Breakfast Delights

Some people can get by without eating breakfast. Not me. I wouldn’t last until ten o’clock without. My usual breakfast starts with a half grapefruit or orange wedges. It continues with oatmeal cooked with raisins or dried cranberries and topped with whole-milk yogurt. Sometimes I raise the protein level 3.5 grams by stirring in a tablespoon of Adams’ natural peanut butter into the cooked oatmeal. Peanuts and salt are the only ingredients Adams puts into their peanut butter—never preservatives or corn syrup.

My son chooses a high protein breakfast of a slice of ham, a scrambled egg, toast with cherry preserves or marmalade, and coffee. When we have overnight guests we often make waffles or crêpes and serve them with cottage cheese or ricotta, and peach or cherry preserves. We choose whole fruit over juices. It tastes better to us, and still has its fiber. Oranges, sliced or diced, offer a host of nutrients. They ripen in December, so we’re on the near edge of the time of year when oranges are at their best.

Here is a favorite waffle recipe, adapted from my sister-in-law Jean Hall’s Oat Nut Waffles. Try them on a weekend morning when you have time to make them, and when your kids or working family members have time to enjoy them. This recipe is in my book “Wholegrain and Gluten Free”, available at The Minglement and Roasterie.

      Gluten Free
OAT NUT WAFFLES
2 ¼ cups water
1 ½ cups Bob’s Red Mill or Trader Joe’s guaranteed gluten free rolled oats
½ cup raw cashew nuts or sliced almonds or ¼ cup almond butter
1 Tablespoon olive oil
½ teaspoon salt

Combine all ingredients in a blender. Blend until light and foamy, about ½ minute. Spray cold waffle iron with olive oil. Let batter rest while waffle iron is heating. The batter will thicken as it stands and the dry ingredients absorb liquid. Blend again briefly.

Bake in hot waffle iron 8 to 10 minutes. Set timer. Waffles should be brown and crisp and easily come out of the waffle iron. If the waffle is reluctant to leave the waffler, give it another minute or two to cook. Eat with strawberries in season, and yogurt.

If using a Belgian waffler, spray it with oil while cold as above, heat it until the dial in the little round window reads: Cook. Ladle in enough batter to almost fill all the deep squares. It will spread as it begins to cook. Bake 3 minutes. Turn the waffler over and bake another 2 minutes.