Waffles

Expectation: To make a delicious, healthier waffle!

Winning Box Recipe: Kodiak Cakes Flapjack and Waffle Mix

Winning Homemade Recipe: Cinnamon Sweet Potato Waffles

Kodiak Cakes 

Always on the lookout for quick and easy whole grains, I stumbled upon Kodiak Cakes Whole Grain Frontier Flapjack and Waffle Mix on a recent trip with friends to Oregon. This mix contains all-natural ingredients: whole wheat flour, whole oat flour, milk, honey, leavening, egg whites and salt. Although I haven't made the flapjacks yet, the waffles were excellent: crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. We happened to add bacon to the batter, which definitely didn't hurt, but I know the waffles would be great without it!

Cinnamon and Walnut Sweet Potato Waffles

For Christmas this past year, I received a great new cookbook, The Frugal Foodie, by Alanna Kaufman and Alex Small, authors of the blog TwoFatAls.com. This recipe caught my eye from the very beginning.

Along with whole grains, I love using vegetables in my baking because they add nutrients to otherwise empty-calorie foods. These waffles contain several healthy ingredients; whole wheat flour, cinnamon, sweet potato (or yams, in my case), walnuts and bananas (depending on your choice of toppings). Another bonus about this recipe is that it only contains a quarter cup of brown sugar, as the waffles are sweetened mostly by the sweet potato. I used a yam because yams are a bit sweeter and have that great orange color. 

These waffles are really fun. They have a rich, brown color, and offer layers of flavor from the spices, orange zest and yam. Although they are not particularly crispy, the texture is solid and holds up well to toppings. 

For this recipe (and more), click here: Cinnamon Sweet Potato Waffles

While on the topic of waffles, don't miss one of my all time favorite blogs, Waffleizer.

Quaker Oats Oatmeal Pancake Mix

The other day at Safeway I stumbled upon a new product, Quaker Oats Oatmeal Pancake Mix. The mix is 100% whole grain, containing oat flour and whole wheat flour. On the back of the box there are recipes for Heart Healthy Pancakes and Waffles (with skim milk and egg white) and Traditional Pancakes and Waffles (with 2% milk, a whole egg, and oil.)

I made the traditional pancakes and was quite pleased! They were very easy to make, and the final product was light, fluffy, moist and had great flavor.

The recipe said it would make 7-9 pancakes, but I ended up with 4 (mine were each 4-5 inches large, not dollar pancakes). After eating two (with tasty banana topping and eggs on the side), I felt like I had eaten a substantial meal, without feeling tired or too full. I definitely recommend this mix as an easy way to add whole grain to your weekend breakfast, without sacrificing flavor!

The nutrition facts for 1/3 cup mix (each of my pancakes were 1/4 cup) are:
150 Calories
2 g Fat
31g Carbohydrates
4g Fiber

Trader Joe's Multigrain Baking Mix: Biscuits

I recently purchased a box of Trader Joe's Multigrain Baking & Pancake mix and am looking forward to trying all the recipes on the box.

The baking mix contains white flour, whole wheat flour, ground rolled oats, leavening (baking powder), soybean oil, sugar, yellow cornmeal, wheat bran, oat bran, brown rice flour, salt and buttermilk. That's six different whole grains! And it's super easy to work with. I was a fan before I even used it.

Today I made the biscuits. I wanted something tasty for tomorrow morning, but didn't have the time or energy to slave away on cinnamon rolls or chocolate croissants, so I grabbed the TJ's baking mix. The recipe makes 8-10 biscuits (although, I made six with half a batch), which was too many, so I halved it. This was very easy to do, as there was no egg involved - just 1 cup of baking mix, 1/3 cup milk and 1 1/2 tablespoons of oil. Combine, knead, roll, cut and bake!

The end result was pretty good. They had a definite "healthy" taste, but also a nice light texture. If you don't mind the taste of whole wheat, I would recommend these biscuits. They were really easy to make and a nice treat to have in the morning.

Here are the nutrition facts of 1/3 cup of the baking mix (one biscuit was 1/6 cup):
150 calories
2g fat
28g carbohydrates
2g fiber