Breakfast Favorite

I love food. I love to eat it. I love to make it. After years of saying I did not want to become a food blogger, I have given in and here I am. I want to make recipes that are easy, that do not require you to special order ingredients from Buddhist Monks in the high Himalayan Mountains. Finding a recipe that has a weird ingredient that you can’t find at your local grocery store is just annoying.

One of my favorite meals is breakfast. I do not understand how people can just have a cup of coffee for breakfast, even a bowl of cereal is too boring for me. Since going gluten free it has been harder to find decent breakfast pastry or baked goods, especially waffles and pancakes.

waffle-main

These waffles, I believe are so close to the real gluteny thing that you will never miss them. Add some real maple syrup and some butter, and it’s Saturday mornings as a kid all over again. We would have waffles on a regular basis a kid growing up. We always looked forward to dad making them.

Pure Maple syrup is a little strong, taste wise, for me, so I like to make Strawberry Syrup. We always have strawberries in the freezer, I use them a lot in smoothies (another breakfast favorite of mine!). If you start the syrup first they should finish about the same time, and you’ll have wonderfully warm syrup for your delicious waffles.

Perfect Waffles 1

I am a syrup dipper, but Mr. Wonderful and Mr. Z are both “syrup must be in every square” people. I feel a little better about letting Mr. Z have a syrup soaked waffle went it is mostly fruit.

Quick note: You can just add all the egg in at one time, instead of separating and beating the whites, but it will make them a little denser. Be sure to gently fold in the whites, because they help to make the waffles light.

Enjoy these on you next lazy morning or start a new Saturday tradition with them! They are ours.

perfect waffle 2

Perfect Gluten Free Waffles
 
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These waffles will feel you with memories of soft glutenous waffles of your childhood.
Ashley Teare:
Recipe type: Breakfast
Serves: 9-6 inch round waffles
Ingredients
  • For Syrup:
  • 1 cup strawberries (fresh or frozen)
  • 2 T water
  • ¼ cup Pure Maple syrup
  • For the Waffles:
  • 2⅔ cup (432 g) Basic Gluten Free Flour Blend
  • ¼ cup (57 g) sugar
  • 1 t salt
  • 4 t baking soda
  • ½ cup butter (Shortening or Earth Balance makes a few great dairy free butters)
  • 1½ cups milk of choice
  • 2 eggs, separated
  • Dash of Cream of Tatar
Directions
  1. For the Syrup:
  2. Combine all the syrup ingredients in a medium sauce pan. Bring to a boil and then reduce the heat and let simmer for about 20 minutes. (I like my syrup without chunks, so I pour it into the blender and puree it all together, and then let it simmer for a few more minutes.)
  3. For the Waffles:
  4. Combine all the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Be sure to whisk the baking powder and soda in very well.
  5. Next combine the yolks, milk, and cooled melted butter.
  6. Add that to the flour mixture and stir until incorporated, but some lumps will still remain.
  7. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites to stiff peaks. You can add a dash of cream of tarter to help stiffen the whites. I do this by hand, its a great little mini workout 🙂
  8. Gently FOLD the whites into the batter.
  9. Cook according to your waffle iron manufactures directions.

 

What we did this week: October 16-22

This week we got to enjoy some wonderful time together as a family. The weather cooled down to a nice early fall temperature for the weekend.

Our week, Monday-Thursdays, involve normal life things. Things like laundry and cleaning, maybe a visit to a park, and school/work for Mr. Wonderful and online class work for me.

But our weekends we try to do something fun. Mr. Z and I have joined up with a local chapter of MOMS Club. They have weekly park play dates and field trips occasionally. This week, we were able to go to the TAMU Children’s Barn. They had a tractor, horses, a cow, a pig, goats and sheep. Mr. Z could have cared less about those. Actually, he told me, “I like Trevor’s barn better.” When I asked why, his response cracked me up, “Trevor’s barn doesn’t have dirt and I can drive the tractor. And his cows are black.”

Z and baby chicks Z and chick 1 z and chick 2

His favorite part was the baby chicks. It took him some time to warm up to petting one. When it was time to go, he didn’t want to leave the chicks.

Z and chick 3

Mr Z
I love his smile!
Group shot
The group of kids from the club.

