Carrot Molasses Cookies

Who doesn't love breakfast cookies? I sometimes make these on Sunday afternoon for tea time when I have a little bit of homemade coconut milk that needs to be used up. Then I have a batch of cookies for breakfast the following day. If you prefer to use sprouted oats, you can order them here. These cookies use all of our family favorite pantry items and exclude all top allergens. 

What you need:
2 cups oat flour
2 cups rolled oats
1-2  cups shredded carrots  (1 giant carrot or 2 medium carrots)
2 tablespoons coconut oil
1 teaspoon salt 
1/2 cup homemade coconut milk
1/2 cup unsulphured blackstrap molasses 
Handful of raisins or chopped unsulphered dried apricots
Handful of shredded unsulphured coconut 

What to do:
Set oven to 350 degrees

Prepare baking sheet with baking paper

Grind oats to oat flour in TM, 30 seconds, speed 9.  Set aside.

Chop carrots in TM bowl

Add back in the oat flour to TM bowl as well as the rest of the ingredients

Mix on reverse blade, speed 3 for about 15 seconds

Form into balls, flatten slightly, and bake for 15 min at 350 degrees

Baby Brother Turns 2

waffle Birthday cake with Baby Brother's favorite toppings

Today we celebrated Baby Brother's second Birthday.  Big Brother was overly excited about building the waffle "cake" we had planned together for this morning's celebratory breakfast.  We decided to top the waffle tower with Baby Brother's favorites: wild blueberries, coconut flakes, hemp seeds and maple syrup.  Baby Brother loved his special and yummy family Birthday breakfast.  He shouted "hooray" when we sang to him and kept asking for "more" singing and "more" blueberries. These waffles are the same ones we make every Sunday morning.  Since Baby Brother and I are now avoiding eggs, we keep them out and instead add a giant scoop of apple sauce. After breakfast, we opened up gifts and then took a ride in the cardboard box boat which Big Brother had been working on the past few days in preparation for his little Brother's special day.  

here is the boat being finished up for Baby Brother's Birthday ride

and then later on for dinner, we had one of Baby Brother's favorite meals.  It happens to be Big Brother's most requested meal as well: grass-fed steak, sweat potato fries and broccoli.  We are loving the new placemat that Grams and Pops sent. Check out the squishy persimmon and seasonal citrus.  

Homemade Hemp Milk

This takes 5 minutes :)

Hemp milk is super nutritious and surprisingly easy to make at home.  Who knew that I would be whipping up coconut milk and hemp milk several times a week!  It's amazing the changes we have gone through with our diet because of food allergies. 

Back in Toronto, when Big Brother was two-years-old we would bundle up to go take a mile-long walk to Kensington Market in freezing-cold weather. That's where we would pick up local goat milk and cow milk in glass bottles along with delicious cheeses.  A favorite activity when we got home to our warm apartment was turning the milk into butter and the butter into a treat.  We still keep dairy in the house in the form of Mill King milk and cheese for school lunch sandwiches, but we no longer cook with dairy.  Too much risk of cross-contamination.  Still, even just to eat a piece of cheese or take a sip of milk, there are a lot of safety rules in place in order for it to be allowed in the house. 

Baby Brother simply cannot be in direct contact with dairy.

 He turns two this month and he still prefers to be nursed (which also means that I continue 100% to avoid dairy in my diet); it's quite a difficult task to get him to drink milk from a cup.  So far we have been trying non-dairy non-soy and non-nut: coconut, hemp and brown rice.  I like hemp milk the most for him, as it is packed with vitamins and minerals.  I have not been thrilled about his disinterest in drinking any of these homemade milks in cute sippy cups or his favorite stainless steel mugs. There is no quitting or giving up, but I can't drive myself crazy either.   This week I've been mixing into the hemp milk some blackstrap molasses.  This boy will down a tablespoon of pure blackstrap molasses, but isn't so excited about drinking molasses flavored milk?.  Hmmmmmm, any suggestions?  Toddlers keeping their parents on their toes!

Have you ever tried hemp milk or seeds?  I enjoy hemp seeds, but the first few times I ate them I wasn't so sure.  I found them to taste a bit grassy for my liking.  With a limited diet, I find myself giving new foods a big chance.  My favorite way to eat them is in pumpkin, date and cacao smoothies, our family-favorite date and hemp bliss balls and sprinkled on top of baked carrot oatmeal.  I'll be posting these recipes soon.  

with a teaspoon of blackstrap molasses mixed in
Go ahead now, drink!

