Quinoa Waffles & How to Make Breakfast Healthier

I fell into this by accident. I was trying to buy the grain version of quinoa on vitacost.com, because its way cheaper buying it online than in my local stores. But somehow, I didnt pay attention to what I was buying.

Finally my package arrived, and I excitedly opened it. I was planning on making quinoa stir fry later that day. Then to my horror I noticed I bought qunioa flour, not the grain....

I had no clue what to do with it. Searching online for recipes yielded nothing interesting. Plus, many people commentated that this type of flour has a bitter taste to it if you don't use it carefully. Great.

Anyways, I'm not one to let things go to waste so I decided to try this quinoa waffle recipe I found on www.food.com. It came from a book called "Recipes for Food Allergies" by Marilyn Gioannini.

 Quinoa is a great grain and flour substitute because it is gluten free. This is important for people with diabetes. For me its important because it means I wont have a sugar rush and then an energy crash an hour later. Why this happens is explained at the bottom of this post.

Follow this recipe EXACTLY. I thought it was weird adding shredded apples and fruit juice to my waffle batter, but this is important to mask that bitter taste quinoa can have.

Ingredients

3/4 cup quinoa flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 dash salt
1/2 cup apple juice or 1/2 cup prune juice or 1/2 cup non-dairy milk substitute
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 tablespoon honey (optional)
1 small apple, grated (about 3/4 cup)
1 egg (optional)

This recipe makes about 2 large waffles on a standard waffle maker.

Directions

Mix the quinoa flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt to incorporate it all together.

Mix the fruit juice of your choice, vegetable oil, and honey together and microwave for 30 seconds so everything mixes well. I used coconut oil instead which is a healthier type of oil.

Now add the fruit juice mixture and the grated apple to the quinoa flour mixture. Mix very well. Then add the fruit juice, oil, and honey mixture.

Cook them in a waffle iron.

I served my waffles with some eggs and my homemade sausage I made yesterday. This combination yields a gluten free waffle with some good protein.

The only issue I had was what to top my waffles with. Syrup is full of sugar, and I wanted to keep my breakfast gluten free...I was not prepared. Unfortunately, I topped it off with a caramelized brown sugar, syrup, and banana mixture. Just add some brown sugar and syrup into a small sauce pan and heat it up on low. Add in sliced bananas and cook slowly until everything is smooth and caramelized. Sorry I didn't measure things, but its so easy to make.

Hey, this is still healthier than traditional waffles! Plus I had to make this taste so yummy that my husband would eat it. Now that I think of it, I probably could have used honey instead of the syrup. Duh! Or maybe I could have just used honey and bananas alone. Anyways, I was trying to make it sweet so my husband would like it. He is not a fan of healthy eating, but he says if it tastes good he will eat anything.

I loved the waffles. Tasted great to me. My husband however is quite another story. He has very particular tastes buds. He said it didn't taste like waffles...ok. Waffles to me don't really have a taste besides being starchy. The texture was fine. They weren't extremely light and fluffy, but they were not densely gross either. 

I thought they made a great substitute for traditional waffles. Or maybe my taste buds have been burned off due to how much coffee and hot tea I drink every day. So for those of you who are not so picky, I'm sure you will love this recipe too. I know I will be making them again, even if its just for myself.

The original website I got the recipe from can be found HERE. 

Why sugary and high glycemic type carbs during breakfast, gives you an afternoon energy slump: 

I hate eating sugary and carbohydrate full breakfasts. Most traditional breakfast items like cereals, instant oatmeals, breads, muffins, pancakes, waffles, etc...are overloaded with this stuff and overly processed. These types of carbs have what is called a high glycemic index. This means they promote a rapid increase of sugar into your blood stream. Your body reacts by releasing insulin like crazy to bring your blood sugar levels back to normal. This entire process takes a lot of energy and your left feeling tired shortly after. I used to get an afternoon slump everyday, now I don't and I have constant energy levels.

Oh, and why gluten free? Gluten eventually gets processed down in your body to a form of sugar which is a high glycemic type of carb. Thus why a healthy diabetic diet avoids gluten. I'm not diabetic, but I am trying to cut as much sugar from my diet as possible. Plus research came out that showed too much sugar is akin to a poison in your body. It causes tons of diseases so its best to avoid it. That is hard for me because I have a huge sweet tooth, so I'm learning ways to substitute it for healthier options.

