Banana Cinnamon Waffles

Banana Cinnamon Waffles

Instead of making a pile of pancakes for us to eat throughout the week, I decided to make waffles. The recipe I normally use for both pancakes and waffles is great but I felt like finding something new or at least changing it up a little this week.

There is a lot of inspiration out there. I tend to start with the word "healthy" when searching for recipes on the internet. This usually gives me options most in line with how I like to cook. It mostly translates into using less oil, cream and sugar or adding fruit, veggies or flax to punch up the overall nutrition of something. For example, pasta sauce. I made a recipe that called for 1/4 cup olive oil once as is and once with two tablespoons of olive oil instead. The sauce tasted the same. Don't get me wrong, olive oil isn't bad but I like to reduce things like oil, butter and sugar where I can. However, I'm not one to replace ALL the oil or butter a recipe calls for with applesauce or yogurt. I've tried it and it just doesn't cut it. On the other hand, replacing sugar with honey or maple syrup has been successful in many things I've made. Also, it's common for waffle and pancake recipes to call for some sugar and oil in the batter. I've had no problems skipping both likely because it's usually only 1 to 3 tablespoons respectively. For me, the fun is in the experimenting. I always learn something new.

These waffles are perfect to eat right away or freeze for later. Serve with maple syrup and butter or your favorite toppings. I had maple syrup and chopped pecans on mine. Yum.


Banana Cinnamon Waffles
Makes 8 to 10 waffles
Adapted from here.

1 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup ground flaxseed
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/4 cups buttermilk*
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 large ripe banana, mashed
Cooking spray

Directions

Combine flour, flaxseed, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in a medium bowl, stirring with a fork or whisk.

Combine milk, eggs, and vanilla, stirring with a whisk; add milk mixture to flour mixture, stirring until blended. Fold in mashed banana.

Preheat a waffle iron. Coat iron with cooking spray. Spoon about 1/4 cup batter per waffle onto hot waffle iron, spreading batter to edges. Cook 3 to 4 minutes or until steaming stops; repeat procedure with remaining batter.**


*I haven't tried it with regular milk or non dairy milk but it works. Reduce the amount of milk to 1 1/2 cups when not using buttermilk. I have made this swap in other recipes but will be testing it in this recipe soon. If you beat me to it, let me know how it turns out.

**I have a waffle iron that beeps when the waffles are ready. I set it to the highest (7) setting to ensure some crispiness on the outside.

I'm moving... Soon!

Hello family and friends of Medium Food Mama. It's been quiet around here, hasn't it? I have been working on posts and having fun researching new foods to chat about here on the blog while juggling some changes. One of those changes will be a move to a WordPress site and a proper domain - mediumfoodmama.com. The migration has not started yet but I will update once it does. I am looking forward to a fresh start on the new site (all old posts will move with me) and I have lots of posts in progress. I'll be writing as much as possible while the site is created/migrated and stick them in the queue, which will translate into more posts more often, cool, right?

I may post a few more times here as I do have some posts ready but it depends on how long the switch will take. So keep hanging on, please. I've got some good info on granola bars, frozen waffles and easy homemade jam, just to name a few.

Wheat & Flax Buttermilk Pancakes

I recently found a blog called Out of the Box Food. I'm always happy to find another like-minded blogger. The mom behind Out of the Box Food has a sharp focus on avoiding processed foods and provides recipes for common "kid foods" helping you avoid buying the boxed versions. Cool, right?

Although I still rely on a couple very common kid food items in a box (Thanks Annie's for making it seem okay!), I always strive to make as much of our food as I can myself, from scratch and/or using exclusively real food. Over the last few years I have seen my pantry go from quite a few processed items to just a few. And that for me is success.

While on the Out of the Box Food site, I was immediately drawn to the Wheat & Flax Buttermilk Waffle & Pancake recipe. Pancakes are a fave at our house and the mix of wheat, flax and buttermilk spoke to me. What makes it even better is, it's an easy recipe and is perfect for freezing the extra pancakes (or waffles). Since finding this recipe, I've made three batches and I'm about to make another being that I used the last of our supply in the freezer this morning.

The author recommends making an extra set of dry ingredients to store for future use. I did that and let me tell you, it made an already easy process easier and more importantly, quicker! I highly suggest doing this.

Wheat & Flax Buttermilk Waffles & Pancakes
Recipe from here.

2 C whole wheat pastry flour
2 tbsp flax meal
1/2 tsp sea salt
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 1/2 C buttermilk
2 eggs
2 egg whites, room temperature
2 tsp vanilla extract

1. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sea salt, baking powder, baking soda and flax meal.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together buttermilk, eggs and vanilla.
3. Add buttermilk mixture to flour mixture and stir JUST until combined (do not over mix).
4. Gently fold in beaten egg whites.
5. Proceed with your usual method for making waffles or pancakes.

I used a large cookie dough/ice cream scoop for my pancakes and the recipe made 18 pancakes.