I love lazy Sunday mornings.
The comfort that comes from not setting an alarm, and knowing we don’t have a jam-packed schedule to adhere to, has surprisingly become one of my guilty pleasures.
Of course, as I type this, my 5 year old is rubbing herself all over me like a cat, reminding me of how bored she is. Reality.
I really have a problem with kids declaring boredom, by the way. With more toys than any generation has had before them, I don’t think kids have the right to be bored these days. Actually, just hearing the word “bored” makes me cringe.
We have a limit on screen time in my house (none on weeknights and 2 hours on weekends); so my kids get bored often. Don’t get me wrong, we love movies in my household. We love movie days and we’ve probably seen every cartoon and Disney movie a thousand times over. But I’m also very conscious of not letting my kids rot their brains like teenage Groot from Guardian’s of the Galaxy, by being attached to Ipads.
Also, it is often the declaration of boredom, and my nonchalant attitude about it, that usually pushes my kids to do something creative.
Play piano.
Draw something.
Read a book.
Go outside and play.
Ride your bike.
Make something.
Invent something.
Write something.
Play imaginatively.
Those concepts shape and grow children’s minds. As a pediatric specialist, I cannot emphasize how many studies have correlated negative consequences to too much screen time. The one that scares me most is the rise in depression and anxiety.
But while I certainly intend to post more about screen time alternatives in the future, I majorly digress because this post is actually about making Easy French Crepes on your stove top!!!
For starters, I’d like to mention that I’m no Martha Stewart.
I’m mediocre (at best) at most things , so if I can do this, you can too.
Also, I looooooooooooooooooooove France. Correction: I’m in LOVE with France. I have lived there, I speak the language, I dream of retiring there someday and French Food is my achilles heel. I could live off baguettes, crepes, fresh squeezed orange juice, cappuccino , wine and croissants.
I say this because I want you to know that if this crepe recipe gets a stamp of approval from me, it’s the real deal. This recipe is as close to an authentic French street crepe as it comes. So when my 8 year old randomly craved French crepes this lazy Sunday morning, I was totally down with indulging her.
Ingredients:
- 1 3/4 cups white wheat flour
- 3 Eggs
- 1/3 tablespoon salt
- 2 cups milk
- 2 tablespoons melted butter
- 1.5 tablespoons vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon Honey (we replace sugar with honey in nearly every recipe)
Makes: At least 8 medium sized crepes
PREP Time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 5 minutes
Instructions:
- In a large bowl, mix the flour, eggs, vanilla and melted butter.
- Transfer mix into a blender.
- Add milk (1/2 cup at a time) into mixer until you achieve a smooth creamy batter with no lumps.
- Add honey and salt, and mix a little more. It should look like this.
5. Pour the batter directly from the bowl, onto a pre-heated lightly buttered pan, as thinly as possible. I don’t recommend using a ladle if you’re a newbie. It’s too hard.
6. Wait until the edges of the crepe are crispy and flip the crepe gently.
7. Decorate your crepe with desired ingredients.
There are two important key factors to this recipe, in order to achieve the perfect crepe.
The first is that the pan should already be hot when adding the batter.
The second is perfecting the method of adding the batter. This takes a bit of practice.
I recommend pouring the batter from the bowl directly to the top of the pan and then tilting the pan to let the batter run and fill the surface of the pan. Using a ladle puts you at risk for having holes and lumps in your crepe. It also increases the odds of your 8 year old telling you that ladle is a strange word.
“LADLE.
Hehe. Mom.
That’s a strange word.
LAY-DULL.”
I was also a little worried that I would need special tools to flip the crepe, but I didn’t. If you use a good non-stick pan, and slightly raise the edges of the crepe after you’ve poured the batter, then all you need is a plastic spatula to raise the edges…… and gently flip it!
And voila!
A great breakfast for a Sunday morning.
We filled our crepes with Nutella, strawberries and bananas.
Bon appetit!
Now to go ride our bikes to really complete the French experience.