I Love Waffles!

I love waffles! They are probably my favorite breakfast item. But since I have been trying to avoid gluten and dairy, waffles have been difficult for me to have until recently. I also didn't have a waffle iron either, which complicated things, but my parents' gave my husband and I one for a wedding gift. I have a cook book that has recipes from my parents' neighbors. There is a recipe in there for basic waffles. I took the recipe and swapped out the flour for gluten free flour, the sugar for coconut sugar, and the milk for almond milk. I left everything else the same. Yummy waffles this recipe made! These waffles are delicious with just about anything. I have tried them with maple syrup, fruit syrup, fresh fruit, homemade jams, almond butter, and nutella! And if you like savory waffles I am sure these would be delicious in a "chicken and waffle" recipe. I have enjoyed all of these various toppings! I think sprinkling some nuts on top would be good to! Below is the recipe. If you are good and swapping in egg replacements, you could easily make these vegan as well.

I like recipes that are easy to swap out the less healthy item for a more healthy alternative. I am not a fan of these healthy recipes that tell you to add in xantham gum, this and that of one item or another. I believe that health conscious recipes taste better when we can keep them as close to the original as possible by swapping out a few ingredients - not all of them. Tonight I will be trying my hand at a taco casserole that will have ground turkey in it instead of beef. I am looking forward to it!

Gluten Free, Dairy Free Waffles

2 1/4 cups gluten free flour of choice
4 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt
1 1/2 Tbsp coconut sugar or regular sugar
2 large eggs (if you know how to substitute chia seed or other ingredient for eggs, you could easily swap that in for vegan waffles).
2 1/4 cups dairy free milk of choice
3/4 cup oil of choice

Mix all ingredients together until smooth. Put in pre-heated waffle iron and cook to waffle iron specifications. Eat. Enjoy.

Day 6 & 7: The Weekend

I made it to the weekend! This has been a typical weekend full of activities and all sorts of fun! And like always these activities include good food. Since I am on this diet, I have had to be very choosy about what I eat. On Friday, my boyfriend and I went to the movie with some friends and we went to dinner before. We did go to a soup and salad place that has a fabulous salad bar, so I was able to get a green salad with lots of yummy veggies and chicken and nuts on it! Saturday my friend and I went to another movie and after the movie we went to lunch. Fortunately, we went to a place that has a huge a menu so I was able to order a veggie burger and I left all the condiments off and just got lettuce and onions on it. The other veggie they put on their burgers is tomatoes and I can't have those so it was a very boring burger by even my standard and I don't like a lot on my burgers to begin with. For dinner, though, I made white chicken chili in the slow cooker. My co-worker found the recipe for me and it was fabulous! I will have to post the recipe when I remember to.

Today (Sunday) has been a little easier and that is only because I typically don't eat out on Sundays and since I live alone I am able to control what I eat more than most. For breakfast I sliced up a sweet potato and put in a skillet with some olive oil and salt and pepper and cooked the potato until it started to get crispy. I then added some sweet Italian turkey sausage to the potato and finished cooking the potatoes with the sausage. I was a little worried it wouldn't taste good because of the natural sweetness of the potato, but it actually turned out really well and I loved it! I loved it so much I cooked another batch this afternoon and portioned it out into containers so I have breakfast all ready to go this week. For lunch I just had some of the leftover chili I made last night. I then put the rest of the chili into some containers and froze it. I will have some yummy lunches this week. For dinner I cooked my first quinoa. I made stuffed peppers which were stuffed with quinoa, ground turkey, carrots, and some various spices. I then baked the peppers in the oven. They turned out great! I had stuffed peppers leftover, so I will be taking some to work tomorrow for lunch for both the boyfriend and myself. I have made stuffed peppers before and those stuffed peppers re-heated well, so I am confident these will as well.

I then whipped up a batch of my banana almond milk smoothies. Instead of making them one at a time, I decided to make a large batch that will last about a day. I want to have some with breakfast and since I would rather sleep than get up and prepare breakfast I took advantage of my free afternoon to get ahead in my food preparation. That is the biggest thing that has changed. I have had to take time to prepare almost every meal I have eaten at home or at work. In the past, I could just grab one of my tv dinners or something from the fridge\freezer for easy lunch, but now I have to take time to prepare. During the week I don't have much time to do advanced meal prep, so I was glad I had today to do some. I am set til Wednesday in terms of breakfast and lunch. Dinner doesn't need to be prepared beforehand as I tend to make that up on the spot anyways.

Tomorrow I will have been on the diet for one week and I must say I am feeling pretty good about reaching my goals. Thanksgiving is this week and I have already found some great recipes to do, so I will not be deprived of any of my favorites.

Have a great week everyone and I will be back with more diet updates!