We’ve been snowboarding a bunch, and it seems that every base area has some belgian waffle smell wafting everywhere and it smells so good. We had to give in and get one at Winter Park. Every time I smell waffles I promise to make these. But so far, I haven’t had any follow through on that particular promise. But I did make a kinda healthy waffle last week – I followed a regular waffle recipe but I used white whole wheat flour and added some cinnamon. Delicious.
Two weeks ago, when I wrote about making waffles, my friend Ann Marie texted that she had a great, but weird waffle recipe. Here it is: 2 cups cottage cheese, 6 eggs, 2 cups oats, 1 teaspoon vanilla, pinch of salt. Weird, right? But it seems so healthy and high in protein! I mixed everything in the blender, thinking I could then casually poor it into the waffle maker. It was not pourable. I had to glop it out with a ladle. But they were so good; thanks Ann Marie! I thought kids might be skeptical, but no one questioned the ingredients. (Except Dave, and he waited till the kids were in school.) The only complaint was, “Remember how you used to make fancy stuff like brioche pretzels and chocolate babka, and now we just get waffles all the time?” Sorry kid, remember that I have a job now? I mean, I still have time to make babka, I just haven’t felt like it.
A great thing about this recipe is that it is very filling. I think they had a tangy taste. I would definitely make these again.
I served them with apple slices and bacon. (Obviously, the kids covered them in syrup as well.)
I am feeling the need to dive back into apple and pumpkin recipes, maybe because it’s been rainy and cozy all week. I don’t think I have seen the sun since I made these waffles, but I have high hopes for this weekend. Happy fall!
Last week I made Chocolate Banana waffles. True confessions: I used a mix. I used to eschew prepared food because I am a snob. But recently I made pasta salad for dinner and I used jarred pesto from Costco, frozen pre-cooked chicken from King coopers, noodles, and all the veggies left in my fridge. It was amazing. I had to call my mom and apologize for years of mocking Rachel Ray recipes. But here’s where I make excuses for using a mix: I bought it for camping. At least I didn’t buy organic pancake mix in an aerosol spray can, like some people I know. (I do admire that person for that very feat, but I would never buy pre-made organic pancake mix in a spray can. A person has to have a code.) Anyway, I had some mix left over after camping, so I added 3 smashed bananas, and some milk and an egg, and then some white flour because I didn’t have as much mix left as I thought. It was so good! Hooray for mixes!!
Then, since I had the camera out, I decided to start trying to take more pictures and I decided to do a project that I am calling 52 Fridays. I am going to take at least one picture of everyone in my family every Friday for a year. I spent a dumb amount of time trying to find the right app for this, and I ended up just starting an album in shutter fly. I added last Friday’s pictures and a little description about our day.
Next week… Ann Marie’s Waffles!
And here is a picture from the waffle mix purchase camping trip.
Oh, and the obligatory dog-leash fiasco.
Jack woke up hungry one day last week and so we reviewed what he had eaten the day before. Breakfast was pancakes at Dot’s Diner. Lunch – leftover pancakes. Dinner consisted of just one barbecued chicken leg at about 9:00 pm after baseball. He probably had a Z-bar and a gatorade at the baseball game. No fruits or vegetables to be found in one 24 hour period. (He is reading over my shoulder as I type and he said, “Hey that’s not true I had watermelon.” – pronounced watermeLONE.)
Regardless, I decided I needed to make a fancy breakfast that contained a vegetable. This recipe is adapted from Feed Zone Portables, but it requires a juicer, which I don’t have. So I made a few changes.
Carrot Waffles
2 cups flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk (I only used this because I had it in the fridge. Next time I will try with regular milk)
4 eggs
1 cup diced carrots
4 tablespoons melted butter
water
Put the diced carrots in a shallow microwave proof dish and add some water. (2 tablespoons?) Microwave until the carrots are soft – a couple minutes)
Put the carrots in a food processor and pulse till they are very chopped. (You could shred the carrots instead of dicing them and probably skip this step.)
Mix the dry ingredients and stir with a fork. Whisk the eggs and butter into the buttermilk. Mix the wet and dry ingredients and the carrots and stir until everything is just wet. Do not over mix.
Cook in a waffle iron until the outside is crispy. When eaten immediately, this were deliciously crispy. When eaten later, they were nicely soft.
These were enjoyed by all, but there was a lot of crying and crabbiness shortly after breakfast, because I only ended up with 6 waffles. And, due to the fact that it’s too hot to turn on the oven, and because I am out of practice with FBF, I didn’t make anything else to go along with it. People were left hungry, even though these are very hearty waffles. Some bacon and a side of fruit would have gone a long way. I guess if people are going to be sad about breakfast, at least it’s because it was so good they wanted more.
I have made these Liege Waffles before, and we loved them. But this time I read this recipe, and then made the one from Feed Zone: Portables instead. And I couldn’t help wondering if the Smitten Kitchen recipe would have been better. (I mean, these are really good… but what if they could be better?) I see another waffle taste test in our future. I love that these are made the night before and then cooked in the morning.
We are in that awkward in-between time of year – Jack is finished with school but Luke has another week. It doesn’t feel like summer yet because of the snow and rain and cold temps, and the fact that summer is a month away. But I’m looking forward to some lazy summer breakfasts.
I learned a photography lesson as I was writing this – don’t use the glass top table or it will look like you’re taking pictures of food on the floor. Fortunately I have this outtake:
Back before the internet was invented, I used to cut recipes out of magazines and glue them into a composition book. (I still do this.)
