Gluten Free Apple and Blue Cheese Quinoa Flour Waffles

If you haven't already heard me say it, I love Waffle Wednesday! I love it even moreso now that I have a waffle maker. It's one of my favorite days to just play around and try to come up with something interesting and delicious. So if I'm being honest, a decent amount of my Tuesdays are spent brainstorming about what I want to put in my waffle the next day.

This week I was lunching on a cobb salad, and I thought what about blue cheese? It's a little out there, but pairing it with something sweet like apple really sounded perfect. Plus I had just tried Bushwick Kitchen's Trees Knees Cinnamon Maple syrup, and that seemed like the perfect flavor to pull it all together. 

I decided to keep it gluten free because I've been loving everything I've made with quinoa flour recently. And of course I love that it gives an option to anyone with Celiac Disease or a gluten intolerance or allergy. Plus it adds in some extra protein from the quinoa.

Here's What You'll Need:

-3/4 cup quinoa flour
-1 tsp baking powder
-1 egg
-1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk
-1/4 cup water (can use all 3/4 cup almond milk or all water if desired)
-1 tbsp coconut oil, melted
-1 small pink lady apple, chopped or spiralized
-3-4 tbsp blue cheese crumbles (depending on your affinity for blue cheese)
-1 tsp pure Maple syrup
-1/4 tsp cinnamon
-Pinch of sea salt

Instructions:

1) Mix together the flour, almond milk, water, egg, baking powder, salt, maple syrup, and coconut oil in a bowl.
2) Add in the apple pieces and mix.
3) Heat up your waffle maker, and pour 1/4 of the mix. Spread 1 tbsp of blue cheese over the mix, and finish the waffle off with another 1/4 of the mix.
4) Cook the waffle according to your waffle maker instructions.
5) Repeat for the second waffle.
6) Serve each waffle, and top with additional apple slices, blue cheese, and maple syrup as desired.
7) Enjoy!

Let me know what you think of this sweet and savory combo in the comments below!

Gluten Free Peanut Butter and Mixed Berry Waffles (vegetarian or vegan)

I know, I know I am SUPER late on putting up this recipe. Truth be told, I planned to have this up over the weekend but was hit with some weird illness Friday night that I still haven't completely kicked.

But it's here! Better late than never right? And it really will not disappoint. It's literally like a PB&J in waffle form except the jelly part is actually delicious, fresh berries. Does it get much better than that?

Here's What You'll Need:

-3/4 cup quinoa flour
-1 tsp baking powder
-2-3 tbsp creamy peanut butter (I use Crazy Richard's)
-1 egg or Neat Egg (vegan egg replacement)
-1/2 cup unsweetend almond milk
-1/4 cup water
-1 tbsp coconut oil, melted
-Pinch of sea salt
-1/2 cup fresh mixed berries of choice (I used blackberries, blueberries, and raspberries)

Instructions:

1) Heat up your waffle maker.
2) In the meantime, mix together the quinoa flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.
3) Mix together the egg or Neat Egg, almond milk, water, coconut oil, and peanut butter in a separate bowl.
4) Combine the wet and dry mixes until thoroughly mixed. 
5) Add in about 2/3 of the berries to the mixture. 
6) Pour half of the mix into the waffle maker and cook according to waffle maker instructions. Repeat with the second half of the mix.
7) Top each waffle with half of the remaining berries and any additional desired toppings.
8) Enjoy!

Let me know what you think in the comments below!
 

Gluten Free Banana Chocolate Chunk Muffins

There are a number of things that made me want to make these muffins. 1) I've been a banana bread kick (especially if it involves chocolate) 2) I had very, very brown bananas, and most importantly 3) I recently found out that someone in one of my best friend's family was recently diagnosed with a severe case of Celiac Disease. 

I recently learned a lot about Celiac Disease through the course I'm taking at IIN (ask me about it or click on the health coaching tab if you want to know more about the program). I'm by no means an expert, but my friend reached out to me to see if I knew of any food companies, bloggers, foods that were specifically gluten free. This along with just learning about and hearing other Celiac stories through my program made me want to go with a gluten free recipe.

I can't imagine what it's like to get that diagnosis, but there are really some great people, products, companies, and recipes that make the necessary transition to gluten free a little easier. So I was hoping to contribute just a teeny tiny recipe in the grand scheme of things to prove that you can still eat some damn good baked goods.

The recipe is also dairy free for my dairy-intolerant or just nondairy eaters and readers out there.

