Gluten Free Blueberry Cottage Cheese Waffles

Another week, another waffle (sorry not sorry). I just can't help myself, you guys! So believe it or not, this week I didn't spend multiple days dreaming about waffles. I actually didn't think about them until Tuesday night when I was like oh crap tomorrow's Wednesday! I thought about remaking one of my favorites, but first I started going through was I had in the fridge. Nothing stood out until I thought about cottage cheese. It's kind of like a middle ground between milk and cheese, and I've used both in waffles before. Toss in some fruit to offset the saltiness, and we have ourselves a waffle!

After I made these my mom actually told me that she used to have cottage cheese pancakes as a kid. I didn't even know that was a thing, but after making these waffles I can definitely see why!

Here's What You'll Need:

-1/2 cup quinoa flour
-One 5.3 oz container of cottage cheese
-2 eggs
-Pinch of sea salt
-1 tbsp coconut oil, melted
-1/2 tsp vanilla
-1/2 cup blueberries

Makes 2 waffles

Instructions:

1) Mix all of the ingredients except the blueberries together in a bowl.
2) Add in the blueberries and continue to mix.
3) Pour half of the batter into the waffle maker and cook according to waffle maker instructions.
4) Repeat with the second half of the batter.
5) Top with desired toppings, and enjoy!

Just a fair warning, this mixture is less thick that typical waffle recipes, at least ones that I've made. So when you're pouring it into the waffle maker, don't worry! It's just a totally different, lighter consistency because of the cottage cheese, but trust me that it will turn out delicious!

I topped mine with a few additional blueberries and some of my favorite granola. There wasn't even a need for syrup or honey between the flavors of the waffle itself and the toppings!

Let me know what you think in the comments below!

Gluten Free and Vegan Chocolate Chunk Almond Butter Banana Bread and French Toast

I'm pretty sure it must be a written rule somewhere that if it's a rainy day and you have ripe bananas, you need to make banana bread. Well, at least it should be a rule. Baking and rainy days are pretty much a must, and ripe bananas obviously mean banana bread. So banana bread it was!

I recently started using the Neat Egg (as I mentioned previously) as an egg replacement in some of my recipes. It has actually been wonderful! I'm not personally vegan, but my mom is. So it's nice to be able to bake something that I can actually offer her a piece of. Plus, you really can't even tell that there isn't an egg in the recipe, so the non-vegans will never know. 

I was fortunate enough to be able to team up with Neat over on my Instagram to give one lucky winner a full Neat prize pack which includes the Neat Egg and two Neat meat replacement mixes (original and Mexican). You still have a little time to enter (about 2 hours), so go check it out! In the meantime, let's get to the recipe!

Here's What You'll Need:

-3 ripe bananas
-1 Neat Egg
-1 1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk
-3 tbsp Gone Nuts Date Me almond butter
-1 cup coconut flour
-1 tbsp baking powder
-Pinch of sea salt
-1/2 of a 3 oz dark chocolate bar (I used an 88% cocoa bar, but that may be a bit bitter for some. Use whatever you like), broken into small chunks

Instructions:

1) Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
2) Using a small hand mixer (or a KitchenAid style mixer works just as well),  mix together all of the ingredients except the chocolate chunks.
3) Fold the chocolate chunks into the mixture using a wooden spoon.
4) Pour the mix into a loaf pan that is either lined with parchment or sprayed with nonstick spray.
5) Bake for about 1 hour. Ovens may vary, so keep an eye on the bread. When it's ready the top should be golden brown.
6) Remove the bread from the oven, and let it cool completely before removing it from the pan.
7) Once cool, you can remove the bread and slice it.
8) Top with some additional Gone Nuts or the toppings of your choice, and enjoy!

A few things about the bread, there aren't a lot of added sweeteners like sugar or maple syrup because the Gone Nuts almond butter contains dates, vanilla, and coconut oil. If you're swapping out for a different brand, especially an unsweetened almond butter, definitely take this into consideration. I also didn't want an overly sweet bread because you can always add more almond butter or sweet toppings, but you can't take it out. If you prefer really sweet, feel free to add in some maple syrup or the sweetener of your choosing!

I also ended up using the bread to make some delicious gluten free and vegan French toast which I highly recommend! All you need is about 1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk, 1 tsp maple syrup, 1 tsp quinoa flour, 2 tsp nutritional yeast, and 1/2 tsp of cinnamon. Mix it all together in a bowl, and dip the banana bread slices into the mixture. Cook the slices in a pan on the stove top over medium to medium high heat, flipping half way through until each side is a golden brown. I topped mine with some maple syrup and more Gone Nuts, and it was SO GOOD.

Let me know if you give it a try and what you think in the comments below!

Vegan and Gluten Free Beet Waffles

I've actually been thinking about making a beet waffle for a little bit now. My initial thought was to put beet chunks into a waffle like I've done with apple or berries. But then the thought came to me, why not incorporate the beets into the actual batter? Plus it would make for a beautiful color. 

So I was ready to make my standard quinoa flour waffle base and blend in some beets, when I remembered that I was recently introduced to the Neat Egg. The Neat Egg is an all natural egg substitute made from chia seeds and garbanzo beans. This seemed like the perfect first recipe to try with the Neat Egg. 