For example, I got rid of sugar in my coffee too by using stevia extract. The cheapest place to buy it is from www.vitacost.com. I bought the VitaCost brand stevia extract for $11. Stevia is super sweet. A few drops are just as sweet as an entire spoonful of sugar. Plus, since its not sugar, it doesn't affect your blood sugar levels.

Why cereal and instant oatmeals are bad for you:

Yes they are very convenient and quick breakfast items buts they are so processed and devoid of naturally occurring vitamins, fiber, minerals etc...Instant oatmeals are made instant by removing the harder outer layers of the oat berry/bran (whatever its called), so that it will cook faster. By doing this, everything that is nutritious about the oatmeal has been removed. And they add tons of sugar and artificial ingredients to make it tasty.

I'm not saying all are bad. I buy Mom's Best Naturals brand cereal because it is all natural, low in sugars, retained its fiber content, and has no more than 10 ingredients all of which I can pronounce and know that they are natural. Plus this brand is one of the cheapest healthy cereals you can get. I know a 24 oz box of the frosted wheats is like $2.58 at Walmart.There are tons of other cereals out there. Just read the labels and pick out something that is more natural and less processed.

I love oatmeal too. But I make it myself and I only use steel cut oats because the outer layers have not been stripped off. It takes a long time to cook steal cut oats. The best way to cook them is overnight in a crock pot. Add cinnamon, stevia granules or extract for sweetness, and diced fruit such as apples, and you have a very nutritious breakfast option ready for you when you wake up. I make tons of this stuff and freeze them in individual sized containers. Heat them up in your microwave for a healthier instant breakfast option.

This is the recipe I use for overnight steel cut oats, except now I use the stevia extract instead of brown sugar. Click HERE.

$2 off Johnsonville Sausage Coupon = Great Deal

Ok, ok, my previous post explained how to make homemade sausage and that I will never buy store bought again...

Its true, but I cant pass up a good deal either....

Get the $2 off Johnsonville Sausage coupon by clicking HERE. Remember you can print 2 coupons per computer. Just hit the refresh button and print again.

This is a very high value coupon that does not come around often, so stock up!

I think these run for around $3.99 or more depending if there is a sale.

Saving Money on Pork: buying at its rock bottom price and what to do with it.

It is very hard to find coupons towards meat, so your best bet is to buy a TON of it when it goes on sale.

Just like my previous post about the $0.99 per pound chicken breast, and all the wonderful things you can do with it- I now present to you how to do the same with pork.

Pork loin chops is a cheap cut of meat that frequently goes on sale for $0.99 per pound. Today I bought 3 huge packs totaling around 10 pounds, for $11.

Many of the chops I kept as is to be cooked into pork chops as the usual. I wrapped 2 of them in plastic wrap and put them in freezer bags. I did this to half of my pork chop bounty and ended up with 5 bags.

The other half of my pork chops were the kinda ugly ones. In these bulk packs of cheap pork chops, some of them were too long and had the bone part right in the middle which doesn't make for pretty grilled pork chop.

Left: ugly pork chop with bone in the center. Right: Pretty round pork chop with bone on the outside.

 So the ugly ones were aside and de-boned them for other uses. It is easy to de-bone, just follow around the bone with a very sharp knife.

Here are the many things I could do with the de-boned version of the pork chops:

Slice them up tenderloin style for faster cooking.

Pound them thin for extra fast cooking, stuffing them, or stuffing them into roll formation style.

Slice them up tenderloin style to imitate boneless ribs and BBQ them.

Keep the meat as is and throw it into your crock pot for shredded beef, sloppy joes, or chunky soup.

Pre-season the meat before you pack it into freezer bags. Try a seasoning blends inspired by different countries to get a lot of variety so you wont get bored eating so much pork.

Seasoned with soy sauce for some Asian flavor.

Grind the meat in your blender or general food processor for burgers and pasta sauces. You do not need a special meat grinder if you have a decent blender or food processor. I use a Ninja blender. Don't trim the fat off the pork pieces if you decide to grind it. You need some kind of fat to hold it together. My pieces were not very fatty anyways.

Don't forget those pork bones! Make some pork stock which is delicious for soups. I think pork stock goes better with Asian type cuisine (wonton soup, etc...), than chicken stock. Just my preference.

OR- you can make something extra special and spectacular....so delicious you will never buy the store bought version again, and so incredible easy to make it will astound you. Sausage. Lots of perfectly flavored, fresh sausage. And since you ground the meat yourself you know exactly what is in it. No preservatives, artificial flavors, fillers, or slimes.

