Pancakes

You should know how to make pancakes from scratch. You can always make them from a box, from bisquick, something like that. But if you start with just flour, you can make a whole pile of other things with the flour besides pancakes as well. Pancakes are great for breakfast, either on purpose or because your kids inform you that the cereal is gone. They make a great bread substitute at lunch time when the bread is gone. Peanut butter and jelly pancakes sandwiches are wonderful. They also make a fine dinner when you discover that you don't have either the time or the proper ingredients for a proper dinner. Who doesn't love it when dad says that we're having breakfast for dinner? Pancakes can make many of the situations where you've completely messed up as a food provider and make the day wonderful.

Basic pancake recipe from the Betty Crocker cookbook:
1 cup flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg
3/4 cup milk
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Put the 4 dry ingredients in a bowl. Mix them up.
Put the wets in the bowl. Mix them up.
Pour and cook. 

There is nothing in the world easier. Also nothing with more variations. I don't actually make the above recipe as it stands. I don't put in the oil. Vegetable oil is yucky. I usually add an extra egg for more fat and since I'm cooking on a non stick griddle (which I recommend) nothing sticks. It works with only one egg and no oil too. I also usually add one teaspoon of vanilla. Vanilla is yummy. So is a bit of cinnamon for that matter. And don't think you have to use 3/4 cup of milk. Adjust that up or down to get the pancake consistency you like. Sometimes I'll melt two tablespoons of butter and whisk that into the batter. The cold batter makes the butter form little globules that then re-melt when you cook the pancakes. They literally ooze butter when it's done right. So wonderful.
Serve them with syrup, with jelly, with whipped cream, with mini chocolate chips in the batter, with blueberries in the batter, or with a dollop of canned pumpkin mixed in the batter. Go wild, experiment. Tell your family that you're on a quest to perfect the pancake and make them pancakes 3 times a week for 6 months. Consult the internet for people much more knowledgable than me about recipe variation. Find old ladies that look like they have pancake secrets in their recipe boxes and badger them until they tell you.
With all of that said, you probably don't want pancakes to be the staple food of your kids childhood. They're nothing more than big balls of sugar with some egg holding it together after all. As delicious and versatile as they are, they're not exactly health food. But you need them. You need their ingredients. With the above ingredients and some butter you can make biscuits or dumplings. In fact, with just butter and more sugar and things messed about you are now making sugar cookies. Muffins and quick breads are all there. Add some cocoa and now you're into brownie land. I could retire to brownie land.
You need the knowledge and the confidence that all you need are ingredients and you can make food. You don't buy food, you buy ingredients. You make food.
So learn to make pancakes from scratch. They are the gateway drug to the carbohydrate wonderland that you and your kitchen can provide.