What you need:
one cup of hemp seeds
one cup of pure water
one generous tablespoon maple syrup (hemp and maple make it extra Canadian)
one generous tablespoon of coconut oil
pinch of real salt

What to do:
Combine hemp seeds and pure water in TM Bowl
Blend 2 minutes, speed 9
Strain with nut bag, but it's not really necessary since there isn't really any pulp
Add in coconut oil, maple syrup and salt. Add vanilla and other flavorings as preferred.

For more ideas, click here 

Trail Mix

Baby Brother likes to be outside in the backyard mid-morning digging in the dirt. He often asks to sit and have a snack at the picnic table, and I then bring him a mug of this trail mix. Lately, it's a mixture of coconut flakes, dried mulberries, raisins and hemp seeds. Sometimes we toss in some roasted, salted chickpeas too.  

Coconut Black {R}ice Pudding

We love rice pudding, it's a true comfort food for all of us.  We made a deliciously simple eggless version in our Thermomix regularly; it had become a family favorite. Recently, Big Brother asked me why we hadn't been making it at all anymore and then made a special request to bring it back for afternoon snack.  True, I hadn't made it since we discovered Baby Brother's milk allergy, and have since preferred to limit the amount of dairy drool shared between them.  It can be hard to say goodbye to favorite foods due to allergies.  What favorites have you had trouble leaving behind? What are your new ones?  Today, we are on our toes, as we adapt and reinvent our favorite comfort food.  Switching up cow milk for coconut milk to make rice pudding is a simple change rather than a challenge.  We use coconut milk and coconut products regularly so there was very little adjustment in that sense, and we don't have the big jug of milk in the fridge any longer that needs to be used up in a rice pudding or similar treat. And there is something wonderfully lovely about coconut milk rice pudding, perhaps reminiscent of mango sticky rice? I'll hold off on the crushed peanuts for now, as I'd rather err on the side of caution around Baby Brother.

While looking around for coconut milk Thermomix recipes, I spotted this one.  At the same time, a favorite blog, My New Roots, posted a version.  Perfect timing, as we made this one very cold Houston morning when preschool was actually canceled to do black {r}ice.  Oh, how we laughed along to the humor behind this play on words. Or did we laugh more at the fact that school was canceled here because of icy conditions?  We often compare Houston's winter to Toronto's and talk about how we know longer leave the house in winter gear.  So it was meant to be, a coconut milk black rice pudding for me.  The black rice and coconut milk elevate humble rice pudding to the next level. Keep in mind that rice pudding is gluten-free, making this a good treat to share with everyone.  Combining both recipes, I came up with this:

What you need:
1 cup of black rice, soaked overnight
1 can of coconut milk, I use this one
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 tablespoon maple syrup

What to do:
Soak black rice in cold water overnight
Insert butterfuly, then place rice and coconut milk in TM.  Cook for 100 degrees, 45 minutes, speed 1, reverse.
Drizzle in maple syrup. 
Serve with a drizzle of coconut milk, coconut flakes, mango chunks, or anything else you fancy.  And more maple syrup too :)

 .

Chai Coconut Milk Ice Cream

This is our favorite go-to ice cream.  Simple ingredients, great flavor and super easy to make. We served this ice cream along side chocolate layer cake for Baby Brother's 1st Birthday and it was a big hit.  We also enjoy serving drowned in hot coffee or Crio Bru in the form of Affogato.  We can't wait to try with this chocolate ganache or this hard chocolate topping.  See below how great it is scooped on top of our favorite brownies.  But really, it's great on it's own!

What you need:
2, 14 ounce cans of full fat coconut milk
1 tablespoon of vanilla extract
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon each of ground nutmeg, cloves, and cardamom
a pinch or two of unrefined salt
1/2 cup pure maple syrup or combination of 1/4 cup maple syrup and 1/4 cup raw honey.  
*for vegans, make with maple syrup or check first if honey is permitted

What to do:
Blend or whisk ingredients until smooth.  
Follow instructions of your ice cream maker to freeze until smooth.  We churned for about 25 minutes and packed two pints. 

Click here for original recipe, and for a way to make without ice cream maker.  You could also make with Thermomix.

