Blackstrap Waffles

EHRMEGERD, WERFLS.

*ahem*

I mean, wow I forgot how much I love waffles!
Mmmmmmm.......


Ok back from delicious reverie. 
I made them with two eggs initially, then needed to add a third to compensate for the lack of gluten. They came out fantastic!

Turn your waffle iron on high.

Into a bowl: 3 jumbo eggs (I used duck eggs), 1-2tbsp butter, 1tsp vanilla, 2tbsp blackstrap molasses (just a hint of sweet and good for you too!) Blend. 
Add 1.5c milk of choice (I used fresh almond milk), and blend again.

Through a little sifter add 1tsp baking powder, 1/2tsp salt, 1/3c coconut flour, 1/3c almond flour, 1/3c flaxmeal (fresh grind 1/3c flax seeds). Blend again and voila!

If your iron is hot, spray with a little oil or just spoon some coconut oil onto the bottoms like I did and wipe some on the top side, too. Put a heaping 1/3c batter for each waffle, and cook for about 4-5 minutes. Peek at 4 and see how they're doing. 

If they are crumbly like my first batch, add another egg. Again- these were 3 jumbo duck eggs, so it might be more like 4 chicken eggs.

Make 6 awesome delicious waffles. So probably feeds 3.

These aren't super sweet - you could use them as pancake batter, and sweet with syrup and berries or savory with smoked salmon and capers! 

Imagination is King. 

(Breakfast this morning - with pure maple syrup and a little ginger powder)

Acupuncture, El Hobbit, and The Most Amazing Chai

Hello friends!

What a wild ride life can be sometimes. There are ups and downs, and sometimes corkscrews, or long flat stretches when you think you might lose momentum and just stop entirely, and waterfalls and zero-gravity points... 
This past month was a lighter rotation working in the surgery clinic only 50 hours a week, so I have been capitalizing on the opportunity to expand my life. Spanish learning, guitar playing, Tony Robbins Personal Power cassettes (yes, cassettes!!), yoga, Buns of Steel (note the early 90's theme...), gardening, and of course cooking and eating!

Life is too precious to waste it on being mundane.

And so here I am, status post an amazing acupuncture session to move my stagnant overworked Qi, with a copy of El Hobbit next to me as incentive to practice my Spanish (because El Hobbit is far more interesting than Señior Burridan's Donkey).  
I humbly present to you my favorite new recipe of this past month:

The Most Amazing Chai

This starts with amazing almond milk.
Buy a bag of blanched almonds. Don't bother blanching and peeling them yourself- there is minimal cost difference and it's just

 not the same.

Place 1 cup of said almonds into blender with 3 cups of water and 1 tsp good vanilla extract.
Blend. A lot. 

Strain through good cheesecloth, the thicker the cloth the longer it will take - but the creamier the end product will be. I actually use a cloth yogurt straining bag. (and save the almond paste to make something yummy!)
You can stretch to 4 or even 6 cups of water for everyday almond milk, but only use 2.5 - 3 for the thick creamy texture of "half&half" for good chai :)

For the chai itself, follow this recipe: (credit where credit is due-  this tea base is amazing)
http://chai-tea.org/rec/rec101.html

I changed the following: I boiled the spices for a while before adding the tea since I didn't want a bitter taste from using black non-Indian tea. I added the almond milk (instead of half&half) after I strained the tea, with 1 tsp of honey per 6oz tea instead of sugar.

If you boil the almond milk it may separate!!

It is amazingly delicious and makes enough to share...or just more for you!

Peace and Good Eats,

Elizabeth

More recipes to follow, every week, I promise!!