I've (attempted) to make a vegan waffle in the past, and it was just plain gross. It was really dense and not waffle-like at all. To be fair, it was my first vegan waffle attempt, actually my first homemade waffle attempt in general. Needless to say, I was a little hesitant about trying another vegan waffle. But the Neat Egg really came through. I honestly would never have known that the waffle had an egg substitute and not a real egg. It made the perfect waffle and wasn't dense at all. 

I topped mine off with arugula, feta, and spicy honey. I know, I know not vegan at all, but that is the thing I love about this recipe. You can make it for everyone! If you're vegan, it's delicious. If you're not vegan, it's still delicious. And everyone can choose their own toppings.

Here's What You'll Need:

-3/4 cup quinoa flour
-1 tsp baking powder
-3/4 cup water and/or unsweetened almond milk (I usually do 1/2 cup of almond milk and 1/4 cup of water)
-1 Neat Egg
-1 tbsp coconut oil, melted
-4 pieces of Love Beets organic cooked beets
-Toppings of choice

Makes 2 waffles

Instructions:

1) In a blender or food processor, blend together the beets and water and/or almond milk first.
2) Add in the remaining ingredients, and blend until batter is smooth.
3) Preheat your waffle iron.
4) Once preheated, pour in half of the batter, and cook according to your waffle maker instructions.
5) Repeat with the second half of the batter. 
6) Serve the waffles, top with desired toppings, and enjoy!

Let me know what you think in the comments below!

Jalapeno Cheddar Spiralized Sweet Potato Waffle

As you all know, I love waffle Wednesday, but I wanted to try something a bit different than the standard waffle.

I had seen spiralized sweet potato waffle recipes before, and honestly, they just seemed overly complicated. Why do I need to cook my sweet potato to then further cook my sweet potato? I don't get it. Isn't the point of a waffle maker to throw it all in and voila - delicious waffle?

I knew my waffle maker had it in it to be the one stop cooking shop for my sweet potato dream. So I was pretty much like, eff it, we are going for this. AND IT WORKED! All the more reason to love my waffle maker. 

Once I knew how easy it was to literally toss spiralized sweet potato with an egg and waffle it (yes I'm making waffle a verb), I decided it was really time to play around. First stop - a delicious and spicy jalapeno cheddar spiralized sweet potato waffle.

Here's What You'll Need:

-1/2 sweet potato, spiralized
-1 egg
-1/2 jalapeno, chopped
-1-2 tbsp shredded cheddar (depending on your cheese loving level)

(Makes 1 waffle)

Instructions:

1) Heat up you waffle maker.
2) Mix together all of the ingredients in a bowl.
3) Throw the mixture in the waffle maker and cook about twice as long as you'd normally cook a waffle. For example, my waffle maker generally takes 5 minutes, so I cooked my sweet potato waffle for 10 minutes. Watch carefully, as timing may vary by waffle maker.
4) Remove the waffle, serve, and enjoy!

It's really that simple. The outside may look a little charred (or it may not), but that's probably just the cheese. Trust that it still tastes AMAZING! Want it to taste even better? Top that baby with a soft fried egg. BEST. COMBO. EVER.

I'd love to hear what you think in the comments below!

Gluten Free Avocado, Strawberry, and Arugula Waffles

Waffle Wednesday, we meet again, and I couldn't be happier. Seriously, this is like my favorite food day of the week. It makes me want to open a brunch place specializing in waffles. The waffle maker has officially become my favorite kitchen appliance to play around with. So what do we have this week? Gluten free avocado, strawberry, and arugula waffles, and you will not be disappointed.

The idea stemmed from a couple of places. I see all sorts of fun and creative things on Instagram, and recently I've been seeing a lot of avocado toast topped with strawberries. So that got me thinking. It's really not that weird when you think about it. A delicious summer salad could be topped with both of these. That's where the arugula came in. It's like a summer salad in waffle form. And who isn't wishing for summer in this unseasonable 40 degree April weather?

Don't have quinoa flour? No problem! Swap it out for the flour of your choosing. Whole wheat is a good option of you aren't gluten free, or really feel free to use whatever suits your fancy!

Here's What You'll Need:

-3/4 cup quinoa flour (or the flour of your choosing)
-1 tsp baking powder
-1 egg
-1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk
-1/4 cup water (you can use all almond milk or all water if you prefer)
-1 tbsp coconut oil, melted
-Pinch of sea salt (optional)
-1/4 cup baby arugula
-1/2 avocado
-4 strawberries, chopped

Instructions:

1) Heat up your waffle maker.
2) Mash the avocado half in a bowl using a fork.
3) Add in the flour, egg, baking powder, almond milk, water, salt, and coconut oil and thoroughly mix together.
4) Fold in the strawberry chunks and arugula.
5) Pour half of the mixture into your waffle maker and cook according to your makers' instructions.
6) Repeat with the second half of the mixture. 
7) Serve each waffle and top with desired toppings.

I topped mine with an additional strawberry and Bushwick Kitchen's Bees Knees Spicy Honey, and I would HIGHLY recommend this. The honey is the perfect flavor addition to the avocado, strawberry, and arugula. Plus is has that nice little kick.

Let me know what you think in the comments below!