Review: The Best Ever Waffles

Today I woke up with a hankering for waffles. As far as breakfast foods go, I was never much of a pancake or waffle girl. I always preferred eggs in any form-- fried, scrambled, hard boiled, etc. I love eggs. In fact the only waffle I ate on a somewhat regular basis growing up were Eggos! Not that my dad didn't make us pancakes a lot-- he used to make them nearly every Sunday morning. I just liked what I liked, and that was eggs! Well, I've had to learn to be more flexible in what I eat since I've gotten married. Bryan is all about trying new foods and not just sticking with what you know you like. "How will you ever know if you like something if you don't try it?" he always says. So, early in our marriage one Saturday morning he asked me to make him waffles. Having no idea what makes a good waffle recipe, I searched 'best ever waffles.' Hint: Whenever I have no idea what constitutes a good recipe I search 'best ever ______' in bewilderment.

Best Ever Waffles

Well, this recipe has lived up to its name. I love that it has you beat the egg whites until they're stiff and fold that in. It brings a certain lightness to it. The recipe is really good on its own but sometimes I add this or that to it, usually vanilla and/or cinnamon. This morning I added both and some pumpkin pie spice, too! I even made them orange with food coloring. This is a recipe I never want to lose. I know my husband loves me.

Stuffed Peppers

I hope everyone had a happy Halloween! I can't believe it's almost time for Thanksgiving and then Christmas! Holidays seem to have a way of speeding time up, it seems. I found this recipe for Stuffed Peppers in a cookbook my mom had made me of her favorites. I made it last year on Halloween and then this year too and I'm thinking it might become our Halloween classic. I'm sure you'll see why.

Anyway, here's what you'll need. I forgot to include the tomato juice so I just popped it into the corner there.

First, slice your peppers. Then hollow out the seeds and membranes. I chose orange peppers but the recipe calls for green. Can you see where I'm going with this?

Voila! This isn't not an essential part of the recipe but if you're looking to make your meal a little festive, here you are. I got this idea from Pinterest.

This recipe makes six stuffed peppers but, as there's just us two, I make two at a time. You'll need to bring water to a boil (enough to cover how ever many peppers you're making) and then boil them for five minutes. In the mean time, brown your meat (and cook your rice if you haven't yet!).

When the meat is finished, drain it to get rid of the fat. Then return it to the skillet and add garlic powder, salt, tomato juice, and rice.

Mix it all up and bring it to a boil.

When your five minutes are up you're going to want to transfer the peppers to a baking dish. Once there, put a half a cup of the mixture in the peppers and cover with aluminum foil. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

Once that's done, put a slice of tomato on each and sprinkle with salt. Return to the oven uncovered for 15 minutes.

Generally, you can throw out the tops when you first cut them off but I like them for that Jack-O-Lantern effect!

Ingredients:

6 lg. green peppers
5 C. boiling water
1 1/2 lb. lean ground beef
2 Tbsp. chopped onion
1 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. garlic powder
1 C. cooked rice
1 C. tomato juice
6 thick tomato slices
Salt

1. Cut thin slice from stem end of each pepper, remove all seeds and membranes.
2. Cook peppers in boiling water 5 minutes; drain.
3. Heat oven to 350 degrees.
4. Cook and stir meat and onion in large skillet until meat is brown and onion is tender. Drain off fat.
5. Stir in 1 tsp salt, the garlic powder, rice and tomato juice; heat to boiling.
6. Lightly stuff each pepper with 1/2 C. meat mixture.
7. Stand peppers upright in an ungreased baking dish. Cover with aluminum foil and bake 45 minutes.
8.  Top each pepper with a tomato slice and sprinkle with salt. Bake uncovered 15 minutes.

The recipe includes that there are 225 calories so it's pretty healthy, which is something I am currently trying to be. As I typed the last word in that sentence I seriously heard the ice cream truck drive by. Must. Resist... :) Anyway, enjoy!