No more Store bought frozen waffles in this house

Last week before my in-laws came to visit we went to Wal-Mart to get some things for the house. While we were there we saw a waffle maker for $20. I’ve been seeing lots of waffle ideas on pinterest and I’ve really wanted to try homemade waffles. I really don’t like waffles, but I guess that’s only because I have only ever eaten the frozen kind that you can get at the grocery store. My kids love waffles and request them regularly but I rarely have a coupon for them so I don’t buy them often. Well long story short, yeah right, I will NEVER buy waffles again. I am completely hooked on waffles and have made them 3 times this week 🙂

I have made two different kinds of waffles. One is definitely my favorite but I will post both of them.

Yeasted Waffles:

½ cup warm water

1 package (2 ¼ tsp.) dry yeast

2 cups whole milk, warmed

1 stick (½ cup) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. sugar

2 cups all-purpose flour

large eggs, lightly beaten

¼ tsp. baking soda

Directions:
Pour the water into a large mixing bowl. (The batter will rise to double its volume, so keep that in mind when you choose the bowl.) Sprinkle the yeast over the water, and let stand to dissolve for 5 minutes.
Add the milk, butter, salt, sugar, and flour, and beat until well blended and smooth. (Electric beaters do a nice job of this.) Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and let it stand overnight at room temperature.

In the morning warm up oven to lowest setting, mine is 170°. Place an oven safe plate in the oven so that when a waffle is done you can place it on the plate to keep warm while you make the others.

Just before cooking the waffles, add the eggs and baking soda, and stir to mix well. The batter will be very thin. Pour an appropriate amount of batter into your hot waffle maker: this amount will vary from machine to machine, and you should plan to use your first waffle as a test specimen. Cook until golden and crisp.

***NOTE***

These waffles are pretty good, but I think that this recipe was ment for a regular waffle maker, not a belgium waffle maker. The batter is a bit thin and as a result waffles were pretty thin as well.

Don’t be scared to let it rest overnight. I was but there were no problems in the morning. Make sure that you bowl is big enough because the batter does expand because of the yeast.

In the morning when you take plastic off the bowl you will definitely smell yeast. Almost reminded me of beer haha. The end result tastes similar to sourdough.

Source: As seen on Annie-Eats

NOW ON TO MY FAVORITE! The one that has made a waffle hater love waffles.

 

These are called Brown Sugar bacon waffles but I omit the bacon part. Just the waffle recipe has been made by me so far. I think I will be trying the addition of the bacon soon.

Brown Sugar Bacon Waffles

• 10 slices of bacon
• 1/4 cup brown sugar

Preheat the oven to 375.  Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray, and line with foil.  Spray the foil with cooking spray, and line the bacon in a single layer on the foil.  Sprinkle each slice with brown sugar.  Bake until the bacon is crispy, and the sugar is caramelized, about 10-15 minutes.  Immediately transfer the bacon to a cutting board, and when cooled enough to handle, break into bite-sized pieces. Set aside. For the Waffles

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 Tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2/3 cups canola oil
• 4 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 cups buttermilk

Set your waffle iron a clean level surface, and set to preheat.
Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and brown sugar together in a large bowl.  In a medium bowl, whisk together the oil, eggs, vanilla extract, and buttermilk.  Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients, and fold in the wet ingredients.  Stir until just combined (its okay to still be lumpy).  Gently fold in the bacon, being careful not to overmix.
Cook in the waffle maker according to manufacturer’s instructions.
Serve with maple syrup and fresh berries.

Source: Pink-Parsley

***NOTE***

When I made these waffles I did have one or two left. They can be frozen and used for another day.

