Fluffy Awful Waffles
Our family has restructured our diet a bit in 2020 to look more plant-based than carnivorous. Before, we would eat meals that consisted of a meat as the central focus of the meal with a veggie or two on the side. Now we eat mainly veggies, legumes and some grains with a little meat every now and then. I’m not making a stand against meat. We still eat meat. It just isn’t the main focus these days.
This change has allowed for so many new recipes because we have adopted legumes into our diet and I am LOVING it!
I didn’t love it initially though. To be 100% honest, I wasn’t sure I could stick with our Primarily Plant diet the first three weeks. I enjoyed the food and energy from having more carbs in my diet but my tummy was not lovely. You know that awful bloated feeling where you are acutely aware of where the band of your pants in sitting or squeezing the life out of you belly? That was me. I haven’t changed pant sizes since high school and suddenly after eating a few more plants I was questioning my ability to button my jeans! Luckily I work in a gym most of the time and can get away with wearing sweats but I was not feeling like the lean green queen I thought I would.
I thought that because I already eat a lot of veggies and salads my stomach would be able to handle the extra fiber. I was wrong. I made a couple mistakes in the first three weeks.
I didn’t increase my water intake. I am terrible about drinking enough water, especially in the winter. I usually prefer to sip on hot tea throughout the day and although that is still hydrating it is not enough. And I jumped in a little too fast. I was so excited about new recipes with garbanzo beans and lentils that for the first two weeks practically every meal was based around them.
I’m on day 48 and I finally feel like my tummy is back to normal. I’ve made adjustments to my water intake, slowed my roll on legumes a bit and discovered a couple secrets such as adding bay leaves to a pot of lentils and using sprouted options.
I’ve enjoyed the recipes I’ve been discovering along the way and my grocery budget has never been so balanced! The nice thing about legumes is they are cheap!!! I even buy the more expensive organic sprouted versions when I can and it is still a nice price in comparison with buying meat for every meal...especially the grass-fed, free-range, compassion certified, prep school taught, did a year abroad, graduated with honors from Harvard, and grass-fed finished kind.
A lot of our meals lately have been more mediterranean and Middle Eastern. Typically before, our meals were more American, Mexican, Asian or Italian styled. We ate a lot of things like steak and sweet potatoes, fajitas, taco bowls, zucchini noodles with meat sauce, chicken pad thai or chili. I have really appreciated the opportunity to get out of our rut and try some new flavors. I am loving the warm flavors of ginger, curry, turmeric and cardamom lately!
With a new world of opportunities for comforting recipes during this dreary rainy season, I have discovered FALAFELS! I have had falafels at Greek restaurants before but I have never given them a go in my own kitchen. These little patties of goodness have become a family favorite and were even requested to be the Super Bowl Sunday party food.
The first time we had falafels Levi deemed them Fluffy Awful Waffles for no real reason at all except that Levi must rename anything he truly loves. It’s a an odd trait but I think it is pretty cute, especially since he calls me Beautiful. The kids on the other hand go by Turd Face, Turd Monkey and Turd Biscuit. I’m dead serious. It’s beyond odd. And the weirder part is that they LOVE it. One time Levi called Jack Turd Monkey accidentally and Addie immediately was offended and said, “Hey! I’m Turd Monkey!” My people are weird.
The first time I made these I stuck to the recipe and just made one batch. That was a mistake. The recipe was perfect but we wanted more for breakfasts and lunches later in the week. So now I triple the recipe and we snack on these little goodies all week long.
I have tried a few recipes and discovered this one by Lisa Bryan at Downshiftology is my favorite. It is so easy because the food processor does most of the work for you and the flavor of the serrano pepper is a must! I sub with jalapeno peppers sometimes too. But I always make sure to remove all the seeds because my tough husband is very sensitive to spicy.
I soak an entire bag of dried garbanzo beans overnight before making this recipe. Even with tripling the recipe I have about 2 cups of beans leftover to roast. You definitely need to do this. They make such crunchy and tasty little snacks and are the perfect addition to a salad. You can learn how to roast them here.
We find these patties pretty filling and I typically just serve them with Israeli salad if have time to chop a ton of veggies and herbs or a big Greek salad. And I always make tahini lemon dressing to drizzle over the falafels.
Israeli Salad
3 Roma tomatoes
1 Red bell pepper
1 Yellow bell pepper
1 English cucumber
1/2 Red onion
1/2 Cup of fresh mint, cilantro, and parsley, chopped
4 TBSP olive oil
Zest and juice from 1 lemon
Salt and pepper to taste
Chop all the tomatoes, peppers, cucumber and onion super duper small. Just turn on some Netflix and settle in. Chopping them small makes the flavors meld and blend so beautifully. It is worth it. Toss all ingredients together and chill until ready to serve.
Greek Salad
Spring mix or arugula and spinach mix
1/4 Red onion, sliced super thin
1/2 Cup cherry tomatoes, halved
1/2 Cup black olives, halved
1/2 Cup of roasted garbanzo beans
1/4 Cup pine nuts (toasted are even better!)
12 oz Jar of marinated artichokes, roughly chopped
All. The. Feta.
Primal Kitchen Greek Dressing
Combine and toss with 2-3 Tablespoons of dressing! I find the Greek dressing to be very flavorful and oreganoy so go slow on it when tossing in the salad.
If you are desiring a change of flavor or are just needing to have a dinner win then make these Fluffy Awful Waffles. They aren’t fluffy. They definitely aren’t awful. And they aren’t waffles. But they are worthy of the renaming if it simply means they are loved!