Kaitlynn is napping and Kathrynne is quietly reading books. The house is so quiet it almost feels as if I have no children here at all… which is very, very rare!
I'm trying to take advantage of the quietness by getting a lot crossed off my list. I just finished up mixing up a quadruple batch of whole-wheat waffles and making a double batch of sweet potatoes.
Waffles are such a great thing to make when you're going to be spending a few hours in the kitchen since you can just easily stop every few minutes to take another waffle off the waffle iron and pour some more batter on.
Waffles are a great way to use up reduced milk, too. I often find milk reduced at great prices at Dillons so I snatch it up and then store it in the freezer to use for making waffles and pancakes on Baking Days. I try to set it out to thaw the night before and then in the morning, it's ready to go!
Here's our favorite whole-wheat waffle recipe, adapted from the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook–a cookbook I think every woman should own!
Our Favorite Whole-Wheat Waffles
(Makes approximately 6-8 waffles. I usually triple or quadruple this recipe for Baking Days and it will make enough to last for at least 4-6 breakfasts for us.)
1 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 Tablespoon baking powder
2 eggs
1 3/4 cup milk (I usually use half milk, half water–unless I have a lot of excess milk to use up!)
1/2 cup oil or melted butter (I usually use half oil, half applesauce. You can use all applesauce, but we don't think they turn out quite as well that way. I've also substituted other pureed fruits and veggies and those work as well. So long as you do half oil/half puree, it doesn't make much difference.)
1 teaspoon vanilla (optional)
Mix together dry ingredients in one bowl. Lightly beat together wet ingredients in another. Add egg mixture to dry ingredients and stir just until moistened. Pour batter onto lightly-oiled waffle iron and bake until done.
To freeze, I normally just let them cool and then stick 5-6 in each freezer bag. To thaw, just pull them straight out of the freezer and heat in the microwave, in a toaster oven, or in the oven.
After whipping up the waffles, I peeled and cut up the sweet potatoes and stuck them in a pan with water on the stove to boil.
Once they are cooked through, I mashed them, divided them into two
glass baking dishes, dotted them with butter and sprinkled them with a
little brown sugar. I just heat them through for around 20 minutes at 350 degrees before serving. We'll have one pan tonight for dinner and one
pan tomorrow night.
Our whole family enjoys sweet potatoes made this way. And it's so easy to do and quite healthful, too. I stocked up on sweet potatoes when Aldi had them for $0.99/bag and have been slowly cooking them up like this.
I just cleaned up the kitchen and did the dishes for the third time today (trying not to leave myself a disaster to deal with at the end of this baking/cooking marathon!) and now I'm off to make BBQ meatballs and granola bars…