Whole Wheat Waffles

I'm going to TRY to start eating healthier. I'm not going on a diet per se, it's more like I'm going to try to stop eating out and eating pre-prepared foods so much. It's gross how much crap I've been eating lately!

When we were at the grocery store last week, I saw my husband eyeballing the Eggo waffles in the freezer case. I told him that if he didn't get them I would make him some at home from scratch. Then we could freeze them and use them as needed. Since my waffle iron makes square waffles, they end up fitting perfectly into the toaster.

Take that, Kellogg's!

I found this recipe on Meg's Sew Liberated blog. She's a Montessori teacher who just had a baby a few months ago. She used to teach in rural Mexico, and I have learned SO MUCH from her! She posts the occasional recipe, and the one that I'm posting today is adapted from hers.

Lately, I've started to weigh my ingredients with my food scale:

I make note of what they weigh on the recipe, and then the next time I want to make it, I don't have to use any measuring cups. I just put the bowl on the scale and zero it out after each ingredient. I bought this thing for Weight Watchers many years ago, and it's been handy for so much more.

So the first thing you're going to need is some whole wheat pastry flour.

This is different than whole wheat flour. I'm not sure exactly how, but I'm willing to bet it has something to do with the protein/gluten content. I buy mine from the bulk bins at Whole Foods, so it's even organic. I'm willing to bet that most health food type stores would carry this.

You're going to need 1 3/4 cups, or 205g by weight. I doubled this recipe so I could have a good amount in the freezer though, so take that into consideration when looking at my photos.

You're also going to need 3 tablespoons of ground flax seed. You can buy it already ground, but it has more health benefits if it's ground not too long before you use it. I like this brand because it comes in smaller bags:

I measure out about 1/3 cup worth...

Then I pour it into a coffee grinder I bought specifically for this purpose.

After it's ground, I dump it back into the 1/2 cup Rubbermaid container where I store it. You can sprinkle this in your oatmeal, on your mashed potatoes, over ice cream - pretty much anywhere - to add omega-3 fatty acids and it won't affect the flavor.

So in this bowl I have the following (except doubled, 'member? You member.):

1 3/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour (205g)

3 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp ground cinnamon

and

3 tbs ground flax seed.

Go ahead and mix those together.

Now get two more bowls, and two eggs. Separate the whites from the yolks.

Take the whites and beat them with a hand mixer until they're pretty stiff.

Meg does what she calls the " 'if I turn the bowl upside down do they still stick there' test and bummer for you, though, if you haven't whipped them enough!"

Luckily, I whipped them enough. Set them aside.

Take the bowl with the eggs, and beat them slightly. Meg says to add 1 1/2 cups of Stonyfield Organic "Banilla" flavored yogurt. I can't find this flavor. The first time I made these I bought one of the little six packs of the Stonyfield Organic Yo Baby because I found one that had three vanillas and three bananas. I figured I would just mix them together.

Unfortunately, Yo Baby is made with WHOLE MILK (gag) and the resulting waffles, while tasty, made my mouth feel like it was covered in a fine scum. So, this time I used lowfat vanilla yogurt and a little bit of my Cinnamon Bananas that I had in the freezer. I think regular mashed bananas would work as well.

So, in this bowl, I have the following:

Two egg yolks, slightly beaten

1 1/2 cups lowfat vanilla yogurt

1/4 cup cinnamon bananas

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce

(Meg did 1/2 cup oil and no applesauce, but I'm trying to be healthier, remember?)

Mix those ingredients well, and then pour them into your dry ingredients.

Mix them JUST until they're combined. Next, add your stiff egg whites:

And gently fold them into the batter. Go ahead and cook them in your waffle iron according to however the directions for your iron say to make the waffles.

You can serve them healthy style, like Meg, and top them with more yogurt and some fresh fruit, or you can figure you're making up the difference like me, and use butter and syrup. The batter looks like healthy food when it's raw, but as you can see here, once they're cooked, you can't really tell them apart from the unhealthy kind made with sugar and white flour.

I cooled these on a wire rack, and once they were cooled, put them in Ziploc baggies in the freezer. They're even Bubba approved.

He ate one and a half for lunch today!