Whole Wheat Waffles

My six year old is the pickiest eater on the planet. I promise if there was an Olympic sport for pickiness he would win the gold medal. Picky eaters make life rather stressful for themselves and their parents and ours is no exception. His pickiness coupled with the fact that he just doesn't seem to have the passion for food that the rest of my family has is mind blowing to me. He truly does eat to live, not live to eat. We have to find creative ways to get him to eat breakfast on school days and since he started kindergarten this year (and hates to eat breakfast the most) I have been, well, a nervous wreck about getting him to school with something in his tummy. And school lunches? Don't even get me started. He loves pancakes so last Sunday I made up a huge batch of pancakes and froze them to pull out every day last week. About Tuesday he was like "no thanks, I'll have a protein bar" so my 10 year old ate the pancakes I froze all week instead. Grrrrrrrr! Seriously, this kid is gonna be the death of me. So, this past weekend I made a batch of waffles and he ate them heartily (meaning half a waffle) on Saturday. I am crossing my fingers that he will eat the remaining waffles for breakfast this week. If not it's on to plan C. Wait, I have no plan C. 

Anyway, let's talk waffles, shall we?! This recipe is made with things I can almost guarantee you have in your fridge and pantry right now and is very versatile and easy to modify. I used white whole wheat flour because I like the heartiness it gives the waffles but all purpose works here too. For the milk I used vanilla almond milk because that's what we have on hand but, again, any milk will work! Just go to your fridge and see what you have and go from there. I only had enough butter to make one batch so that's what I did but make up a double batch and freeze them to have on hand in the freezer for your weekday mornings (or the picky eater in your life). Hopefully, you'll get past Tuesday morning before they say "no thanks, I'll just have a protein bar" and leave you crying into your coffee and wondering how they will EVER get through standardized testing this year!

Whole Wheat Waffles (adapted from naturallyloriel.com)

2 c. white whole wheat flour (all purpose works too)
1/2 t. salt
4 t. baking powder
2 T. sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 c. milk 
1/3 c. unsalted butter, melted
1 t. vanilla

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl, stir until well mixed then ladle into a hot waffle maker and cook according to the manufacturer's directions. To freeze let cool completely then line a jelly roll pan with wax paper and stack the waffles with layers of wax paper between each waffle to avoid sticking. When frozen transfer to a ziploc bag and bank in the freezer for easy weekday breakfasts! 

This recipe made about 5 waffles for my waffle iron (347 calories each waffle according to my calculator on loseit.com) but, depending on the size of your waffle iron, could make more or less!