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After the barn Mr. Wonderful decided that the weather was too nice, so he came home early. We took out bikes out to check them after sitting and our move. My bike had not fared well. The casings for the shift cables had busted. So we went to a bike store and purchased all new cables and casings. Instead of biking that evening, we took a walk around a local park.

Afterwards, we came home and I started dinner, which was also recipe testing, and Mr. Wonderful worked on replacing all the cables on my bike. Recipe testing turned out to be a giant failure, and I was hangry and stormed off to bed. Thank goodness for Mr. Wonderful and his creative cooking skills, so no one actually went to bed hungry.

Pizza Mac
Pizza Mac

Saturday, we were able to go on our bike ride finally. We took off to explore the A&M campus.

Aggie Ring 2

Aggie Ring 1

We went to the giant Aggie Ring, and Mr. Z wasn’t that impressed with it.

my boysA & M

We also visited a couple of fountains and the Century Tree. We are enjoying our new home, especially now that the weather isn’t triple digits with high humidity.

Zucchini Bread

I can’t believe is has been a month! Life has been fairly crazy, but mostly my own doing taking on too much at one time. I am take 3 online classes working towards getting my lactation consultant things done. We still don’t quite understand how everything works here (Thank you GPS cause I would get lost 90% of the time I leave the house). We are on a crazy strict budget recovering from August. On top of all that, I decided to do a round of Whole30 in October.

As I was staring into the fridge for something for lunch on Day 18, it hit me. Why am I doing Whole30? Because I have been feeling crummy and was starting to have frequent flares because I wasn’t eating how I KNOW i should be.

So what if I stopped doing this round and just ate like I KNOW I am suppose to.

The stress level of my life dropped off the edge of a cliff. Why be so mean to myself by creating extra unneeded stress? Isn’t eating what is best for your own body what Whole30 is all about? It is!

zucchini-bread-main

Alright, I am sure what you really want is a yummy fall treat recipe. This recipe is one that I treasure. I might say that about a lot of my recipes, but food really is love, and sharing a recipe with someone is like the ultimate sign of love.

Back when I was newly married and actively participating and attending religion classes at my campus LDS institute building, we had these couples who would come in and provide daily snacks and a yummy lunch on Fridays. One of the couples was local and she would always bring in the most AMAZING zucchini bread I have ever had. It was my favorite when I saw that she brought her sweet breads to share.

zucchini-bread-1

For months, I would tell Mr. Wonderful about the bread and how I really wanted the recipe. But I was worried this Sister (in LDS culture, women are referred to at Sisters and men, Brother, it’s polite), might not be willing to share. Mr. Wonderful had grown up with her kids and told be that she was the last person who would not share a recipe, especially if she knew how much I liked her bread.

So, I finally got the courage to tell her that I like the bread and if possible could I get the recipe. The next day she had left me a handwritten card with the recipe. Her and her husband became friends of ours and when it was time for us to move, I was really sad to be leaving their strong example behind. They taught us much more than how to make really great zucchini bread.

zucchini-bread-2

This new version of the zucchini bread is now gluten free! And if you use good safe ingredients this is also corn, soy, dairy, and nut free.

 

Zucchini Bread
 
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Gluten, dairy, soy, and corn free zucchini bread perfect for a fall treat.
Ashley Teare:
Recipe type: Quick Bread
Serves: 18
Ingredients
  • 3 eggs, beaten
  • 2¾ c (300 g) grated Zucchini (For best results: Freeze grated zucchini, thaw over night, and squeeze as much juice as you can, you can also just use fresh zucchini, but be sure to get out as much juice as possible)
  • 1 T vanilla extract
  • 1 c oil (I like canola oil)
  • 2 c (226 g) sugar
  • 1 T Cinnamon
  • ½ tsp Salt
  • 1 tsp Baking Soda
  • 2 tsp Baking Powder
  • ¾ c ( 145 g) Potato Starch
  • ¾ c (98 g) Tapioca Flour
  • ¾ c (125 g) White Rice Flour
  • 1 T Xanthum Gum
Directions
  1. Mix in a large bowl the eggs, grated Zucchini, vanilla extract, oil, and sugar. Set aside.
  2. In a separate bowl combine the dry ingredients.
  3. Add the flour mixture into the zucchini until well combined.
  4. Pour equally, into two one-pound loaf pans. Bake at 350F for 30-35 minutes until the tops spring when you touch them. You can also make muffins and they bake for about 15-20 minutes.