Lentils Two Ways

things can go array in the kitchen, pockets didn't
turn out, so topped with leftover basmati rice in a pinch

It is Sunday morning, 11:00, and my Thermomix is cooking up some simple lentils.  I am hungry for lunch already. Even after a bowl of oatmeal and bacon. Baby Brother is napping after being up a lot last night. Big Brother is out with Papi on his new blue bike with pedals and training wheels. So It's the perfect moment to have some alone time in the kitchen with a mug of rooibos while I prepare two make-ahead lunches: a lemon-basil lentil salad and veggie coconut lentils to top soaked brown rice.  The best part is having extra lentils to freeze for later use.  

This coconut lentil and veggie filling is a Jude Blereau recipe.  I recommend her cookbook for good background reading on wholesome food: Wholesome Food For Children. The recipe includes this lentil filling in spelt pocket pies; however, my first attempt at the pocket pie dough, leaving out the sesame of course, was a total disaster.  It was 1:00, I was starving in that-hungry-breastfeeding-way, and the dough wasn't working out.  So, on top of leftover rice it went and all was fine in the end.  It's much easier on top of leftover rice anyway.  No spelt anymore with Baby's wheat allergy.  I'm bitter about this, as I love baking with spelt flour. I left out the corn and added peas instead.  I have always preferred peas over corn.  I also topped with some cilantro since everything is better with cilantro.   I have begun to triple this recipe, because I like to get an extra meal out of it, and to use up whatever greens are in the fridge.  

Click here for both lentil recipes:

Coconut Lentil and Veggie Pocket Pies
Bragg's Liquid Aminoes are wheat- free and last time a checked, safe from sesame cross-contamination.
There are coconut aminoes if looking for soy-free. Or you can use coconut aminos if there is a soy allergy or sensitivity.

Lentil Salad with Basil and Lemon (here you will find the instructions for making batch of  lentils in your Thermomix)

Click here for more on soaking the brown rice

Happy Birthday Cake

As soon as Big Brother passed the egg challenge-meaning he successfully ate 16 bite-sized pieces of french toast- in our allergist's office-we started picturing cheesecakes, custards and all things eggy as delicious instead of downright scary. At the same time, we started to discuss what kind of cake he wanted for his upcoming Birthday.  Tres Leches had quickly become his favorite so we went to Whole Foods to order a giant one to share with his friends.  He picked out what he wanted on the cake: "Happy Birthday Simon" with train tracks where he could place Thomas and his passenger cars.  

Now, fast-forward a few weeks to dairy allergy diagnoses for Baby Brother.  What to do now?  This lovely Tres Leches seemed too dangerous so a conversation about a different cake was in order.  I couldn't imagine 20 children and their parents covered in three kinds of milk with allergic baby in the mix.  What would you have done?  I spoke with some friends in order to come up with a solution. I then decided to take a Sunday morning trip together to look at vegan options.  Whole Foods carries a vegan chocolate cookie cake (contains wheat!), but Big Brother wanted nothing to do with it at first. I thought that it would be a good idea to take home a piece to see if he liked it.  The planned worked and he was actually excited to have a chocolate cookie cake for his party.  Phew!  

Spelt Oat Scones

Love the shape!

These are super easy to make.  My little guy and I make them on Saturday afternoons while Baby naps. We have them for breakfast on Sunday mornings before heading to the pool.  I love that we share this time together.  He likes to press the Thermomix buttons and to spread out the dough into a giant circle and then cut into triangles.  We sometimes use honey as the sweetener.  Today we used Sucanat.  We use whatever milk we have lots of in the fridge.  I like that you can easily adapt the recipe to fit allergic needs:  coconut oil instead of butter and coconut milk instead of dairy.  No matter which way we make them, a little sprinkle of sugar on top is always nice. For original recipe, go to Tebasiles Kitchen.

What you need:

175 g spelt
75 g rolled oats
60 g sucanat or honey
1/2 tsp glutenfree baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt
90 g chilled butter or coconut oil
160 g milk, Rice Milk or cream/water


What to do:

Heat oven to 220 °C / 450 °F

Mill spelt for 1 min 30 sec / speed 10

Add oats, sweetener, baking powder, baking soda and salt and pulse with closed lid function 3 x Turbo

Add butter or coconut oil and pulse 7-8 x Turbo

Add liquid and pulse 5-6 x Turbo

Soak dough in the bowl until oven reaches the required temperature

Place the dough in a circle on cookie sheet, greased or lined with parchment paper

Cut the dough with a spatula in 6-8 wedges and separate them slightly, or use a scone pan
Brush with liquid and sprinkle with some sugar (opt.)