 My favorite is Italian style. So I used this recipe I found from Emeril called "Homemade Mild Italian Sausage". Click HERE to go to the recipe. You can find recipes for sweet or spicy Italian sausage too.

Note: if your recipe calls for the use of ground fennel or anise seeds DO NOT SKIP IT! I didn't have this stuff in my pantry because I never cooked with it before. I almost decided to just not add it. But you must use it when making sausage. It is what makes sausage, sausage...and gives it that sausage flavor. Now that I have these spices in my pantry they will definitely get used as I turn some portion of every future bulk meat purchase into sausage. Like Chicken sausage for example. And the aroma when cooking with these spices is just heavenly.

Oh yea, and Emeril's recipe calls for toasted fennel seeds. Just put 1.5 tsp of fennel seeds into a small pan and heat it up until it gets aromatic and a light brown toasty color. It took like 2 minutes. Let it cool before you add it to the pork. I ground my toasted fennel seeds and the anise seeds in a simple mortar and pestle because I prefer it ground instead of getting seed chunks in my sausage. Just saying.

Anyways, you don't need special equipment besides your blender/food processor and your hands. It took me less than 20 minutes to convert the last 3 pounds of pork into 3 more sandwich size freezer bags worth of sausage. Make sure you sanitize everything before and after making sausage.

Two of these sausage portions was wrapped in plastic wrap and put into freezer bags. The other portion I rolled into many tiny meatballs for easy addition into soups. You could also make patties for breakfast. When making balls or patties, shape them first, then lay them out on a plat so that they are not touching. Then freeze them individually before putting them in freezer bags.

And don't forget- before you package the sausage away or cook it, make a few small patties and cook them up so you can taste it. Then adjust it to your liking. It sucks making a whole batch of sausage and thinking its well flavored, and then you cook it to find out its not.

I didn't have to add anything else to my sausage after following Emeril's recipe. My trial patties were so juicy too! The flavor was so perfectly balanced and savory. I don't know how to describe it besides "clear and clean", uninterrupted sausage flavor.

Garden Update Aug 31st 2012

My first time having a garden in 10 years...and its not doing so good.

I dont understand it. The only thing that could possibly be wrong is the extreme heat which makes watering inconsistent and possibly over crowding.

Anyways, all the vegetables that I planted have failed.
All the tomatoes had some disease which shriveled the leaves and stems before they died off. They managed to produce some TINY fruits, many with blossom end rot. I found out Roma tomatoes are notorious for blossom end rot. I had an Early Girl hybrid variety too, that just died.

The only one I'm left with is a straggly but still growing Super Sweet 100 vine. It has not suffered so badly from the disease like the other tomatoes. It produced a few fruit, all tasting really bitter. They also got ripe when a terrible heat wave came through in June which I think caused the bitterness. Since then it has not produced anymore fruit...

I will NEVER buy vegetable plants from Walmart again. They all had diseases later on. I will always grown my own from seed.

This includes the Black Beauty Zucchini and Straight Neck Squash plants that I purchased from walmart too. At least the zucchini produced 1 nice sized and tasty zucchini before it wilted into yellow leaves and died. I tried everything, fertilizer, epsom salt water spray, and antifungal sprays, nothing kept it alive.

Anyways, today I pulled the squash plants out and replaced them with some $0.88 each Mums that were on sale at Home Depot. They are perennial in my zone so that is a bargain.

Also pictured are some Gladiolus bulbs that will hopefully bloom soon. They are my favorite summer flowers, along with my Zinnias.

My Zinnias are finally starting produce quite a few flowers. I wish I had bought the Zinnia "Green Envy", and "Queen Red Lime" when I had the chance. Now they are all sold out and I will have to wait until next year.

My California Giant Sweet Peppers are another issue. All the peppers ripen when they are this tiny. I fertilize and spray with Epson salt water which has greatly increased the amount of flowers produced. They taste and smell wonderful, but are way too tiny.

It is hard to see, but there are 4 pepper plants in one 11 gallon bucket. Perhaps over crowding is the culprit for the tiny peppers.

There was a Roma Tomato growing in this upside down planter. It died. But I planted Sweet Mint and Lemon Tyme on the top and they are growing profusely. I love Sweet Mint.

