Banana Dried Fruit Waffles

This is another type of healthy waffle that I had in mind.  My elder girl won't eat banana but she liked banana cake.  So, I thought I would smashed up the banana and added into the batter and make the waffle so that she doesn't even know she is eating a waffle with banana in it.  On of my readers suggested me to slice the banana and bake it with the waffle which gave me the idea.  For this, I only used one large banana and surprisingly I could still smell the banana in this waffle.

I read that a good energy food for breakfast is oatmeal, banana, milk and etc.  So, this is definitely a good energy boost breakfast for you to last until lunch.  Not to say, yummy too and no syrup needed!  This waffle has oatmeal, banana, milk, eggs, honey and dried cranberries to list some.

~Yields about 12 waffles (for the above shape)

Ingredients:

2 large eggs

1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cup instant oatmeal/ quick-cooking oats

1 Tbsp. baking powder

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1/2 tsp. cinnamon powder

1/4 tsp. salt

4 Tbsp. sugar

2 Tbsp. honey

1 3/4 cup 1 % milk

1/2 cup canola oil

1 large banana or two smalls, mashed (frozen works great)

Dried cranberries or raisin, as needed (optional)

Method:

1.  In a big bowl, hand whisk the two eggs until beaten.  Add in the rest of the wet ingredients, whisk well.  Then, add all of the dry ingredients except dried cranberries or raisin and hand whisk until all is blended.  Set aside.

2.  Preheat your waffle maker.  When preheated, spray with buttery non-stick spray and scoop some of the batter onto the waffle iron.  Spread some dried cranberries or raisin on top.  Then, cover the top and side with more batter.  Cover and cook until brown.  For mine is about 6 minutes.  Exact time depends on your waffle maker.

3.  Take it out with a spatula and chopstick and serve hot.

4.  Or cool on wire rack and put in a zip lock bag and freeze for future use.  Toast in a toaster to heat it up.

Pandan Oatmeal Waffles

I wanted to try pandan waffle and yet I wanted it to be healthy for my girls.  So, I added instant oatmeal.  I added chocolate chips because my girls loved them.  As this waffle is a to-go waffle and we eat it as is, I also added some dried cranberries and made it sweeter.  The calories for one of this is definitely 2-3 times higher than a piece of plain whole wheat bread.  But for growing up girls it should be fine.  What the heck, I eat it too because it's really good and it has oatmeal in it.

I actually loved the color because it is a change from the usual.  Strangely though Evy didn't like it and she was the one that asked me to make the Pandan waffle in the first place.  Guess I will have to omit Pandan and use vanilla extract for her.  I have an idea for another type of waffle which I am going to experiment next because of an article I read recently.

Ingredients:

2 large eggs

1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cup instant oatmeal/ quick-cooking oats

1 Tbsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. pandan extract

1/4 tsp. salt

4 Tbsp. sugar

2 Tbsp. honey

1 3/4 cup 1 % milk

1/2 cup canola oil

Dried cranberries & chocolate chips, as needed (optional)

Method:

1.  In a big bowl, hand whisk the two eggs until fluffy.  Add in the rest of the ingredients except dried cranberries & chocolate chips and hand whisk until all is blended.  Set aside.

2.  Preheat your waffle maker.  When preheated, spray with buttery non-stick spray and scoop some of the batter onto the waffle iron.  Spread some dried cranberries & chocolate chips on top.  Then, cover the top and side with more batter.  Cover and cook until brown.  For mine is about 6 minutes.  Exact time depends on your waffle maker.

3.  Take it out with a spatula and chopstick and serve hot.

Or cool on wire rack and put in a zip lock bag and freeze for future use.  Toast in a toaster to heat it up.

Healthy Wheat Oatmeal Waffles

As you know, I just bought a waffle maker.  With the new toy, of course I got to create healthy recipe to serve my girls.  I have a bag of instant oatmeal that no one wants to eat.  So, making waffle is the way to go as I don't like to waste food.  Again, I am making this sweeter as I am going to serve it plain and as a to-go breakfast.  After I added the flour and instant oatmeal, the batter was a bit watery so in some whole wheat flour.  I also wanted to incorporate some fruit into my girls breakfast, so I thought of dried cranberries.  I can say one piece of this waffle is pretty healthy because it has oatmeal, whole wheat flour, milk, dried cranberries, honey and eggs into the mix.  What's best is it is homemade!  When I was done with the waffles of course it was the taste test time.  Quickly gathered my girls and asked them to try.  My girls loved it!  Great news for me as this is way healthier than the basic waffle.

This wheat oatmeal waffles actually crispy on the outside and soft and fluffy on the inside when still warm.  Just remember to cook it until brown.  This recipe is for those who prefer healthier recipe and with adaptable taste.

Ingredients:

2 large eggs

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup instant oatmeal/ quick-cooking oats

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

4 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon 

1/4 tsp. salt

4 Tbsp. brown sugar

2 Tbsp. honey

1 3/4 cup 1 % milk

1/2 cup canola oil

Dried cranberries, as needed

Method:

1.  In a big bowl, hand whisk the two eggs until fluffy.  Add in the rest of the ingredients except dried cranberries and hand whisk until all is blended.  Set aside.

2.  Preheat your waffle maker.  When preheated, spray with buttery non-stick spray and scoop some of the batter onto the waffle iron.  Spread some dried cranberries on top.  Then, cover the top and side with more batter.  Cover and cook until brown.  For mine is about 6 minutes.  Exact time depends on your waffle maker.

3.  Take it out with a spatula and chopstick and serve hot.

Or cool on wire rack and put in a zip lock bag and freeze for future use.  Toast in a toaster to heat it up.

Basic Waffles

I finally bought a waffle iron!  Well, if I don't look at brand and read at the reviews, I can get a waffle iron for fairly cheap here.  You can call it my impulse buying.  My girls like to have waffle for breakfast but the frozen ones in the supermarket have partially hydrogenated oil in them even thought they were listed as zero trans fat.  So, I stopped buying frozen waffles a while back.  Thus, the best way for me is to make my own waffle using the ingredients I know and serve it to my girls.  I found the bellow recipe at allrecipes.com and modified it a little to include more sugar and added honey so that my girls can eat the waffle as is.  No extra spread of butter or syrup needed.  I am going to play with this recipe more to create a healthier version like using whole wheat flour or oatmeal flour, etc.

As you can see, I already played with this basic recipe to add some chocolate chips.   Last batch, I added some cocoa powder as well.  This waffle is slight crispy on the outside and soft and fluffy on the inside.  It crisp up more when toast in the toaster.  Homemade is definitely the best way to go!

Recipe adapted from Allrecipes.com with slight modification.  For my waffle size, it yields 12 pieces.

Ingredients:

2 eggs 

(A) 

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 3/4 cups milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 tablespoons white sugar
1 tablespoons honey (optional)
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

(B)
Chocolate chips as needed

Method:

1.  Preheat waffle iron.  Beat eggs in a large bowl with hand beater until fluffy.  Add in (A) and hand beat until smooth.  Or you can blend it in a blender until smooth.

2.  Spray preheated waffle iron with butter flavored cooking spray.  Use a ladle to drop some of the mix onto the hot iron.  Sprinkle with some chocolate chips (try to spread it even) and add a little more mix on top.  Cover and cook until golden brown.  How long to cook depends on the waffle iron you used, just keep watch.  Serve hot.

3.  Put the leftover in the freezer bag and freeze for whenever.  Just toast it in the toaster until crispy and brown.  Since I put the frozen one straight from the freezer to the toaster, I had to toast it 2 times, one to defroze and the next to crisp.