Grain Free Almond Flour Waffles with Strawberry Compote

It's been a while since I posted. I've been busy making my engagement party invitations. I will share those once they're complete.

I've been trying out a grain free diet the last week or so because I noticed that I never feel very good after I had pasta. I haven't done much research in regards to the technical terms, so please forgive me. I just know how I feel after I eat, so I based my adjustments on that. It first started out as a no flour (I guess gluten-free?) diet, that was fine enough, I didn't crave pasta even though I used to have it about 4 times a week. Then I went for sushi one night, and I just felt soooo bloated and uncomfortable. I realized that I always felt like that after having sushi, and I had always put it off to me eating waaaay too much. I also looooooove sushi. It was after that dinner that I decided that I should try to go off all grains. It wasn't too difficult as I had done various "low-carb" diets before. However, the hardest meal for me to adjust to was breakfast. I used to eat a bowl of oatmeal everyday for breakfast, so now what can I eat?? I've been sustaining myself in the morning with various fruits and veggies, but it didn't really cut it for me.

So off I went to Google-land. I found great recipes for grain-free breakfasts. I found a lot of egg recipes, but what I was really after was the carby breakfast. I was super excited to see that there were also lots of options for waffles, scones, even PORRIDGE!!! My first recipe was the Almond Flour Waffles. All credit goes to Comfy Belly. I didn't change a thing on this recipe. It took me about 5 minutes to make the batter, and I made my strawberry compote while the waffles were cooking. We were eating within 20 minutes of me breaking the eggs.

Almond Flour Waffles with Strawberry Compote

Inspired by Comfy Belly

Yield: 2

4 eggs

1 cup Almond Flour

1/4 teaspoon Vanilla

1/4 teaspoon Baking Soda

1/4 teaspoon Salt

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon (or to taste)

2 tablespoon honey (I used agave syrup)

Strawberry Compote

1 cup fresh strawberries - quartered

1/2 lemon

1 tablespoon agave syrup

Preheat waffle iron.

Beat the eggs, vanilla, and honey (agave) until smooth.

Mix in dry ingredients.

Cook in waffle iron.

How easy can it get??

The strawberry compote is just as easy.

Put the cut strawberries in a small pot.

Add agave syrup.

Add lemon juice.

Stir continuously, and cook until desired softness is achieved in the strawberries.

Here is the finished product!!

Cranberry Buttermilk Scones!

It's been a while since my last post. I can't really tell you what I've been doing, because I don't really remember. Well, that's not true. I went dress shopping again, think I may have found "the one". There's one more place to check out, but I found the dress at Clara Couture. This time Clara helped me, and I can tell she is so passionate about what she does.

Anyway, so I haven't made scones in a couple months. The recipe I had was good, I liked the flavour, but I found the scones really dense. After watching some videos, and reading some recipes, I decided that my problem was that I didn't use dairy. I used almond milk thinking it would do the job. But alas, you can't use almond milk for all of milk's responsibilities.

So, I found a new recipe, and it turned out beautifully!! I googled a loooot of different recipes. I didn't want a recipe with a huge batch, so I looked for recipes that yielded 8 - 10 scones. I've also convinced myself that not only did I need dairy for success, but I needed buttermilk. So I've found myself a buttermilk recipe.

Cranberry Buttermilk Scones

Inspired by Canadian Living

Yield: 8 scones

1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour

3 tbsp  granulated sugar

1 tbsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

6 tbsp cold butter, cubed

1/2 cup dried cranberries, or other dried fruit

1 egg

1/3 cup buttermilk

Topping

1 tbsp buttermilk

2 tsp granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

I used a food processor, but you can also do this by hand. Mix (or whisk, if by hand) flour, sugar, baking powder, salt. Add in butter, and pulse until mixture looks like coarse meal. If you're doing this by hand, you can either mush (very technical) the butter with your hands, use a pastry blender, or a fork to cut in the butter. Once the butter is incorporated, add in dried fruit. Mix in egg and buttermilk. Process until the dough comes together.

Pour dough out on to a silpat, or parchment paper. Form into a 1-inch thick round disk. Brush dough with buttermilk and sprinkle with sugar. Cut into 8 slices, but DO NOT separate!

Bake for 16 minutes.

When it comes out of the oven, it'll look like this.

Here's what it looks like on the inside:

It's so light and fluffy! I ate mine with Devonshire Creme and strawberry jam. Sooo goood.

The whole process took about 30 minutes. I was done making the dough just as the oven was done pre-heating. While it baked, I cleaned up the kitchen.

I love this recipe!!!

What's your favourite scone?

xoxo

~meesh

Chickpeas quest continued...

I've made another dish in my quest to diversify my love of chickpeas. Like many of my other recipes, I used what was available in my pantry. I had made plain quinoa last night as a side dish, and of course I made enough to last a couple days. So here it is:

Chickpea Quinoa Salad

Serves 4

2 cups COOKED quinoa

1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained

1 bunch cilantro, chopped

1 bunch mint, chopped

1/2 red onion, chopped

1 cup tomatoes, chopped (I used grape and roma tomatoes)

2 - 3 cloves garlic, finely minced

1 lemon

1/4 extra virgin olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

This is another simple recipe. Mix all the ingredients together, squeeze lemon over the salad, and drizzle the olive oil. You're set to go!

German Cucumber Salad

This is one of my favourite salads. It's so fast and easy to make. And guess what!!! I didn't get the idea from Pinterest! hahaha. This recipe is actually from Cal's mom. She makes it all the time when we go for family dinner.

German Cucumber Salad

Serves 2

1 cucumber

2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar

1 tablespoon of sugar

1 teaspoon of salt

1 tablespoon of dried dill

In a bowl, combine vinegar and sugar.

Slice the cucumber thinly into the bowl. You can do this with a knife, or use a mandolin. Salt the cucumber. The salt will draw out some of the liquid from the cucumber.

Sprinkle dill over cucumber. You can also use fresh dill.

Let it marinate for 20 minutes before serving.

Easy peasy!

xoxo

~Meesh

Chickpea salad...AKA unblended hummus

When I was on vacation in Cuba with Cal and his family, the dishes we really enjoyed all had chickpeas. I didn't think much about it though, it was just really good and that was that. The only thing I ever made with chickpeas was hummus. My hummus is very delicious, if I say so myself! haha. I'll post the recipe next time I make it. But, what inspired this post, and the following recipe, was Pinterest (Follow ME!) of course. Hopefully, this will be the first of many things I try to make with chickpeas.

Here's the original inspiration:

(Source)

I followed this recipe pretty closely.

Cilantro Chickpea Salad

Inspired by Oh She Glows

1 can of chickpeas, rinsed and drained

2 cups of fresh spinach, chopped

1 cup of cilantro, chopped

1/4 cup of sweet onion, chopped

1 lime

1/2 teaspoon of cumin

dash of red chili flakes

2 teaspoons of Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil

1 garlic clove, minced

salt and pepper to taste

Whisk lime, mustard, olive oil, cumin, chili flakes, and garlic together until it comes together.

Toss with chickpeas, spinach, cilantro and onion.

I don't have a food processor, so I chopped everything by hand. If you have a processor, by all means, chop the spinach, onion, and cilantro with that.

Here's how it turned out:

Let me know if you like it!

xoxo

~Meesh