My Sugar Baby watermelons. I harvested one that got to 3 lbs. Still small for this variety of watermelon. The flesh was perfectly pink inside, but it had no flavor. It tasted like water. Anyways, there are 3 more growing so maybe those will turn out better.

This is how I'm growing the watermelons on my tiny apartment balcony. They are doing really good. They had problems with some kind of disease but after removing the diseased leaves and spraying it with an anti-fungal and anti-bacterial spray they are doing great. These were bought at Walmart...will never do that again.

These are green onions that I bought in the grocery store and planted into my garden. Now I have an endless supply of green onions. There us also a yellow Gerbera Daisy which I have harvested lots of seeds from for next summers garden. Also rosemary is growing well and some cilantro seedlings.

Seriously, I had a hard time getting even this small amount of Cilantro to grow. I had lots of seedlings in June, but after the heat wave they all died. I thought Cilantro loved heat... but I found out it doesn't. So I scattered some new seeds among the shade offered by the green onions and they are doing much better. I use lots of cilantro in my cooking so I cant wait for these to grow bigger.

This is my Ginger plant grown from 2 pieces of ginger tubers I bought at the grocery store. I had tons of ginger left over and I didn't want it to go to waste in my fridge. I soaked them over night in water and planted them in this pot back in July. These things grow very fast.

My new seed tray for Fall 2012. Hopefully they will all sprout. They should be ready for transfer into the garden in 2 months.

Chicken breast, to chicken stock, to cream of celery soup all in one purchase

It all started with a sale at my local Kroger. Chicken breast on the bone, were $0.99 per lb. Wow. That is a great deal where I live.

I live on Galveston. An Island pretty much removed from everything. My grocery options are limited to 3 stores which do not have a significant focus on healthy natural and organic foods. I would have to drive 1+ hours to Houston to get to a Whole Foods or a Trader Joes. Also our farmers market is once a month, or non existent in some months. The nearest farmers market for me is 45 minutes away. So it is very frustrating trying to eat healthy when my options are so few and very far removed.

My local Kroger has a small organic section in the store. But I'm not impressed. Their prices are crazy high compared to online options or stores that specialize in this kind of stuff like Whole Foods.

And after all that ranting, the chicken breast on the bone...is not even organic. Oh well. I do not have affordable organic, open range, and grass fed meat options anywhere near me. So I make do.

I bought tons of this chicken. And I mean tons. Chicken breast is so versatile, and of all chicken meat cuts its the healthiest.

After cutting off all the meat from the bone, I processed my own chicken breast into either whole breast pieces, breast tender pieces, or ground chicken for burgers and such. Then I wrapped portions in plastic wrap and then put them inside freezer bags. Since the meat is wrapped I can reuse the bags over and over again. Then label the bag and date it so you know what is in there.

Then I'm left with a huge pile of bones, skin, and fat. What to do now? I'm very frugal and I dont like to waste stuff. Chicken stock popped into my head.

Let me express something to all you people who buy store bought chicken stock: store bought versions TASTE LIKE WATERED DOWN SALT WATER compared to the homemade stuff.

Seriously, I was shocked by the huge difference in color and dense hearty flavor from the homemade version compared to store bought. Mind you, I have no brand preferences or flavor preferences etc...like some other people do. I'm not picky. But there actually is a huge difference to note in homemade chicken stock. I will never use the canned or box stuff ever again.

Many people don't make their own stock because lets face it, cooking it for 4 hours on the stove top while your kitchen gets insanely hot and you have to check up on it all the time to make sure it doesn't boil over foam is not fun. Your solution and savior with this dilemma is a huge crock pot.

I dont have a recipe for chicken stock made in the crock pot. But this is what you do. Fill it half way with bones, skin, fat, etc... and then put whatever veggies you have on hand such as celery, carrots, onions, and garlic (just put the entire cloves in there no need to peel them) and whatever herbs and spices you like. Just dump it all in there. No need to chop things up either. I just broke the celery and carrots into pieces and cut the onion in half. Then fill with water to the rim. I set mine to cook for 4 hours on high, then another 4 hours on high, and finally on low for 10 hours over night. This ensures that you cook the heck out of those bones and extract every last bit of flavor. When all is done, remove the bigger pieces of bone etc.. with a slotted spoon and then pass all the liquid through a strainer into a big bowl. Then you get nice clean stock. At this point you can taste it and add salt or whatever spices you have to adjust to your liking.