 

Advertisement

Heartbreak and a headache

Well I can’t believe that this happened. This is going to be a very picture loaded post, only because I am so sad. Last week I was asked to make some cupcakes for a little girls 10 year birthday party. Of course I said yes and was going to get paid for all my efforts to make what she requested, Chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting. Long story short we never got to taste these beautiful cupcakes. I dropped all 24 completely frosted cupcakes 30 minutes before I had to deliver them to the party. UGH! I could have cried. Instead my mind went into “how to I fix this mess” mode. I didn’t have enough cocoa powder to make a full batch of chocolate cupcakes I had to resort to making vanilla with chocolate frosting. I called her mom and told her what had happened and said that I was going to be about 30 minutes late to the party. I had to whip up 24 more cupcakes and a batch and a half of chocolate frosting. Impossible, almost. I thought about “Cupcakes Wars” and what those bakers have to do each episode and I thought that this is definitely possible. I baked the cupcakes in record time, put them in the freezer to cool before  frosted and ran out the door with 24 vanilla cupcakes. This time being WAY more careful transferring them to the car. If you try this recipe let me know how it tastes haha just kidding I have made this chocolate cake recipe before and it is good. Nothing fancy, just your basic chocolate cake made by the wonderful people in Hershey land.

Irish Beef Stew

I know I’m a little behind on the updating for St. Patrick’s day. I didn’t seem to get around to spending any time on the computer this last week. My in-laws were here spending the week with us. Good times were had by all and lots of cooking that I will update you on soon.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 tablespoons flour 1lb beef stew meat or diced beef

1 small onion (chopped)

2 large potatoes (peeled and diced)

4 carrots (peeled and sliced)

2 cups fresh sliced mushrooms

6 garlic cloves (minced)

1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste

2 cups beef broth

1 (12 ounce) bottle Irish stout beer

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1 tablespoon water

¼ cup fresh parsley (minced)

Directions:

In a large pot heat oil. Coat beef cubes with flour and fry in oil until browned on all sides. Remove meat from the pot and set aside. Add mushrooms and onions to the pan. Cook onions until tender.  Add the beef back to the pot. Stir in tomato paste, garlic, beef broth and beer. Add potatoes and carrots. Cover and simmer on low for 1 hour. In a measuring cup mix together 1 table spoon of cornstarch with 1 tablespoon of water. Pour into the stew and stir. Simmer until the sauce has thickened. Sprinkle with fresh parsley.

Source: blogchef.net

 

Lucky Leprechauns

Happy St. Patty’s day to everyone. Not like I need a reason to make baked goodies for my family but it doesn’t hurt when you are inspired by the very talented bakers in the blog kingdom.  I originally saw these cute little leprechaun hats posted on The Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle if you’ve never checked out her blog you should. Her cookies look so awesome. She is a very talented cookie decorator. The post about the leprechaun hats was originally posted by Lila Loa. She has inspired me too. I will be making Irish Beef Stew tomorrow for dinner and eating a few of these chocolate sugar cookies, which by the way I won’t be making plain sugar cookies for a long time. These are by far the best sugar cookies I have made. I do have a plain sugar cookie that I like but these are almost like small yummy brownie tasting cookies. A must try.  I will make sure I post all the details here after we enjoy our stew. Don’t forget to wear your green.

The End-All for Chocolate Cookies Recipe
1 cup butter

1/4 cup shortening

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon salt

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

2/3 cup cocoa

3 or 3 1/2 cups flour

Cream butter, shortening and sugar together. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix well. Add baking powder and salt and mix again. Stir in the cocoa until well blended. Add flour 1 cup at a time. IF YOU ARE GOING TO MAKE COOKIES RIGHT AWAY, ADD 3 1/2 cups flour. If you are going to “chill” the dough, or just wait for another day to make your cookies, STOP AT 3 cups. It will be totally soft and look all wrong, and you will want to ignore me completely and add more flour, but I’m telling you — DON’T DO IT. Practice self-restraint. You will be glad you did, and I will be proud of you. Roll out on lightly floured surface. Bake at 375 F for 6 1/2 minutes. (I roll my cookies 3/8″ thick.)

These are the perfect chocolate taste plus you don’t have to refrigerate before you cut, a definite plus if you want yummy cookies the same day 🙂

Source: Cookie recipe Lila Loa

CVS shopping day

Great Deals today!!!