Bake for 13-17 minutes

Chocolate Quinoa Crackers

We have been quite busy moving, yet again.  This time just down the street though and not internationally. Between pregnancy and moving to-do lists, I am just starting to get back into looking for new recipes to try.  I bookmarked these chocolate quinoa crackers a while ago because I liked the short list of ingredients.  I also liked that they are vegan and gluten free.  Since I would like to share these with a friend who does not tolerate gluten, I wiped down my counter top 3 times, made sure to inspect all cooking utensils out of the dishwasher, and used parchment paper on bottom and top of dough when rolling out as well as a parchment paper lined baking sheet.  I just didn't trust that my rolling pin was totally free of traces of gluten.  I still need to calibrate the oven since I'm sure the temperature is off some; let's hope that the 390 I set the oven to worked out ok.  Off to try one now!

Original recipe found at: http://chockohlawtay.blogspot.com/2012/07/chocolate-quinoa-crackers.html

                                                                  

What you need:
1 cup of quinoa flour (Ancient Harvest Organic Quinoa Flour)
1/2 cup cocoa powder (Trader Joe's Unsweetened Cocoa Powder: "Our Vendors Follow Good Manufacturing Practices To Segregate Ingredients to Avoid Cross Contact With Allergens Made on Shared Equipment With Milk.")
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup sugar (please note that recipe calls for other sweeteners)
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon canola oil
1/2 cup water

What to do:
Tape down a large square of parchment paper onto your counter

Line a large cookie sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

Take out third parchment paper and set aside for putting on top of dough for when rolling out

Measure the oil and water in different bowls and set aside.

In bowl, whisk together the quinoa flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt.  

Drizzle the oil over the mixture and rub in with your fingers until it looks a little like sand 


Slowly add in the water, still mixing using your fingers.  Add enough water to form a ball (should not be too moist and should not be too dry where pieces crumble off).  Pat the dough into a ball and place on the taped down parchment paper.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Roll the dough out , making sure that it doesn't tear.  If it does, add a little bit more water, re-pat into a ball and roll out again.  Roll out to about 1/8" thickness.  Slice using a pizza cutter.  Transfer squares individually onto the prepared pan--about 1-2" apart--and poke holes into them using a toothpick or fork.  Bake for 10-11 minutes (they will be soft out of the oven but will become crunchy once cooled), and cool on a wire drying rack.

poking holes

Today, Cats!
Tomorrow, Trains!

                                                       

Passover Inspired Anytime Carrot Coconut Macaroons

ready to eat and to take on the go

This is a good time of year to post my favorite coconut macaroon recipe.  This is my first post from our new home in Houston.  I have a lot of thoughts and things to share about major moves with multiple food allergies, but that's for another post. The macaroon recipe is from the April 2010, Canadian Family magazine.  I love these! They are delicious and have just the right balance of sweetness and flavor, I contribute this to the grated carrots and ginger with maple syrup and apple juice and no added sugar. This recipe is vegan and nut-free (coconut is ok for us) but not necessarily kosher for passover.  This is my go-to recipe for macaroons without eggs.  I froze a dozen, they defrost nicely.  It is tricky shopping for coconut oil without worrying about sesame and tree-nut contamination.  I use Artisana coconut oil, http://www.artisanafoods.com/, but please check the label and determine if it is safe for your family. There is a great article on reading labels for allergy information at: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/04/06/consumers-often-ignore-food-allergy-labels/
I am going to make coconut butter with my Thermomix for the next batch and see how these turn out.  But first I have to get a better understanding of the difference between coconut butter and oil. For Thermomix coconut butter instructions, please visit: 
http://www.superkitchenmachine.com/2011/11949/make-coconut-butter-thermomi.html


 What you need:
1 cup  grated raw carrots (one large carrot)
1/4 cup apple juice
1/2 cup coconut oil (I use Artisana brand)
2 cups coconut flakes (I use Let's Do Organic brand, it's unsweetened and contains no sulphites:http://www.edwardandsons.com/ldo_shop_coconut.itml)
2/3 cup whole wheat flour (I suppose you could play around with types of flour according to allergy restrictions)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp grated fresh ginger
2 tbsp maple syrup (Oh how I miss buying giant bottles locally from St. Lawrence market on Saturday mornings!)