Now this is pure chicken stock without preservatives. So I preserve mine in the freezer by putting it into canning jars. I have a large crock pot, I think it is 6.5 quarts. This made me 4 -16 ounce jars. I had so much chicken bones left over from the deboning process that I made a second batch, producing 8 jars total.

Ok, so now I'm left with a huge head of celery. I hate celery. For me its only purpose is to extract its flavor into soup. You could also plant the stump in your garden and it will regrow. So will I do with it? Make homemade cream of celery soup. This can be used to make a billion things that I will like. Such as smothered pork chops or a chicken casserole with all the chicken breast meat I have. And does it surprise you that this also tastes amazingly better than the thickened milk and salty water tasting store bought version? Also it is all natural and no preservatives. So this also gets put into jars and frozen. Make it in the crock pot with not much effort required on your part.

 I choose to follow this recipe to make mine: Cream of Celery Soup. The instructions are for cooking over the stove top. To make in the crock pot add the chicken stock and all the veggies into the crock pot, and cook 4 hours on high until those veggies are really soft and released all their flavor. Make the roux with the flour and margarine by cooking it until its thick and bubbly. Then slowly add in the milk stirring constantly. Add the salt and pepper. This is your thickening agent for the cream of celery soup. Wisk it into the stock with veggies until its nice and creamy.  And your done. I had 5- 16 ounce jars which I also preserved in the freezer.

I spent $12 for 12 pounds of chicken breast on the bone, which resulted in about 9 pounds of meat, 8- 16 oz jars of chicken stock, and a boat load of cream of celery soup. I probably spent another $3 on the celery, carrots and garlic that I used to make the stock and celery soup. So $15 for all this is a bargain. I cant even buy 12 pounds of chicken breast for that price when its not on sale.

Anyways, this is just an idea to use your dollar bills and ingredients to the maximum without any waste.

Awesome Toothpaste Deal at Target

I'm not sure how long this deal will last, but its a great price to stock up on the large 7.6oz colgate and crest toothpaste.

Target has a deal where if you buy 3 select Colgate or Crest toothpastes at $3.49 each, you will get a $5 Target gift card. This might last through Saturday, unless the new sales that start Sunday carry this offer over again.

Even without coupons this is a great deal.

3 toothpastes at $3.49 each = $10.47 out of pocket, but you get  a $5 Target gift card you get after making the purchase.

That is like paying $5.47 for 3 large toothpastes, or  $1.82 each

What is really nice is that the Crest 3D White toothpaste and Pro Health varities are included making for some very good toothpaste selections.

To make the deal even sweeter, find some coupons.

Target.com has a $1 off 1 Colgate coupon, which can be found by clicking HERE.
Print as many of these as you can. You can print 2 from each computer. Try to at least get 3.

Since this is a store coupon, you can stack it with the following manufacturer coupons:

COLGATE
Colgate coupon for $0.50 or $0.75, or $1 off found in the SmartSource August 26th issue. Coupon value varies per region.

Colgate coupon found in SmartSource August 12th issue. This is for Max Fresh variety. I'm not sure yet if it is included in the offer or not. Will check back on this later.

Colgate Total Advanced $0.75 off 1 coupon, click HERE. Total Advanced variety is included in the deal.

Check HERE for any coupons on the Colgate website.

CREST
$1 off 2 Crest Pro Health toothpastes, found in the Redplum July 29th issue EXPIRES AUGUST 29th so use it now. Pro Health varieties are included in this offer. This is a target store coupon so it can be stacked with Crest manufacturer coupons.

$0.50 off 1 Crest Toothpaste, Proctor and Gamble August 26th issue.

$0.75 off 1 Crest Toothpaste, Proctor and Gamble July 29th issue. Expires August 31st so use it now.

Ok, so once you gather up your coupons, the most ideal combination would be 3 $1 off 1 Target store coupons printed from the website, combined with 3 $0.75 off 1 Colgate coupons. This brings your out of pocket total for 3 Colgate toothpastes to $5.22. Then you get the $5 gift card, so its like paying $0.22 for 3 toothpastes.

So I'm going crazy on this deal....

So far I have 6, today I'm going back for 6 more.

Free Childrens Clothes

Thred Up has some great deals on gentle used quality childrens clothes.

When you sign up using my link below, you will get a $10 credit. This credit goes towards your purchased items and shipping. So if you select such items that the total with shipping is $10, that means the whole thing is FREE.

Click HERE to sign up.