Here's What You'll Need:

-1 cup coconut flour
-1/2 tsp baking soda
-Pinch of sea salt
-2 bananas
-2 tbsp honey
-1 tsp vanilla
-1 tbsp coconut oil (melted)
-1 egg
-4 oz plain Kite Hill almond milk yogurt
-1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk
-1/2 dark chocolate bar (ideally at least 70% cacao), broken into small chunks

Instructions:

1) Preheat your oven to 350 degrees, and spray an 8+ cup muffin tin with cooking spray (the recipe yields 8 muffins). I use coconut oil cooking spray.
2) Mix together the dry ingredients (coconut flour, baking soda, and sea salt).
3) Mix together the bananas, honey, vanilla, coconut oil, egg, yogurt, and almond milk using a hand mixer until all ingredients are well combined and the batter is smooth.
4) Mix the wet ingredients into the dry mixture.
5) Fold in chocolate chunks, and mix until evenly distributed.
6) Evenly divide the batter between 8 cups of the muffin tin.
7) Cook the muffins in the oven for 25 minutes (or until a toothpick comes out clean).
8) Let them cool for about 5 minutes, and then remove them from the tin.
9) Enjoy!

You can easily reheat these if you're eating them the next day. Actually, I recommend it! They're so delicious with that gooey chocolate. Let me know what you think!

Blueberry Chocolate Chunk Whole Wheat and Rolled Oat Waffles

If you follow me on Instagram, you know by now that I recently purchased a waffle maker. I've wanted to buy one for months after trying some frozen healthy waffles and literally thinking to myself, "I could do so much better." Soon after that experience, I stumbled upon more relatively healthy waffles that were actually really good, delaying my waffle maker purchase.

But it finally happened last week, and let me tell you, IT WAS WORTH IT! Also, WHAT WAS I THINKING? Waiting this long to buy my own waffle maker seriously feels like a crime. This baby turns out delicious, perfect looking waffles. Plus, I can play around with whatever recipe I want (added bonus). 

Another fun thing that happened last week, I received my first Cocoa Couriers box (I'll link my review here). So when waffle Wednesday approached, I knew one of those babies was going into my waffle. It was pretty much a no brainer because the Blueberry chocolate bar by Brasstown was pretty much the most delicious thing I've tasted in my life. Also, blueberries, chocolate, and waffles - need I say more?

Here's What You'll Need:

-1/3 cup whole wheat flour
-1/3 cup rolled oats
-1 tsp baking powder
-Pinch sea salt
-Sprinkle of cinnamon (probably like 1/8 tsp)
-1 egg
-2/3 cup unsweetened almond milk
-2 tbsp coconut oil (melted)
-1/2 Brasstown Blueberry chocolate bar, cut or broken into small chunks (you can use any dark chocolate bar of your choosing)
-1/2 cup blueberries
-2 tbsp maple syrup

Instructions:

1) Heat your waffle maker.
2) In the meantime, mix together all of the ingredients (minus the maple syrup) in a bowl. You can reserve some chocolate chunks and blueberries to top your waffles, or just throw it all in. It's all going to one place, your mouth.
3) Pour half of the mixture into the waffle maker and cook according to your waffle maker's instructions. Repeat this for the second waffle.
4) Serve each and top with 1 tbsp of maple syrup.
5) Enjoy!

Let me know what you think in the comments below!

Vegan Raisin Cinnamon Roll Oats

It has been unbearably cold the past day or two here in New Jersey, and my room felt like it was -15 degrees when I woke up this morning. So oats were pretty much a necessity. They're the perfect, cozy breakfast and not sure if it's just me, but when it's cold, I want sweets. 

So I was going through flavors in my head and decided to go with cinnamon raisin, a winning combo, and for some reason it just reminds me of winter. But then I decided to add a cream cheese spread on top. I fed my sister a bowl, and her response was "this tastes like Cinnabon!" So basically she decided that these were raisin cinnamon roll oats. Great story, I know. But really, they taste pretty darn good.

Here's what you'll need:

-1 cup rolled oats
-2 cups and 1 tsp unsweetened almond milk, separated
-1 tbsp cinnamon
-2 tbsp and 1 tsp maple syrup
-2 tbsp raisins
-1 tbsp chia seeds
-Pinch of sea salt
-1 tbsp Kite Hill almond milk cream cheese style spread
-1 tsp slivered almonds
-Additional raisins and cinnamon as desired

Instructions:

1) Mix the rolled oats and almond milk together in a saucepan and bring to a boil.
2) Once boiling, reduce heat to low and begin stirring regularly.
3) Add in the tbsp cinnamon, 2 tbsp maple syrup, sea salt, and 2 tbsp raisins. Keep stirring until oats thicken.
4) Mix in the chia seeds and cook until oats reach desired consistency.
5) In a bowl, mix together the Kite Hill spread, 1 tsp almond milk, and 1 tsp maple syrup until smooth.
6) Split the oats between two bowls. Top each bowl with half of the Kite Hill mixture, slivered almonds, and additional raisins and cinnamon as desired.
7) Enjoy!

Let me know what you think in the comments below!