Towards the front of this ancient artifact, is a recipe for banana cinnamon waffles, that you can also find here. I used to make this all the time, but I stopped when I found this recipe for pancakes. But since I have been on a kick to use all the frozen bananas in my freezer, and also because I got a fancy waffle maker this year, I decided to make them again. And they are still delicious! Or so I assume. I only ended up with 6ish waffles. I ate the part that Jack couldn’t finish. I think Luke could have eaten more. And I served Dave the ugly ones. Thanks for taking a picture of your waffles, Dave!
Note to self: Double this recipe. The recipe calls for buckwheat flour, but I sub whole wheat.
This weekend will be our first camping weekend of the year, and I have already downgraded my fancy breakfast menu a couple times. Fingers crossed it doesn’t get downgraded all the way to cold cereal.
I was rummaging in my cupboards last week and I found a can of pumpkin. I recalled that every time I made a pumpkin dish last fall, Luke mentioned that pumpkin and chocolate is a good combo. Poor Luke – I never made anything with pumpkin and chocolate. But it’s a new year so…
I based this recipe on a carrot waffle recipe from The Skratch Feed Zone Portables cook book. The carrot waffle recipes sounds like a great and health snack, but it calls for carrot juice which is not something I can make at home and don’t see myself purchasing. So this is less healthy and possibly more delicious, but we’ll never know.
I got another opportunity to use my awesome waffle maker from Aunt Suzy, and the waffles that it makes are pretty big. This recipe made 8 or so. Jack and I were happy with 1 each. Dave would have had 2, but I needed to save one for photographs. They were pretty good, but I am still getting used to my waffle maker, and these can easily be undercooked because of pumpkin. I gave Luke the first one I made because it was the softest and he just started life with rubber bands on his braces and was feeling some pain.
Pumpkin Waffles
1 cup flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs
2 Tablespoons melted butter
1/2 cup pumpkin
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
chocolate chips
Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl. Add milk, eggs, vanilla and butter to measuring cup and whisk. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Cook waffles.
I doubled the recipe I think. I messed around with adding chips to the waffle as I put it in the waffle maker, but ended up deciding it was easier to put the chips on top after it came out.
Delicious. I have quite the stack from the library right now, so I need to do another book post.
Last Friday we had big plans to snowboard at Copper so I rescheduled FBF for New Years Day. I mean, no one knows what day it is over winter break anyway. We had fondue for New Years Eve, as you can see from the uncleared table in the pic above. I told the fam to go easy on the chocolate so we’d have some for breakfast. For some reason, that sounded like a healthy choice at the time.
I got a new waffle maker for Christmas (THANKS AUNT SUZY) and I made this Smitten Kitchen recipe for our New Years Day breakfast. They were delicious. My favorite waffle recipe is still the Liege Waffle, but I had buttermilk so I wanted to try something different. They were really yummy. A little complicated with extra steps but pretty worth it. I served the waffles with leftover chocolate fondue that I warmed in a double boiler, and strawberries that had been sliced and mixed with sugar.
Jack was awestruck to see his. We had delicious waffles and then headed to Eldora to try out my new birthday snowboard that you can see in the background.
Last Friday I planned ahead for the first time in a while and made Liège Waffles from Feed Zone Portables. These are raised waffles (contains yeast) and they rise in the fridge overnight. In the morning I split the dough into 12 pieces and rolled them in turbinado sugar before putting them in the waffle maker. I cut up all the strawberries I had (overbought at Costco and then had to use before they went bad.. Or as they were going bad.) and added a little sugar to make a syrup. Waffles were served with strawberry syrup, strawberries and a mint leaf.
I woke up early enough to make my own waffle and do a little reading before anyone was up. (I was reading LaRose by Louise Erdrich.)
I had a pre-bachelorette party hair appointment early that morning, so I started to leave instructions so each person could make their own waffles as they woke, but everybody was up just in time for a waffle before I left.
Poor Lucy had to wait until I took photos and ate before she got any breakfast.
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These waffles are an homage to the Grananola Chocolate Chip Waffles at the Southside Walnut Cafe. I can’t recommend my waffle recipe though because they were a little tough. I subbed in some whole wheat flour, but I don’t blame that. I think I just need to continue my quest for the perfect waffle recipe.
What I do recommend is adding granola and chocolate chips to your fave waffle recipe and then serving it up with some more granola, chocolate chips and sliced bananas on top. (I poured some batter into the waffle maker, added a handful of granola and then put some more batter on top. I didn’t want to mix it into the batter because I didn’t want the granola to get too soft.) I did not put any banana in the waffles like they do at the Southside because, yuck.
My homemade granola is a work in progress, first it was too sweet, then not sweet enough. I may now have the perfect recipe. At first I thought it might still be not sweet enough, but I’ve been finding it to be a nice cereal topping, delicious with yogurt and berries from my garden. Maybe you should make it and let me know?
The original recipe that started all this is from cooking light. I just found that it had so much orange juice that it took forever to cook. Like – double or triple the time on the recipe. So I started messing around with it and this is what I have. This makes two cookie sheets worth, because why bother making less?
Granola:
6 cups old fashioned oats
3/4 cup sliced almonds
6 teaspoons cinnamon – yeah that’s a weird amount.
2 tablespoons ground flaxseed
1/2 cup orange juice
3/4 cup honey
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
3 teaspoons vanilla
Preheat oven to 300 F
Line two cookie sheets with parchment or spray with nonstick spray. Mix the dry ingredients in a huge bowl. In a small sauce pan, heat the orange juice, honey, brown sugar. Stir until the honey and brown sugar is dissolved. Add the vanilla. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and stir. Spread the mixture in an even layer over the two cookie sheets. Bake at 300 for 20 minutes, stirring after 10 minutes. You may need to add time to get the granola to your level of doneness. I like it to be brown and pretty crunchy.
Let it cool on the cookie sheets and then store in a tightly sealed container.
MetaMegan 