Grain-free Waffles.

Waffles have always been something I enjoy.  Although since going gluten-free (and now paleo/primal), I never had another waffle again... That is until this Christmas, nearly 3 years later!  My wonderful Aunt gave me a great waffle maker for Christmas.  I had been eye-ing some grain-free waffle goodness for a while now, and I was delighted to finally be able to make some.

I topped mine with a happy pastured fried egg!

My first try came from Cara's recipe, here.  The recipe was good, but not quite right for my waffle maker.  My waffle maker is huge! My second try, using this recipe, was much better.  And then with a few edits, I came up with this.  Next time I will double the recipe and have more left overs.  Coconut flour is very dense and filling, so I can usually eat 1/4 of one large Belgian waffle, including various toppings, and be perfectly satisfied.  The remaining waffles I slice in halves and fourths and freeze for later.  They also make a great sandwich bread option.  Who needs gluten-free bread when you can have gluten-free waffle sandwiches?

Grain-free Waffles.

    adapted from this recipe

    makes 3 large waffles in my waffler, approx. 1 cup (a bit over) batter each

    4 Tbsp melted coconut oil

    6 real eggs, from happy pastured chickens

    1/3 cup + 1 heaping Tbsp coconut flour, more as needed

    1/2 tsp sea salt

    1/2 tsp baking powder

    1 tsp vanilla, optional

    1-2 tsp cinnamon, optional

    water

To make your waffles:

  1.  Turn on your waffle maker to medium heat. Spray it with olive oil - we don't want stickies!

  2.  Crack eggs and beat until glossy yellow.

  3.  Mix dry ingredients together. Mix eggs and coconut oil and whisk this into the bowl with the dry mixture. (Or you can be lazy like me and put it all into one big bowl and whisk together). It's better for egg incorporation to do it separately, and I think the "lazy" way might have actually taken longer! Add water to thin to right consistency, not too runny and not too thick.

  4.  Pour batter into your waffle maker, mine took over a whole cup of batter to fill. Depending on your maker you will get more or less waffles, and require less or more batter, or require more or less heat.

  5.  When done, gently remove to a hot sheet pan in a 200 degree oven to keep warm as the other waffles are being made.

I topped my waffle with a fried egg for protein, warm blueberries, fresh goat yogurt, strawberries, walnuts, bananas, chocolate chips and of course, grassfed butter.  There was also some grade B maple syrup on the side for dipping if desired.  The pictures didn't turn out as good as I hoped, so I will save you from them :)  My whole family really enjoyed these, and they were requested again and again on other mornings! 

Photo credit: Healthhomehappy.com

Enjoy your nourishing grain-free waffles, as well as your waffle sandwiches for lunch!  This is the best photo I've found of a waffle-sandwich so far.  Have fun waffling ;)

Raw Milk Eggnog, no HFCS!

That title says it all. What could be better in a drink than full fat, rich raw milk from grassfed cows, raw honey to lightly sweeten and no preservatives or artificial colorings or flavors?

Nourishing Raw Milk Eggnog

    2 cups raw cream, from grass-fed cowies
    2 cups raw whole milk, also from grass-fed cowies
    8 real eggs, from pastured chickens and a farmer you trust
    1/4 - 1/2 cup raw honey - I used a full half cup
    1 full vanilla bean, open and scrape out seeds
    ~1/4 tsp nutmeg - fresh is best, but we had none and ran out of the regular ground nutmeg!

To make your eggnog:
    1.   Combine cream, milk, honey, eggs, vanilla bean seeds and nutmeg in a blender.
    2.   Blend until smooth and frothy.
    3.   Chill immediate or pour into glasses and enjoy. Make sure you shake the jar before pouring some more into your glass! The spices tend to settle.

Some people use only the egg yolks, but I accidentally used the whole egg! I really don't think it matters this time, but next time I will remember to only use the yolks since raw egg whites have enzyme inhibitors so raw egg white shouldn't be consumed raw, whereas egg yolks can.

It's really that easy! This recipe is so nourishing you can eat it all year round, breakfast lunch and dinner, for a snack, dessert or treat, or even after a hard workout at the gym! The eggs and milk provide lots of nourishing fats and proteins, which balance out the sugars from the raw honey. No sugar rush from this eggnog. Only real food goodness. Drink up! Good-bye store-bought eggnog.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Morning: Grain-free Waffles and Fresh Eggnog

Grain-free coconut flour waffles,
pastured fried egg on top.

This Christmas was all about "breaking" tradition and making new ones. My brother G is engaged to a wonderful girl who lives "close-by" so this Christmas it was important to accomodate both families, and also do what was best for them. A happy engaged couple does not want to spend one minute apart, as I am sure some of you have experienced :) We ended up celebrating Christmas with the two of them on the day after Christmas, the twenty-sixth, instead of actual Christmas day. At first, the thought of this really bothered me. But as soon as the day came, I was more than happy to wait. We were very happy to wait and see them and be together as a family. That is the most important part of Christmas day to me. My family means the world to me. The next we had church, since it was a Sunday, what a better way to kick off celebrating Christ's coming and birthday than by going to church that morning? The rest of the day we had fun eating pot-roast, gluten-free Yule Log, opening presents and joking around and sharing stories.

On Christmas morning, my brother and I usually wake up, go down stairs with our presents we bought for our parents to place them under the tree. "Santa" usually comes in the middle of the night. When my parents get up, we have a "grab breakfast" where we eat a little, and open a few presents, and repeat. It's a really relaxing way to do Christmas. When my mom was not so educated in nutrition in my younger years, I would remember she would always make warm blueberry muffins for us. We always had egg nog, but it was the store bought stuff which is full of oxidized cholesterol, HFCS and preservatives. I used to love the stuff growing up, but I haven't touched it since learning about WAPF and real food. This year I was determined to make some real stuff. Thanks to these recipes from Wardeh and AnnMarie, I made the most delicious eggnog I have ever tasted. My brother, who is sold on the stuff from the store, even enjoyed it! That means it passed the "test." This eggnog is so nourishing, full of protein from raw milk and pastured eggs, lightly sweetened with raw honey, a sweetener that actually has benefits!

You can find the recipe for my raw milk eggnog here.

Real delicious EGGNOG, in process!

Farm fresh pastured eggs from happy chickens.

Foamy, nourishing and delicious vanilla
bean-flecked  raw cream/milk eggnog.

Before the eggnog making commenced, however, my parents and I were hungry. We slept in and eventually wandered into the kitchen to make some breakfast. I was lovingly given a new waffle maker from my Aunt on Christmas Eve. The adults in my family do a Secret Santa system, and she had me. Luckily she is a good cook, so she knows what to buy! She gave me the VillaWare UNO Pro Belgian waffle maker, it's so cool because it's one that you turn! Super fun. I was anxious to try it out, so we whipped up some waffles and did! I really enjoyed using it. It was actually my first waffle in about 3 years. I hadn't had any since going gluten-free; we never got around to replacing our old "glutened" waffle maker which my parents received as a wedding present. Miraculously it still works. Mom is going to take it to a second home next week!!

See here for my delicious grain-free waffle recipe.

I trust that you all had a great Christmas. I would like to officially say

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 

I must admit I hate saying that, but everyone does, and it would be impolite of me to not ;) right?
Did you do anything different with your family this Christmas?