Memorial Day Weekend - Strawberry Banana Pancakes/Strawberry Shortcake Cupcakes

Lane:

Memorial Day weekend = a blessing.  I just have to first give a moment to Chuck and his fellow brothers and sisters in arms that they were on my mind all weekend - so thankful for what they sacrifice for my/our country.  

With that being said, what is the best way to your man's heart?? Through his belly!! 

 

 We made a trip to the farmers market where Chuck found a loaf of Zucchini bread that he almost finished while we walked around.  Haha!

Plenty of strawberries were purchased, hence my recipes!

 Starting off, I made strawberry banana pancakes that turned out delish:

 

Ingredients needed:

1 cup almond flour
1 cup brown rice flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon palm sugar

1 teaspoon salt
1 ½ cups milk (dairy or nondairy)
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2/3 cup mashed banana (2 large bananas)
1 cup chopped strawberries

The actual recipe I followed:

http://chefthisup.com/recipe/7738/strawberry-banana-pancakes/

The only things I substituted was the types of flour.

 

Next thing I made was very similar in ingredients.  The recipe that I modeled my cupcakes after is found: http://www.ladybehindthecurtain.com/strawberry-shortcake-cupcakes/

Ingredients I used:

1 1/2 cups almond flour

1 1/2 cups brown rice flour

2 cups palm sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

6 large eggs

2 cups butter, softened

1/2 cup milk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 ctn whole strawberries

1 package cream cheese

1 container of marshmallow cream

Everything in my recipe was the same except for a couple ingredients.  Also, the icing was a blended mixture of one package of cream cheese mixed with the marshmallow creme -- easiest icing and SO tasty!  It was nice a thick in order to "glue" cut up strawberries on the top.  I didn't want to cut out and waste any of the cake portion.  

The topping is just cut up strawberries that I covered with a sprinkle of sugar for an hour or so.

 

SO yummy!

 

The rest of the weekend consisted of watching movies... BBQing... Spending time with our godsons.

 

For example, teaching them to flex!

If you have any questions, please feel free to email us at teamhalfie@gmail.com -- either about recipes or any of random questions!!  We are always welcome to helping!  Hope everyone enjoys their short week :)  Cheers!

Chuck:  I would like to send out a special thank you to all of you who read our blog that support US Troops, no matter which branch of service.  Some of us join without a choice of better life, some of us because it is our family heritage, and some of us do it because we feel the need within us to serve our country and protect our fellow American.  

I had the blessed opportunity to take a photo with a little boy while visiting Arlington Cemetery to lay flowers to a fallen, who thanked me for what I do.  That is the greatest gift you can give this Soldier.

Our First Trip Together!!! Lessons learned and good memories

CHICAGO 

Lane:  Trip to meet Chuck's family for the first time -- Success!

Let me just start with the lesson learned.... Men and women have VERY different perspectives on "clothing"!  Hahaha Chuck is from Chicago so I asked him what his opinion on what I should bring to wear in the windy city!  He said "Spring type clothing"  Okay ladies, correct me if I'm wrong.... Spring time clothing -- Dresses with a jean jacket, shorts and a long sleeve shirt, FLIP FLOPS!!  Well, I'm SO glad that I brought a pair of boots and one pair of jeans... because it ended up snowing and raining the entire weekend. Hahaha!  It got so cold that Chuck's mother ended up giving me a thicker sweater because I was always freezing!!  So glad his family didn't judge me since I wore the same outfit for three days in a row!!

 

 Over-all the trip was great.  Chuck is an amazing traveler and I felt so safe with him!  So we will admit.... We were being Cheap-O's for some reason while shopping for hotels.  Now, all the Marriott's were booked, so we decided... since we were going cheap, lets go the CHEAPEST possible!  Picking the cheapest possible put us in a Red Roof Inn -- Please see the living situation below:

 

Yes, that is a bug on the left. next to our drinking cups and the right is how we barricaded the door.   We arrived at the hotel very late at night so as we pulled up, our headlights shined on a room in which a random head popped out of the curtains in the window to peek at us, and followed by another head popping out their door that they just cracked open............................Talk about scary.  I will say... sharing a double bed with your significant other is a must every once in a while!  It definitely brought us closer and made us cherish our cali-king sized bed at home even more. 

 

 So I met Chuck's family on this trip, but he was able to meet my Uncle since he lives in Chicago!  My Uncle treated us to some fancy sushi that he made at his restaurant and then took us home to see the family.  

I haven't seen my Uncle nor Cousins in over ten years!  Such a great reunion.  Oh, and they love Chuck :) Look, they were bonding within 24 hours!

 It was interesting to notice that one of my favorite parts about the entire trip was the time spent with Chuck in the car.  

We spent about.... 12 hours or so driving from Chicago to Chuck's home and back a couple times.  Sometimes he would drive, sometimes I would drive.  We would stop at random gas stations... Playing and running around to get our blood pumping after sitting for so long.  We would find special chips or treats to eat at each gas station... even if we weren't hungry!  Just something entertaining to do while driving.  We would listen to music.  Sing.  Randomly dance.  I love watching Chuck do his random dancing in the car.  TRIED to record it a couple times, but it was a no-go.

 The trip in itself meant a lot to me.  The fact that Chuck opened up his ENTIRE family and all of his friends to me... was amazing.  

 

I'm so glad his mom was on board when I asked to see all of Chuck's baby pictures!! She had the albums ready to go!  Gosh, he was such a cutie.  I told him he better give me babies that look JUST like him! Hahahaha!  






 His mom even took me shopping because she said liked me so much and just wanted to give a nice gesture... VERY Korean mother!   When Chuck's mom came in and asked me to go shopping, I looked at Chuck to save me and he said "Go!! You know there is no way to stop this..." Hahaha So I ended up with a VERY nice pair of earrings that match the necklace her son gave me.  Such a sweet family!! 



They loved me, I loved them, it was great.



I loved looking at Chuck when he was talking with his mom, or watching him smile at his sister while giving her a hard time (or beating her up!).  They say you can tell a lot about how a person will be in the future based on their home life, and if that's the case, I can't wait for the future with Chuck!  <3