Waffles

     I haven't had time to blog in quite a while and I truly miss it. People often ask me if I still cook and the answer to this question is a resounding yes. Most days, I cannot not wait to get home from work and into the kitchen. I spend my Saturday mornings in the kitchen, often waking up way too early because I am busting to get started. It is a tiring job, but yet so fulfilling.

     If you know my personality, then you know I am a creature of routine. I HATE change and disorganization. Everything has a place and everything goes a certain way. My lists and excel spreadsheets would drive most people mad, but it is how I keep track of life. I take the same approach towards meal planning, grocery lists, budgets, etc. We are still following the $60.00 a week grocery budget. Recently, I started planning our meals in 2 week blocks. J.T. goes to the grocery store on Friday, as soon as school lets out. He does better at the store than I used to do, always coming in under budget. I am so grateful for his help. This leaves only the farmer's market to go to on Saturday mornings and we are doing this every other week as well.

     Waffles have become a weekly tradition at our house, peanut butter waffles to be exact. We always have peanut butter waffles and eggs on Friday night. I make the waffles and J.T. cooks the eggs because he is the egg master. It is an easy, fun meal that both of us look forward to each week. The meal is even better when the Braves are playing and they beat the Dodgers. I always make the waffles in advance and freeze them. This makes them easy to pull out, slather with peanut butter, top with another waffle, cut into quarters and pop in the oven - crisp and gooey peanut butter waffle sandwiches. The recipe listed below is for the waffles. Serve them with syrup or make the peanut butter waffle sandwiches. They are great both ways!

Ingredients

·         2 cups multi grain gluten free flour blend

·         1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

·         ¾ teaspoon baking soda

·         ½ teaspoon celtic sea salt

·         1 ¾ cups unsweetened almond milk, at room temperature

·          ½ cup coconut oil, plus more for greasing the waffle iron

·         1 tablespoon molasses

·         1 teaspoon vanilla

·         2 eggs, yolks and whites separated

Directions

1.      Place a small glass or stainless steel mixing bowl and two handheld mixer beaters into the freezer.

2.      In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and sea salt.  Set aside.  In a large liquid measuring cup, whisk together the almond milk, coconut oil, molasses, vanilla, and egg yolks.  Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.  The batter should still be lumpy.

3.      Use a pastry brush to lightly grease a waffle iron with coconut oil.  Preheat the waffle iron to a medium high temperature.

4.      Remove the chilled bowl and beaters from the freezer.  Beat the egg whites on high speed, with a handheld electric mixer until soft peaks form.  Gently, fold the egg whites into the batter.

5.      Ladle the batter into the preheated waffle iron using a ½ cup measuring cup.  Cook each waffle according the waffle iron manufacturer’s instructions.  Keep warm in a 200 degree oven if serving immediately.

Make ahead:  In a single layer, place as many waffles as you can on a large baking sheet.  Freeze for 1 hour.  Remove the frozen waffles from the baking sheet and stack in freezer safe plastic bags.  Repeat process.  This freezing method helps the waffles retain their shape.  Freeze up to 3 months.  Reheat in 375 degree oven for 10 minutes.   

Sweet Potato Muffins

    Finding a way to eat healthy food inexpensively is challenging.  I face this obstacle weekly as a plan our menu and make out the grocery list.  Honestly, it can be very frustrating.  Sometimes I have to take a break from menu planning because I can’t get the numbers and the food to line up.  There are so many things I want to make but eggs, butter, and fresh vegetables add up quickly.  Our newest challenge of eating local has stretched the budget even thinner.  Why yes, we would love to have fresh broccoli for supper, but not at $4.00 a pound.  One week I did cave and buy half a pound.  I then proceeded to burn it while it roasted in the oven.  Whoops.  We have been purchasing the majority of our produce from Snow’s Bend, a local farm in Coker that uses organic farming practices.  Although the broccoli I just mentioned sounds expensive, you would pay much more for the same amount of organic broccoli at Publix.  This week we ate swiss chard, bok choy, turnip greens, butter lettuce, romaine lettuce, and onions.  All of which were so fresh and full of flavor - flavor that could never be imitated in grocery store produce.  This sounds silly, but I told J.T. that I feel like Julia Child shopping at the market.  I am currently reading her memoir, My Life in France, (which I picked up on our recent trip to see her kitchen!) and she shopped the markets on the streets of Paris for the freshest fruits, vegetables, meats, and seafood.  I am fascinated by that woman.  

