, the following morning we'd visit her her neighborhood friends, like Hilda and Billy, sometimes splashing about in their above-ground pools. Moving around "just like gypsies," she'd giggle.  

 And a Very Happy Mother's Day to My Own Mother!

 Here is a tiny poem to thank you for the warm weeknight dinners you prepared after teaching all day.

At 6:00 each night,

as dependable as a church bell,

we'd
fill glasses, say grace, pass salt.

For twenty sacred minutes,
around our oval dining table sat Dad, Kerry, Karyn, Trisha, you & I.
Sharing reports about soccer practices, math tests and band concerts

giggling and griping
devouring lasagnas, chicken divan and beef tacos.

YOU had it all lined up.

Thank you, Mom, for filling our tummies and hearts
each night at 6:00.