What to do:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
Line cookie sheet with silicone baking mat
Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl
Roll into approximately 24 balls with the help of your children
Transfer to rack to cool, but I skip this part 
I then listen to my toddler scream as he always does when baking: "no oven!" which means he wants to eat them right away


For original recipe, please visit: http://www.canadianfamily.ca/recipe/carrot-coconut-macaroons/

Thermomix Cranberry Sauce for Turkey Dinners and for Gifting

I like to make turkey dinners. For me, cranberry sauce is a must.  Some people feel the same about mashed potatoes, something I could take or leave but always seem to make since the Thermomix makes it too easy not to.  Today, I decided to share some cranberry sauce with friends. Check out how easy it is to make and gift with the Thermomix.  






What you need:
350 g granulated sugar

thinly peeled skin of 1 large organic orange

450 g fresh or frozen cranberries

220 g water

juice from the orange plus more orange juice to make 150 g total

50 g port (=½TM Measuring Cup) – optional

What to do:

1. Weigh sugar into TM bowl and add the strips of orange peel. Grind 30 seconds/Speed 10. Set aside.

2. Weigh cranberries and water into the Thermomix bowl. Cook 8 minutes/100°C/Speed Spoon/Reverse Blade Direction. If using frozen berries, cook 4 minutes longer. .

3. Weigh in the reserved ground sugar and zest, add the orange juice and stir with the TM spatula to mix the sugar into the cranberries. Cook 8 minutes/100°C/Speed Spoon/Reverse Blade Direction. .

4. Cook again 4 minutes/Varoma Temperature/Speed 1½/Reverse Blade Direction. If using port, add it after the cooking and stir in gently with the spatula. Pour into sterilised glass jars and put sterilised lids on jars. Tighten. Place jar upside down for 1 minute to sterilize the air in the jars with the hot preserve. Turn right side up, leave to cool completely before labelling with name and date.


Idea and recipe from : http://www.ukthermomix.com/recshow.php?rec_id=91

Vegan Latkes for Hannukah This Year

Great, this year's latkes held together instead of sticking to the skillet and then falling apart. The intact latkes are in the oven keeping warm until dinner. Was it the recipe or luck this time?  I think that my sister deserves the credit: she was spot-on suggesting that I fry them in my dutch oven.  I got the good advice right in time. I'll post the lucky recipe and link!

http://www.thekindlife.com/post/vegan-latkesright now

What you need:

• 1-1/2 pounds russet potatoes, peeled and grated (that was 5 this time)
• 1 small yellow onion, peeled and grated
• 1 tablespoon fresh parsley, minced
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour (I added a little more than that)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder (I use Bob's Redmill non-aluminum)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• Canola oil, for frying

What to do:

1. In a colander set over a large bowl, place potatoes.
2. Using your hands, squeeze out the excess liquid from the potatoes.
3. Pour off the liquid and place potatoes in the bowl.
4. Add onion to potatoes along with parsley, flour, baking powder, salt, and pepper, and mix well.
5. Preheat oven to 275 degrees.
6. In a large skillet over medium heat, heat a thin layer of oil.
7. Take a heaping tablespoon of batter and flatten it before gently placing it in the hot oil. Make three or four more potato pancakes this way, and add to skillet without crowding pan. Fry until golden brown on both sides, turning once, about 8 minutes total.
8. Repeat with remaining potato mixture, adding more oil as necessary. Remove the cooked potato pancakes to paper towels to drain, then transfer to an ovenproof platter and keep warm in the oven until all pancakes are cooked.

Arepas, Glad We Finally Tried Making Them

warm and ready for slicing and stuffing

Usually, when I need some inspiration and some guidance for making something new I look no farther than Tastespotting.com.  I often find what I'm looking for and more.  I keep a running to do list of food-related projects.  One of these is making arepas.  I had eaten the Venezuelan version before but for some reason kept putting off making them.  I knew that I just had to make them once and I'd be making them just about every week, so time to stop procrastinating.  Then I thought, why not pass this task to my husband for him to make for my Birthday?  A name in Spanish could even be slightly more appealing and a good reason to accept this tarea. I had decided to be extra helpful and provide him with a recipe, video tutorial and ingredients.  I really just wanted him to be the one to do a test run and give me a free Sunday evening on the other side of the kitchen island.  He usually has more patience with new things than I do anyway.  So back to Tastespotting.  That's where I went to gather information.  I entered "arepas" in the search window and got several websites.  I happened to go to this site and decided that I would start here: http://foodwishes.blogspot.com/2010/06/how-to-make-arepas-these-venezuelan-hot.html

A quick trip to Kensington Market to pick up the P.A.N, or harina de maiz precocida and nothing else needed.  Well, I did make sure to cook some bacon from the Healthy Butcher-my son calls it the "meat s(t)ore" and can spot it a block away since we go there so much- in the cast iron and have it seasoned and ready to go.

