There are many things that can make a weekend great. The most wonderful of these is spending quality time with those you care about. As a single parent I am always looking for ways to have fun with my kids and to spend as little as possible in the process. Of course part of this includes the very day routine ad keeping it as inexpensive as possible. That includes meals.
Saturday morning is pancake day… And it’s much cheaper to make from scratch than it is to buy a mix. Here’s my personal recipe, based on one that I got out of a book from the early 20th Century.
Ingredients:
1-1/3 cups flour
1-1/2 cups skimmed milk
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon sugar
1 egg
Mix all dry ingredients together. Add milk and egg. Stir until relatively smooth. Let sit for 5-10 minutes for fluffier pancakes.
Cook on med-low heat, flipping when bubbles are mostly gone. Eat with syrup or other favourite topping (jam, jelly, fruit…)
Of course we make the rest of the morning fun, with the kids helping clean and put the dishes away. I am always on the lookout for free or inexpensive things to do. Today we are going to watch The Knights of the Northern Realm perform their staged fighting and let the kids do some crafts, which I know they will enjoy. We;ll eat lunch there, which I will pack. It’ll be a simple lunch, with a couple of sandwiches and some fruit for snacks, with watered juice (50% water, 50% juice), which the Doctor recommends as being healthier anyhow, to drink.
Afterwards we’ll head over to The Edmonton Street Performers Festival. The kids haven’t really experienced this kind of thing before, so I think they will love this. Sunday we will also go and see the performances during the afternoon when it is set to be especially for kids.
After the Street Performance event we’ll head home and we have making some homemade bread. This is the recipe I use for most of the bread we love to eat. I do vary it a bit at times, adding things like tomatoes into it. My son doesn’t like tomatoes, so when I do that, I make two loaves. This is a yeast free bread, so it’s really easy to make.
Ingredients:
- 3 cups whole wheat flour
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1-1/2 cups water (or milk or other liquid, except oil. I’ve also used tomato juice, which is really good)
- 1/4 cup canola oil (or other liquid fat, such as melted margarine, olive oil, etc.) [I use canola because it's the least expensive, being a local crop.]
- Mix the dry ingredients (don’t sift the flour!).
- Mix the liquid and add to dry
- Stir until they are mixed thoroughly
(Dough should be moist, but not sticky) - Shape dough into oval or circle, as desired.
- Place on clean baking sheet
- Score top with line, diamond, or “X” to prevent splitting of crust
- Bake for ~40 minutes at 400 F
I sometimes also add salt and oregano on top for a nice Italian style bread (Foccacia). Be inventive and enjoy!
After dinner and bread baking we will play a couple of games – right now my four-year-old loves snakes and ladders. Then it will be bedtime. And Sunday will begin with a wonderful, fun day, too! Mostly it will be yard work, though… Which we actually do enjoy.
Tags: a fun family day, cheap ideas for fun, free events in Edmonton, Frugal fun, frugal recipes, fun family events, traditional pancake recipe, yeast free bread
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