Health(ier) waffles

I love breakfast foods, especially the sweet stuff like donuts and french toast and waffles with all kinds of decadent toppings on them. Unfortunately, all that sugary stuff makes me feel lousy the rest of the day (not to mention how it affects the scale!). Knowing this, Grant surprised me with a waffle maker for Christmas, which we’ve been having fun with trying all sorts of different healthier waffle recipes. I found this recipe after trying several different and delicious batches, and we decided that we liked it the best so we haven’t gone back. I’ll get adventurous and try something new here soon, but I think these will definitely be the standby version.

This recipe would work just as well with pancakes if your husband doesn’t buy you waffle makers! 🙂 The recipe could easily be dairy-free by substituting the yogurt for coconut milk yogurt (or other dairy-free yogurts).

Honey Yogurt Waffles
Adapted from Annie’s Eats

Ingredients3 tbsp coconut oil (read here for benefits of coconut oil; here’s where we get ours)
1 cup all-purpose white whole wheat flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup old-fashioned oats
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1 1/4 cups coconut milk (hemp and rice milk are delicious for a change too)
3/4 cup plain yogurt
1/3 cup raw honey
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions

Melt the coconut oil and set aside.
Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl. Mix the remaining ingredients – milk, yogurt, honey, eggs and vanilla until well blended. Fold the “wet” ingredients into the bowl of dry ingredients, mixing until just blended. Fold in the melted coconut oil and stir – barely.
Preheat your waffle iron/griddle, and then bake until waffle is lightly browned. Continue until you have used all of your batter. Every waffle press is different, but I typically get about eight – ten waffles from this recipe.

Tips and Tricks

I usually double the recipe to make closer to twenty waffles. I let them cool and then freeze them. On the morning that we want to eat them, we put them in the toaster to reheat them. They taste just as delicious as they do when they’re freshly baked – if you ask me.
I occasionally add a 1/2 cup of berries to the batter to make blueberry, strawberry, raspberry, etc. varieties.
Jasper usually eats the waffles with peanut butter and honey on top, but I made him blueberry syrup once, which he is now obsessed with. I save it only for special occasions, but he practically drinks the stuff when I do make it.
We use local raw honey that we picked up at Eisele’s Farm in Sheridan. The boys in our family have allergies, so we use that as an excuse to eat lots of local honey at our house.