So, after a beautiful fall day at the apple farm and evening walk to the park we came home and dinner would be made for me and lunches the following day.  I am not sure if I have one highlight from today. Was it the surprise sunny weather and day out at picking apples, the wagon ride to the apple trees, a very cute rendition of Happy Birthday from my almost three-year-old, no traffic on the DVP, an extra outdoor outing to the park in the evening, my son asking me to go over everything we had done during the day because he had such a "nice day", or eating arepas I didn't cook myself?  I had a really nice day!

We will have some extra arepas for our toddler to try tomorrow for lunch.  It was too difficult to have them ready for his dinner earlier in the evening.  Not napping in the afternoon makes it extra hard to wait. While watching Papi in the kitchen, our little guy was delighted:  "Pan, ya ya ya".  So, anything that resembles bread is usually a winner around here.  It's not so easy to get him to try new things these days.

I will let the website above provide the all the information you will need to make the arepas, and I am just posting the ingredients and some photos from our first attempt:


What you will need:
2 1/2 cups of tepid water
Tablespoon salt
2 cups of P.A.N Corn Meal
Canola Oil
Cast iron pan or other pan for shallow frying
Ingredients of your choosing for the filling

¡Buen provecho!

Sunday Morning Hearty Vegan Waffles

I really like the thought of warm, homemade waffles on Sunday mornings.  I have been dreaming about ladling egg-free batter on hot waffle plates and being rewarded with fluffy, gridded circles topped with berries and maple syrup.  But in order to actually make waffles, I needed a waffle maker.  I have spent a few months looking on favorite food websites for vegan recipes.  I compared ingredient lists and skipped recipes that included flax as an egg replacer and mushy bananas.  I had saved to my files several interesting recipes but had no waffle iron to actually try them out.  My reality changed this weekend when I opened my very early Birthday present from my parents--thank you, mom and dad.  While it's not the Belgian cast-iron model I have imagined owning and loving, like my Thermomix and electric skillet, it is the non-stick version that made most sense.  It's the All-Clad Classic Round Waffle Maker.   Maybe one day, I'll be able to get a used cast-iron one, like the one serving up piping hot waffles at Toronto's Brick Work market on Saturday mornings.  But then, I'll just worry about egg residue and possible cross-contamination.   


What you need for 2 full sized waffles and one "bebé":
1/4 cup whole wheat flour (I used Bob's Red Mill for all three flours in this recipe)
1/4 cup buckwheat flour
1/2 cup oat flour (I ground rolled oats until I got a texture more like quick oats)
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
a little ground ginger
1-2 teaspoons blackstrap molasses (my favorite found at: http://www.wholesomesweeteners.com/index.html)
2 tablespoons unsweetened applesauce
1 cup milk (today I used Hewitt's organic goat's milk, can make vegan with alternative milk)


What to do:

Gently mix ingredients until just mixed.

Let batter sit for about 10 minutes, then stir gently again. 

While batter is sitting, turn on waffle iron. The waffle maker takes a few minutes to heat up.

Cook in oiled waffle maker until done.  I had dial turned to 5 1/2.

Top anyway you like.

*I recommend doubling the recipe for more yield.  Freeze any extras for toddler snacks.
** Bob's Red Mill does process nuts and seeds.  Please contact them for specifics concerning cross-contamination.  Cookbook, BabyCakes covers the classics has a great blurb about why they choose their products.

                                                               mommy, no syrup!




FOR SOME WAFFLE INSPIRATION, CHECK OUT:
http://deliciouslyorganic.net/waffles-and-ice-cream-recipe/


http://blogs.babble.com/family-kitchen/2011/09/13/apple-jack-flapjacks/


http://artofdessert.blogspot.com/2012/06/vegan-waffles.html