Paleo-ish Blueberry Oatmeal Waffles

Waffles!!!!  Waffles, waffles, waffles, waffles, waffles! *Dances in kitchen*  Who doesn’t love waffles?  Not me!!!!

As you can maybe guess from the above outburst, I have tried me many a waffle recipe. The one I’m posting today though is the only one that has stuck…after I completely overhauled it, of course.

You see, I initially came across this recipe on Post Punk Kitchen WAY back in 2012.  I was living in Boston, paying through the nose for my first (ultimately useless) Master’s, and briefly flirted with the idea of eating more vegan recipes.  My thinking was that I could save some money, be a bit more environmentally conscious, and, of course, give myself a bit of a pat on the back for being, however temporarily, morally-conscious.  So, I began experimenting with cooking with tofu, tempeh, and the like.  (I also hadn’t started CrossFitting yet, so my protein requirements weren’t what they are today.  Lol.)

I initially followed the recipe and kept it because I thought the flavour combination was interesting, yet something I could eat and enjoy several times per week.  Later in 2012, I discovered that wheat was the reason I hadn’t had fingerprints for 15 years (try explaining THAT to US Border Guards who know that you’re studying forensics!), so I had to adapt the recipe to be gluten-free.  But then my parents wanted to try some.  My Dad is allergic almonds, so I un-veganed the recipe by adding milk.  And if you’re using milk, you may as well use butter and eggs, right?  So add those I did.  Then I realized that these waffles would be AWESOME as a pre-WoD (a.k.a. workout) breakfast if they had more protein in them.  Since they were already un-veganed, I figured I may as well add some unflavoured whey protein.  So I added protein.

Fast forward to 2015 when I had received my ‘death-by-starvation-or-itch-bubbles’ sentence consisting of 25 foods I should no longer eat.  I was panicking trying to think of what the heck I could eat for breakfast.   My entire breakfast repertoire was out the window! (I honestly ate 4-6 eggs for breakfast most days of the week).  I toed the line for a while (read: 3 or 4 months), making oatmeal for breakfast one day, sausages for breakfast the next.  Occasionally, I would find the time to make this tasty Shrimp and Grapefruit Salad with Blackberry Vinaigrette that I came up with in a sleep-deprived stupour.  I also ate bacon.  LOTS of bacon.

Now, I’m not gonna lie.  Bacon is pretty awesome.  Especially Costco bacon.  But I was dying for waffles!!!!  I had begun playing around with some flour combinations and, apart from making these amazing Jos. Louis things (which I’ll probably share one day), one of the first things on my list of foods to adapt was this waffle recipe.  So…I figured out how to de-egg, de-dairy, and de-gluten this bloody recipe all over again!

In the process, I decided I didn’t like the allspice-blueberry combo, so switched that for cinnamon.  I also found that maple syrup banjaxed the texture too much, so I switched it for brown sugar and left maple syrup as my go-to topping.  More recently, I have been going back and forth as to whether to use lard or coconut oil for the fat. On the one hand, lard makes the waffles so much crispier and delicious.  It’s also the closest thing I can eat to butter.  But, on the other hand, well…lard.  The word doesn’t exactly bring to mind images of clean and vivacious arteries or a ‘healthy’ physique.  Ultimately, I compromised.

Needless to say, by now, I think the only thing that remains of the original recipe is the name.  So, without further ado (or prattling), I present to you, Blueberry Oatmeal Waffles!  Yum!

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Now…the awesome thing that I discovered recently (and something which all you non-waffle-iron-owning folks should pay attention to) is that these waffles also become super moist, fluffy on the inside, but interestingly crispy on the outside, pancakes!

The second not-so-awesome thing that I’ve recently discovered while vacationing at my parent’s place is that if you forget to put the oats in the batter (and possibly go overboard on the blueberries) and then put the batter in the waffle iron, you end up with a mess.  An unbelievably, almost impossible-to-clean mess spewing out of your waffle iron like a geyser.  Thankfully, Dad has had 30+ years of cleaning the many messes that my Mum makes while she tears through a kitchen like Hurricane Katrina.  He ultimately cleaned the mess up while I had a ‘hanger’ meltdown over what the heck I was going to eat for breakfast!  (I think the BF was legit afraid for his life).

With the waffle iron completely out of commission, I decided to pull out a cast iron skillet and toss the rest of the batter in it.  It was a Hail Mary, but it actually worked.  I got to eat breakfast, and everyone else got to live another day.  Win!

A third thing that I’ve learned about this recipe over the years is that these waffles freeze well.  This means that you can make a batch, eat some, freeze the rest, and then toss them in your toaster like Eggos. (Pro tip:  If you put them through a light defrost cycle in your toaster and then a second normal toast cycle, their original crispiness is rejuvenated)  Double win!

Now…time for some allergen notes and tips (apart from the above-mentioned warning about making sure you add the oats and not too many blueberries!):

• Oat flour is technically gluten-free BUT oats are often grown in fields beside wheat and can become cross-contaminated.  SO…people with severe gluten intolerances/allergies may have trouble with oat flour if they don’t get certified gluten-free oat flour like Only Oats Pure Whole Grain Oat Flour or Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Whole Grain Oat Flour.
• This recipe technically has a little bit of corn starch in it because as I mentioned in my Paleo-ish Chocolate Chip Cookie post, baking powder also contains corn starch.  It’s not enough to give me itch bubbles, but for those who are severely allergic/intolerant to corn should add 1/4 tsp of baking soda to the dry ingredients AND 1/2 tsp of cream of tartar to the wet ingredients before mixing the wet and dry together.  This prevents the baking soda and cream of tartar from reacting too early.
• You may be wondering what kind of protein powder I use.  My system actually handles Whey Protein Isolate; or at least the Whey Protein Isolate from Canadianprotein.com.  Since I can’t do peas, rice, soy, or any other supplemental protein powder source (apart from beef protein which doesn’t dissolve well and apparently tastes horrible), I was so happy that I could still use my favourite Whey protein powder.  Woot woot!
• You may also be wondering what to do if you don’t have (or don’t want to add) protein powder.  Don’t worry.  It’s not mandatory for the recipe, and since protein powder dissolves, it doesn’t make a difference to the waffle batter texture if you don’t add it.

Ok…I think that’s it.  Per usual, if you have any questions you can comment below or email me from my Contact page.  Ditto for comments!  Have a great week!