Munchie Monday: Oatmeal Waffle Reprise

Today I was up early, finished my morning devotions and got caught up in YouTube (Ann and Jane Esselstyn, this time) and found something different for breakfast.

Quick and Easy Oatmeal Waffles, nothing bad-for-you in them

1 ripe banana
1 cup oatmeal
2 Tablespoon ground flax seed meal
1/2 cup water

Put the banana in a food processor and process until pretty smooth.  Add remaining ingredients and blend until the oatmeal is not longer flakes.  Scrape down sides several times.

Cook about 8 minutes in a waffle iron, or until your waffle iron thinks they are cooked.  This made one Belgian waffle maker of waffles.  There was no overflow with this batter.  The waffles were pretty darn good.  Dear One thought they were extra sturdy but that did not stop him from eating three of them!

We will have these again.  Probably tomorrow!

Munchie Monday: Quick and Easy Pumpkin Waffles

Being on food email lists can be a bit of a problem.  Websites continually send me emails with suggestions for new food to make.  I like to make new food.  I keep thinking that I will make a recipe just the way it is written, but somehow, I usually don't.  This time it was a good thing.

Being fall there are tons of pumpkin recipes coming in right now.  One that came last week was for pumpkin waffles.  Waffles!!!  I never thought of making pumpkin waffles.  We have a waffle iron that is mostly on its last legs but still works so I decided to give pumpkin waffles a try.  I won't send a link to a different recipe since I made so many changes to it.   The main things that were the same is that there were dry ingredients and wet ingredients and I mixed them together.

This is the recipe I made:

Quick and Easy Pumpkin Waffles

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon dried ginger
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
3 eggs
1 1/3 cups almond milk
3 Tablespoon vegetable oil
1/2 of a 15-ounce can puréed pumpkin--about 1 cup or less

Start your waffle iron heating.

In a large mixing bowl mix together all the dry ingredients.  When they are TOTALLY mixed together,  make a well in the middle of the mixture and add all the wet ingredients.  Stir well with a spatula or wooden spoon.  When completely combined set aside for a minute.

Spray the pre-heated waffle iron with cooking spray of some nature.  Using a 1/2 cup scoop, put one scoop batter in each of the four wells and close the cover over the batter.  Set the timer to AT LEAST four minutes but better yet six minutes.  All this is assuming you have a deep Belgian waffle maker.  We have a Krups we got at Deseret Industries two years ago.  If you have a different waffle iron you will probably need to adjust the amount of batter per well.  I hate over-flowing batter.  These did not.

After four minutes the waffles are cooked but if you like crispy waffles, let them cook longer.  We will probably make these again later in the week and will cook them about eight minutes.

They were really very good.  Dear One was not impressed with the idea of pumpkin waffles but he ate his two then had another.  Then had part of yet another...I guess they were not so bad.

If you want to make them,  you can change the seasoning any way you like.  You can also go to the work of separating the eggs and whipping the heck out of the whites before folding them into the batter...but these were quick and easy!

Food Friday: Quick and Easy Waffled Grilled Cheese Sandwiches!

Somewhere I got the idea to try making things other than waffles in the waffle maker.  Some time ago, actually.  The latest thing we tried was a grilled cheese sandwich.

To do this, I buttered one side of the sandwich bread and put the sandwich into the heated waffle maker, butter side down.  Next I buttered the top slice of bread and put the lid down on the sandwich.  Because the bread is already cooked and the cheese just needed to melt, I think I only let it cook for about one minute.  Next time I am not going to butter the bread and see what happens.

Dear One liked this sandwich.  Quick and easy, and the next one will be healthier without the added butter...

Munchie Monday: Whole Wheat Waffles with Blueberries

 Dear One loves waffles.  If I ever ask him what he wants for breakfast, he will say either waffles or fried potatoes. Or both.  Some days I am perfectly happy to comply...but only on weekends. 

There are a few problems with waffles in my mind:  with our previous waffle maker I frequently got burned.  That put me off big time. I hate burns.  They have bad memories for me.  Plus I don't like added pain.  A second issue is that waffles use a lot of flour.  Flour seems to me to be addictive.  Once I eat one thing with flour in it, the floodgates open and I pour flour-y things down my throat.  A very bad idea.  Another thing about waffles is that the recipes always make a lot of batter...so I can either make a ton of waffles, put the waffle batter in the refrigerator to vegetate until I dispose of it, or throw out the batter right away. I don't like any of these options.  Because of that, I tried something new...I made up my own recipe.

