School Lunch Day 64: Mini Pancakes on a stick!

The Lunch Idea: 

Pancakes. Breakfast for lunch at its finest. My basic goal for this lunch was to make it a little fun, without making it a lot of extra work for me. And what's more fun than tiny pancakes?

I made pancakes last week, and I always make extra.  Making some mini pancakes is super easy. All you have to do is take your regular pancake batter and thin it with just a little extra milk, and put it in some kind of squirt bottle or icing bag, or really anything that you can squeeze equal amounts out of.  These kind of condiment bottles you would use for ketchup and mustard work just great. You thin the batter a little so it will squeeze through the narrow spout.  Then you just squeeze out dots on your buttered pan, in whatever size you like.  You can of course just do it with a spoon, but I've found that it's much easier and faster to get consistently round pancakes using the bottle method. 

What's in the Lunch: 

• Mini whole wheat pancakes on a stick
• A combination of whipped cream, plain yogurt, and maple syrup, for dipping the pancakes. 
• An orange (or maybe technically a tangelo)
• Two have a slice of ham
• Cheerios with dried cranberries
• Dried bananas, with a cheese on top. 

Questions and Tips:

• This will all be eaten at room temperature.  My kids will gladly eat cold pancakes right out of the fridge, so room temp is not a problem for them. 
• Here is my basic pancake recipe. But contrary to what you might think, pancake recipes are very flexible.  Want more protein? add extra eggs or some protein powder.  Feel free to play with different kinds of flour. Add fruit or nuts or pureed squash. Add extra spices, or try almond extract instead of vanilla.  Do what ever sounds good! They're pretty hard to mess up. 
• I've said it before, but I'll keep saying it - always make extra pancakes!  They refrigerate and freeze great. 
• Mini cutters are a fun way to make the lunch a little more fun. It only takes a minute to unwrap the cheese and press a little initial in the wax. 

Today I also added a little extra something to their lunches - these super fun little cards from Lunchbox Love. They have a wonderful saying on one side, and a fun fact or joke on the other side.  It's a quick and easy way to add a little something extra and fun to their lunchbox. 

All links to products included here are affiliate links, which just means that if you choose to purchase something from a link I've provided, I get paid a tiny commissions.  Almost as tiny as those pancakes.  But it helps pay for pancake batter.