Sunday pancakes and branding the sheep...

 I love pancakes.  When I was a girl, we had pancakes almost every single Sunday.  At thirteen years old, I could eat eight large pancakes along with bacon, sausage, and an egg on the side.  I think I'm a pretty good pancake critic so when I found this recipe for Easy Almond Flour Pancakes over at Wellness Mama's, I wanted to give it a try.  As you remember, Hubs and I have been trying hard to eat smarter and reduce carbs in our diet.  Since this pancake recipe is made from almond flour, the carb count is low and the protein count is high.  I made Almond Pancakes this morning, slightly tweaking the original recipe and serving them with butter and maple syrup.  We both loved them -- 2 thumbs up!  They'd make delicious snacks, and what a great way to get more protein and nutrition into the kiddos at breakfast!

Almond Meal/Flour Pancakes
(revised from the original)
Serves 4

• 1.5 cups almond meal/flour (Bob’s Red Mill)
• 3 eggs, beaten to fluffy
• 1  tsp. baking powder
• 1/2  tsp. sugar (opt. for browning)
• 1 cup of water or milk (or slightly less to desired thickness)
• Optional: spices like cinnamon and nutmeg, vanilla, blueberries or other flavors

Instructions:

1. In a medium bowl, beat eggs until fluffy first.  Then add all ingredients using a hand blender or immersion blender until batter is a pourable consistency.
2. Make one test pancake to check for desired thickness and texture.
3. Cook all pancakes on a griddle or in a large pan for approximately 2-3 minutes per side until bubbles form and both sides are golden brown.
4. Enjoy!

** 327 Calories per serving (serves 4), 15.7 g. protein, 25 g. fat, 12.9 g. carb (if made with 2% milk) 

 

"Don't you love this new red shade?  It looks good on my lips too!"

 

After our delicious pancake breakfast, we decided to go brand and pour the sheep.  It's supposed to get snowy and cold after tonight so Hubs thought it best to get this job done today before the sheep got wet.  Since shearing their wool off yesterday, the sheep no longer carry our mark so it's important for us to get them branded right away.  The brands are made with sheep paint which is specifically engineered to stay on the wool and yet wash out when the wool is cleaned and processed.  Our brand is lazy YJ and we always use red paint.

"NumberOneSon did a much better job on your brand than he did on mine, Hilda!"

When we "pour" the sheep or cattle, it means that we apply a dose of liquid insecticide on their backs which takes care of parasites that are specific to that animal.  We always pour the sheep right after shearing.  After the work was done, we sorted the ewe lambs and bucks away from the older ewes that will lamb in about ten days.  The mature ewes stayed in the pasture close by the lambing barn and the others went out to another pasture since they won't lamb until May.

It feels good to have the sheep all worked and taken care of.  This week we'll set up the barn with jugs (small wooden pens) for lambing.  It won't be long now before the little lambs start coming.

Statistics:

167 ewes ready to lamb at the barn.

105 ewe lambs and 8 bucks at Buck Pasture.