I’ve been really busy lately going through all of my recipes, testing them for accuracy and making sure to write them out properly. I have noticed that I have a lot of recipes that need some work.You may have noticed I edited my recipe page a bit, removing some recipes, some for good and some only temporarily. I also put some new pictures on there.

When I first started cooking and baking I had a lot of heart, but was not very good at recipe writing. It’s not that the food I made wasn’t good, it was just that I didn’t know how to actually write a recipe for people who have never made that particular dish or who maybe have no experience with cooking. I am making sure now to form my recipes so that people can actually follow them and create the exact same result.

When I was going through my recipe pictures and pulling pictures for the book, I realized that I have been doing this for almost two years now and when I look back, I see that I am getting better all the time with both recipe writing and photography.

Check out some of my old school recipe pics.

Cookie bar things on a window sill! I wanted to get some good lighting. The pic is terribly blurry.

Blurry kale chips. still YUM!

This delicious banana bread that I photographed on the floor.

Stacked tofu bacon sandwich, again blurry.

A meal of soup and whole wheat buns. Kesa in her high chair, just a little over one year old.

I did start getting better after a while. This pic is nice except for Craig’s crotch in the left hand corner. Classy!

I think that it is something that comes with lots of practice. Sometimes I feel like maybe I shouldn’t be doing this and often doubt myself, thinking knowing that there are way better recipe writers and photographers out there. I am just a stay at home mom who just loves to cook and bake and I also love to share my passion with the world. I have pretty much no time to focus much on my dream, learn photography or read much about anything, but I plug away at it every chance I get, often times with a baby nursing in my arm as I type out a blog post with one hand. I do that A LOT! It is taking me longer than I thought it would and it is extremely challenging, but I hold on tight to my dream of someday having a cookbook because it is just something that I have always been passionate about, ever since I was a little girl.

Back then, I used to pretend that the kitchen was my restaurant. I made my own menu and had my parents order off of it. I would often cook and bake for my parents too. Some of my famous creations were cheese slice cookies, ice cream soup (ice cream melted over the heater vent) and when I reached the age of 10 and became a cookie addict, burnt sugar cookies were my specialty! Back then, I had no idea how to read and follow a recipe. I didn’t know that there was really any difference in tablespoons or teaspoons and would never evenly measure anything. I would just throw all of the ingredients together into a bowl, mix it up and place the dough onto a cookie sheet. I always, always, burnt every cookie to a crisp. Looking back I have a few suspicions as to why that would happen… like not waiting for the oven to preheat.

So here I am today, still operating my own restaurant and cooking and baking for my own family. I have even made my own menu for my kids and I still sometimes fail miserably at things. Often I get frustrated and gosh do I wish I had more time, but I am still loving every minute of living out my passion and taking steps (no matter how small) toward my goal.

This morning I finally made over my banana pancake recipe. The old one was good, but I wanted them more banana-y and fluffy. I have been tackling these pancakes for a good week and a half, making banana pancakes for my little monkeys every morning and finally decided to go with this recipe. It is pretty perfect. A nice fluffy banana pancake, sprinkled with sweet melted chocolate chips.

The picture is not bad either. 🙂

Banana Chocolate Chip Pancakes

A super delicious sweet breakfast! Perfect for monkeys both big and small!

Makes 5 pancakes

Ingredients

• 3 mashed bananas
• 1 1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk
• 2 tablespoons sunflower oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/3 cup vegan chocolate chips
• 1 2/3 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 tablespoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt

Directions

Heat a medium skillet on medium heat. In a medium size mixing bowl, mash the overripe bananas until there are no lumps then whisk in the milk, oil and vanilla and add the chocolate chips. In a separate small mixing bowl combine the flour, baking powder and sea salt. Add the flour mixture to the banana mixture in the medium-sized bowl and mix until just combined, careful not to over mix the batter or the pancakes will not be very fluffy. Pour the batter about 3/4 cup at a time into the heated skillet. Cook the pancake for a few minutes, until small bubbles begin to show through the batter then flip the pancake over and cook a few minutes more, until golden. Serve with vegan margarine and pure maple syrup.