Whole Wheat Waffle Batter

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
3/4 cup milk
3 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1 egg
1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup fresh blueberries

After putting the dry ingredients in a small bowl, I stirred them until smooth then added all the wet ingredients and stirred very carefully with a whisk.  This care was necessary since I had used a small bowl.  Next time, if there is a next time, I will use a larger bowl so I can be less careful with stirring.

In this case I left the batter to sit on the counter for 5 minutes or so because I wanted the flour to begin absorbing the wet ingredients. I planned to wait 10 minutes but became antsy for the waffles to be done.

NOTE:  before starting the recipe I hauled out the deep waffle maker and started it heating up.

After spraying the waffle maker, which by this time, was nice and hot and ready for batter,  I took a 1/4 cup portion scoop and scooped the thick batter into each of the four waffle wells  There was batter left over which I had expected. I sprinkled a few blueberries on each of the waffles then scooped up more batter and covered them up...thinking this would avoid a nasty blueberry mess on the waffle iron.  I let them cook for 4 minutes by the clock.

When I opened the waffle iron, there were four nice crisp waffles.  Dear One ate three and I ate one.  After all, with butter and pure maple syrup it is hard to pass them up.

This recipe worked okay.  They were pretty sturdy waffles and tasted about medium. PLUS there was no leftover batter at all!  A real bonus.

You can see there was not too much blueberry mess. I am not sure they added to the waffles but they were about at the end of their rope so, why not use them up?!

Food Friday: Quick and Easy Blender Waffles

Dear One loves enjoys waffles every time I make them. It seemed like time to make them again.  There were some ingredients that needed to be used up so this is what I did:

Quick and Easy Blender Waffles

1 cup all-purpose flour
2/3 cup whole wheat flour
1.5 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1.75 cups buttermilk
3 eggs

Put all the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix well.  Add the eggs, buttermilk, and oil to the blender jar and blend until smooth.  Add the flour mixture and blend until well-combined.  Cook in your waffle iron that you have sprayed with cooking spray.  Cook for 3 minutes (in our waffle iron).

Things I did differently from Sally's Baking Addiction recipe:  1.  Used the blender; 1. used the whole wheat flour; 3. decreased the sugar; 4. used vegetable oil instead of melted butter plus decreased the amount; 5.  put the last of the heavy cream we had into the bottom of the 2-cup measure then filled to 1.75 mark with shaken buttermilk.  (I have learned that you ALWAYS need to shake the buttermilk before measuring.)



With this batter I made two large waffles.  Since I did not want to put leftovers into the freezer to deteriorate because I forgot they were there and because they never taste as good leftover, at least mine don't seem to, I put the rest of the batter into a storage container in the refrigerator.  We will be seeing waffles again VERY soon!

These last two pieces (half of a large waffle) went down rather easily.  I was a bit depraved and instead of serving them with butter and Vermont maple syrup,  I spread a little honey-roasted peanut butter between them (honey-nut peanut butter I ground fresh when I was at Winco early yesterday morning.  I was so quiet that Dear One did not notice I was gone until I came back home and to bed at 6 AM and woke him up!  I love 24-hour grocery stores!  When you cannot sleep, you might as well do something other than just lie there gritting your teeth every moment you are not sleeping...so I go to the store.  Nice.)

Munchie Monday: Waffles

A few weeks ago we went to Deseret Industries,  a Utah-based thrift store plus training center.  We found several things we needed to set up our apartment to my satisfaction.  Including a Krups Belgian waffle iron.  Dear One was very much against the acquisition but since he likes me to be happy we did not have a knock down, drag out in the store.  Nor later, either!

When we got home I cleaned it up, then after some time had passed to allow for feelings to regularize, I made waffles.  We loved them.

This is what we used for a recipe.

2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons baking powder
2 Tablespoons sugar
1/2 vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups milk
2 eggs

Mix all the dry ingredients together in a good-sized bowl.  In another bowl, mix together the milk and eggs then stir in the vegetable oil.  Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until mostly mixed together.  This made a rather thick dough.

The waffle iron should have been heating all the time that you are making the batter.  When the iron is hot,  at least for the first waffle, grease the waffle iron with either spray grease or a greased paper towel, being careful not to burn yourself.

You need about 1/3 cup of batter in each waffle well, and you need to put the timer on for 3 minutes, so you won't forget to check on them!  Check to see if the waffle is cooked. If so, enjoy it with maple syrup or jam and butter or use it for the base for Eggs Goldenrod.

This recipe makes about 7 waffle squares.  One is enough to eat at once.