Apple Spice Pancakes

We have a pancake breakfast at our house almost every Saturday morning. Matt absolutely loves pancakes, and this fall I’ve been getting creative with my ingredients using apple sauce,  pumpkin pie spice and more. Let me just say, my most recent experiment was definitely “husband approved,” and many of you asked for the recipe in response to my Instagram post.

So get ready for the easiest Apple Spice Pancake recipe ever…

Ingredients

1 ¾ cup Trader Joe’s Buttermilk Pancake mix

1 cup water

1 egg

½ cup applesauce

¼ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

½ teaspoon vanilla

3 tablespoons pumpkin dip

Powdered sugar

Directions

Mix together pancake mix, water, egg, applesauce, pumpkin pie spice and vanilla. Cook pancakes on griddle. Stack and generously sprinkle powdered sugar on top of pancakes. Add a drop of pumpkin dip and serve with syrup.

Yields 11-12 small pancakes. 

Side note: If you regularly cook pancakes in your home, I highly recommend the Silver Dollar Pancake Pan from Crate & Barrel. It is one of our most favorite wedding gifts we received.

Told you it was super easy. You basically follow the box recipe and add some extra spice!

Blue Bird Bride Jewelry {GIVEAWAY}

Have you started your Christmas shopping yet? I sure have! This year my goal is to finish all my shopping well before Christmas so I can enjoy all the pretty packages under our tree for awhile.

Just in time for your Christmas shopping, I am excited to announce a fabulous {and generous} giveaway from Blue Bird Bride, a handmade jewelry and accessories {Etsy} shop! Here are just a few of my favorite pieces I think I may need to complete my Christmas party outfits…

Enameled Turquoise & Crystal Necklace

 Tear Drop Faceted Statement Necklace

 Bubble Bib Necklace

Crystal Drop Necklace

Geometric Bib Necklace

Amazing, right?

One of my lucky readers will win a $20 giftcard to Blue Bird Bride!

GIVEAWAY

To enter:

Like Blue Bird Bride on Facebook

Favorite Blue Bird Bride on Etsy

{leave a separate comment for each - two entries possible}

A special thanks to Blue Bird Bride for this awesome giveaway!  The contest will end Tuesday, December 4^th at 5 pm ET and the winner will be announced on Wednesday, December 5^th.

And the good news doesn’t stop there! Right now Blue Bird Bride is offering all of my readers 15% off their order! Just enter coupon code FALL2012 at checkout. 
Oh, and did you see all of the amazing holiday specials offered right now? Buy 3 Get 1 Free {that's 4 Christmas presents for the price of 3}!   Good Luck!

Thanksgiving Weekend

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend! I cannot believe how quickly the holiday flew by. Here is a recap of our holiday in photos!

Thursday

We spent turkey day in Winston this year with Matt's family. He has a large family so it is always so great to see everyone in one place! After a delicious meal we headed to his grandparents house down the road to decorate their home for Christmas!

 {most of the cousins - missing a few!}

Black Friday

 Let me just say that Black Friday turned out completely opposite as I had planned. For the past week, I have had a very detailed shopping plan of attack consisting of World Market, Crate & Barrel, Restoration Hardware, Pottery Barn and more. Well that all changed when Matt and I decided to scratch our shopping plans and start a new project - building {this} farmhouse dining table for our new home. So we spent a majority of our Black Friday shopping at Home Depot.

While Matt was hard at work, I decided to cook a little {16 lb} turkey for ourselves. This was the first time I ever cooked a turkey so I was a little nervous. With the help an incredible brine recipe {here} our turkey turned out delicious!
Saturday

 Saturday we spent most of the day watching football, specifically Ohio State vs. Michigan and Florida vs. Florida State. Both Matt and I were pretty happy with both of our teams. Later we had 3 other couples over for a game night. We played my favorite game in the world, "things..." If you don't already own this, I highly suggest asking Santa for it.     Sunday

 Sunday we went Christmas tree shopping at a small lot at the end of our street. For the past 3 years we have ended up with a "Charlie Brown" style Christmas tree since our living room was so tiny. But now that we are in our new house with much taller ceilings, we sprung for an 8 foot tree! More details and pictures to come in a separate post on our tree and Christmas decorations around the house.   Stay tuned for a fabulous giveaway tomorrow...

Thanksgiving Leftover Recipes

One of the best parts about Thanksgiving is leftovers! I could eat turkey for breakfast, lunch and dinner for days after Thanksgiving. So to mix up our next few meals, I have picked out a few recipes to try...

 

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 The Ultimate Thanksgiving Sandwich {layers include 3 slices bread, light mayonnaise, leftover turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, green leaf lettuce, tomato slices and gravy} 

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Turkey Quesadilla {tortilla with Gouda cheese, leftover turkey, spinach or Brussels sprouts, and dried cranberries or cranberry sauce}

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Turkey and Cranberry Salad {spinach topped with carrots, cashews, dried cranberries and leftover turkey}

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Turkey Cranchiladas {tortillas with leftover turkey, cranberry sauce, black beans, salsa, Pepperjack cheese, sour cream, etc.}

 

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Turkey Cranberry Monte Cristo {sliced potato bread with fontina cheese, leftover turkey,  cranberry sauce, baby arugula leaves, etc.}

How do you eat your leftovers?