Today is Pancake Tuesday (aka Shrove Tuesday), the day when all the Catholics in the world prepare for forty days of doing without with one last gasp at everything sinful all the world celebrates the deliciousness that is pancakes. Take the ingredients to make cake, mix the batter up and then fry it in butter, add fruit and whipped cream and then pour maple syrup all over them. Who doesn’t love pancakes? Every single member of my family loves pancakes and if he could, my middle son would eat them every day for breakfast.
And that’s why for me, pancakes represent a whole pan-ful of mother guilt. I swear every morning when I ask what he wants for breakfast and he answers full of hope and optimism “PANCAKES!”, it’s like a syrup-coated butter knife stabs through my heart. I’m convinced that if I was a stay-at-home mom I’d find the extra fifteen minutes needed to prepare the pancakes, and the extra fifteen minutes I’d need to clean up the pancake breakfast mess. However, as a mother who can barely get all three kids out of the house by 8 am so that I can start my own daily commute, each morning I am forced to start my son’s day with disappointment. “How about cereal? or toast? or instant oatmeal?” Being the killer of your child’s hope and optimism before 8 am is a lousy way to start a day.
That’s why I was so excited to try Dr. Oetker’s Shaker Pancakes. It’s a simple, hassle-free way to make pancakes in the morning. All you do is add milk or water to the bottle, shake for a minute or two and bake a batch of buttermilk or chocolate chip pancakes. One shaker served our family of five without any leftovers. The batter was a little thinner than what I’m used to with my homemade pancakes, but the kids didn’t complain about the taste!
These products are available in grocery stores across the country and retail for under $3, so they’re also a bargain at the breakfast, lunch or dinner table. (Pancakes for dinner are even more delicious than breakfast pancakes for some magical reason).
I’m not serving pancakes for breakfast every morning (I still have to find a few extra minutes to clean the fry pan when I make a batch), but I love this product for letting me be a hero to my son every now and then, and allow him to keep his hope and optimism for a few extra minutes!
My five year old makes the same request and even though I am a stay-at-home mom, I don’t have time to make pancakes and clean up and get three other kids off to school– and all that syrup is probably not the best breakfast food. Guilt is everywhere! So, sometimes when I do make them on more leisurely days, I double my batch and freeze them in a tupperware container separated with waxed paper. That way I can just take out a few at a time and warm them up for my desperate five year old.