Here’s the breakdown

Trans #1

Soft Soap Bodywash on sale 2/$7 (Reg. $4.50 ea.) get $5.00 ECB’s

used 1 ($1/1) and 1 (.50¢/1) coupons

Venus Razor on sale $9.99 (Reg. $12.79 ea.) get $5.00 ECB’s

used 1 ($2/1) coupon

Olay face wash on sale $3.99 (Reg $5.80)

used 1 Buy one Olay face product and get a body wash free(up to $8.99)

Olay Body wash on sale $6.99  (Reg $7.99ea) Get $2 ECB

Total before sales and coupons: $ 35.58

Total out of Pocket after sales and coupons: $17.39

Got (2) $5 ECB’s and (1) $2 ECB

Transaction #2

4 Bags of 9.9oz M&Ms on sale 2/$6 ($4.19 ea) Buy $12 worth of Candy get $3 ECB

Total before sales: $16.76

Total after sales: $12

Total Out of pocket: $FREE

Used the $12 in ECB’s from last transaction and I still have (1) $3 ECB for next week 🙂

So that’s $52.34 worth of product for $17.39. A total Savings of $34.95 or 67%

Love CVS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Quick Dessert

For the most part I try to make my cakes and cupcakes from scratch these days, but with the small stockpile of cake mixes I’ve acquired I’d better use them right? Plus they come in handy in a pinch. But I’m not talking about making cupcakes according to the box….oh no that just wont do. How about a twist?

Box Cake Up-Do

Makes 24 cupcakes

1 box devil’s food cake mix (I used Dunkin Hines)

1 small package Jello instant chocolate pudding  mix

1 cup buttermilk, (you can also use sour cream if you don’t have buttermilk)

1 cup vegetable oil (I used canola because that’s what I had on hand)

4 eggs, beaten

1/2 cup  milk

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350°. In a large bowl of a mixer put together everything  except chocolate chips. Batter will be thick. Stir in the chocolate chips. Scoop batter into cupcake pan lined with cupcake papers or silicone cupcake liners. Place in oven and bake according to package. Check with a toothpick. If cupcake needs a bit more baking then check after another 3-5 min. Cool in pan a few minutes before completely cooling on wire rack.

Frost and enjoy 🙂

 

 

Chilaquilles

After a long talk with my grandma the other day we got on the subject of food. Come to find out Chilaquilles are my grandma’s favorite. I have never had chilaquilles before but tortilla chips mixed with salsa is always a hit with me. I plan my meal plan for every two weeks. Since I had already planned on making nachos for thursday night dinner it wasn’t a stretch to change it to Chilaquilles. There are many ways to make chilaquilles. I found out that it’s usually served for breakfast with overeasy eggs and beans. You could really eat them anytime. This recipe would be great with leftover chicken added to the mix.

Chilaquiles

Ingredients: For Salsa Verde

1lb Tomatillos, husk removed and washed

2 Jalepenos, adjust for desired heat

1 Serrano chili, adjust for desired heat

vegtable oil

Kosher salt

2 cloves garlic, smashted

1/4 c chicken broth or water, can be adjusted depending on how thick you want sauce

1 bunch cilantro, stems removed, reserve a little for garnish

Ingredients: Main dish

Tortilla chips or Corn Tortillas (not fresh is better)

oil, if using tortillas

Monterey cheese, or any cheese you like

red onion, for garnish

reserved cilantro, for garnish

Directions: Preheat oven to 450°. Line baking sheet with foil. Place jalapeno, serranos and husked tomatillos on baking sheet. Toss them in oil and season with kosher salt. Roast for 15 minutes turning halfway through roast, making sure to brown skins evenly. Once roasted remove from oven and put tomatillos in a blender. Allow chilis to cool so that you can handle them. Place cilantro, smashed garlic and 1/4 cup chicken broth. Once chilis are cooled remove outer skins, tops and cut down middle lengthwise to scrape out seeds. Place them in blender with other ingredients. Cover blender and blend till smooth green sauce is formed. Add more chicken broth or water as needed.

If you are using corn tortillas, cut into triangles and fry in a bit of oil. Allow to drain on paper towel.

If you are using chips then you are ready to assemble Chilaquilles. Place chips in large pot over med/low heat. Pour Salsa Verde on top, covering all chips. Allow to warm and serve top with monterey jack cheese, diced red onions and a sprinkle of chopped cilantro.