    Onward to the point of this entire blog post: sweet potato muffins.  I will confess that these sweet potatoes were purchased at Publix.  Sweet potatoes are out of season and there were none to be found at the market.  One of the many things I love about sweet potatoes is that they are inexpensive.  Even at full price they are a mere $0.99 a pound and they are classified as one of the clean 15 vegetables.  I made a dozen of these as a gift to my Mama on Mother’s Day.  My mother graciously shared them, so we all had one topped with ice cream for dessert.  Everyone thought they were delicious and I agree.

Ingredients

• 1 ½ cups whole grain gluten-free flour blend
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon nutmeg
• ½ cup pure clover honey
• ½ cup virgin coconut oil
• 2 eggs, at room temperature
• ½ teaspoon vanilla
• 1 ½ cups mashed, roasted sweet potatoes, about 1 pound

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a 12-cup muffin tin with liners.
2. In the bowl of a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, stir together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, kosher salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.  
3. In a large glass liquid measuring cup, whisk together the honey, coconut oil, eggs, and vanilla.  Pour the wet ingredients into the mixing bowl and mix on low speed until just combined.  Fold in the sweet potatoes.
4. Divide the batter equally among the prepared muffin tin.  The cups will be fairly full.  Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, or until a pick inserted into the middle comes out clean.  Yields 12 muffins. Cool completely.  Refrigerate for up to 5 days or freeze for up to 3 months.  

* I made my own gluten-free whole grain flour, but you can also substitute whole wheat flour.   The recipe behind my whole grain flour blend came from here.  I used the following ratios:

·         350 grams buckwheat flour

·         350 grams oat flour

·         300 grams arrowroot flour

This flour recipe makes more than what is required for this recipe.  Store any extra in the refrigerator.  

Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwich Cookies

     I know I have said this before, but my husband loves peanut butter…and so do I.  When I went to Earth Fare about a month ago, they were having a $5 food revolution.  For those of you who do not know, a $5 food revolution is when Earth Fare has five items in their store that are a dollar each.  Two of those items were organic peanut butter and organic grape jelly.  I couldn’t resist myself, so I bought both.  I contemplated making Ina Garten’s Peanut Butter & Jelly bars, but decided that they contained too much butter, too much sugar, and too much flour.  I also wanted to make something that I could sample.  This made me think of the peanut butter cookies I made for the pie crust of J.T.’s Peanut Butter Birthday Pie.  Those cookies were good, but oh so sweet.  For my Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich cookies, I cut the amount of sugar in half.  I completely omitted the granulated white sugar, and instead used honey.  What a good decision this happened to be.  The cookies came out moist and creamy and the sweetness of the jelly makes the cookies sweet enough.  Taking a bite of these sandwich cookies takes me back to the elementary school lunch room, when my mom would pack me a PB&J.  These cookies happen to be the dessert version of my favorite childhood lunch. 

Ingredients

·         1 cup creamy peanut butter

·         ½ cup pure clover honey

·         1 teaspoon baking powder

·         1 egg

·         grape jelly

Directions

1.      Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. 

2.      With a handheld mixer, beat together the peanut butter and honey until smooth.  Add the baking powder and beat until just combined.  Lastly, beat in the egg until the batter is smooth and creamy.  Using a cookie scoop, drop dough on to prepared baking sheet (about 20 cookies).  Use a spoon to gently flatten each cookie dough ball.  Bake for 10 minutes.  Remove from the oven and cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes.   Transfer the cookies to a cooling rack and cool for at least 10 minutes (this gives them time to harden). 

3.      Once the cookies are completely cool, spread about a teaspoon of grape jelly on one cookie and top with another cookie.  Repeat the process until you run out of cookies.  I somehow ended up with an odd number of cookies.  Of course, I had to eat that one lonesome cookie in order to have an even number of sandwich cookies J