My Favorite Gluten Free Waffles for Breakfast

- Victoria Starr Leave a comment
The ingredients
The ingredients

I’m not much of a baker, but every once in awhile, I get a huge craving for waffles. Something about the crunchy texture is simply appealing to me.

A stack of gluten free waffles
A stack of gluten free waffles

These take a bit more effort, so I tend to make them on the weekend and make an extra batch to freeze for a future quick fix;) One of the featured base ingredients is quinoa flakes.

Quinoa Flakes
Quinoa Flakes

It takes the place of GF oats and adds a bit more protein to the waffles. On the flip side, this is one of the only recipes that I will feature a few funky GF ingredients, that might not be considered ‘healthy’ to some folks. As always, I recommend moderation! Enjoy sparingly. Live a little!

The first step is simple. In a large bowl, blend the coconut milk or almond milk with a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar and let it sit for 3 minutes. The purpose of the vinegar is to active the baking powder (later in the recipe). No fear! It does not add any flavor to the waffles! Melt your butter and add it to the milk mixture, along with the vanilla and maple syrup (honey would be good as well)! Whisk your wet ingredients until nicely incorporated.

Let the milk and apple cider vinegar sit for 3 minutes!
Let the milk and apple cider vinegar sit for 3 minutes!

In a separate bowl, mix all of the dry ingredients. Don’t forget your salt! I also added basil seeds (similar in texture and nutrition to chia seeds) and shredded, unsweetened coconut. Feel free to add your favorite nuts, puréed fruits or cacao here! Make these waffles your own:)

The dry ingredients
The dry ingredients

Now you can blend your wet and dry ingredients. Once your waffle batter is thoroughly mixed, let it sit for 10 minutes. If the batter gets too thick, add more milk (a 1/4 cup at a time, should be good) until, you get the desired consistency.

To get lots of small waffles, I use 1/4 cup of batter per waffle, to get big waffles, I use 1/2 cup, placing it right in the middle of the waffle pan. They come out crispy and not too sweet.

Jason’s Waffles
Today’s nut butter
Vicki’s Waffle

Jason tops his with tons of fresh fruit and drowns his in maple syrup. I top mine with nut butter and fruit. If you have leftovers, simply place them in a ziplock bag and throw them in the freezer. To reheat, just pop them in a toaster:) 

 

My Favorite GF Breakfast Waffle
Serves 6
A slightly sweet, breakfast waffle that is GF and very adaptable!
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Prep Time
15 min
Cook Time
30 min
Prep Time
15 min
Cook Time
30 min
Ingredients
  1. 1 1/2 Cup coconut or almond milk
  2. 1 TSP apple cider vinegar
  3. 2 TBS maple syrup
  4. 1 1/2 TSP vanilla
  5. 1/4 Cup melted butter (grass fed)
  6. 1/2 Cup quinoa flakes
  7. 1/2 Cup potato starch
  8. 1 Cup brown rice flour
  9. 1/4 Cup tapioca flour
  10. 1 TBS chia seeds or flax seeds
  11. 1-2 TBS shredded coconut, cacao nibs or your favorite chopped nuts
  12. 1 1/2 TSP baking powder
  13. A pinch of salt
Instructions
  1. Mix milk with the vinegar. Let the mixture rest for 3 minutes. Melt butter. Whisk butter, vanilla and maple syrup to milk mixture. In a separate bowl, mix all dry ingredients. Carefully combine the wet and dry ingredients. Let the batter sit for 10 minutes. Add 1/4 additional milk or more, as needed, if batter becomes too thick! Using 1/4 cup of batter per waffle will yield 12 small waffles. Use 1/2 cup batter per waffle to yield 6 large waffles!
Notes
  1. Top with your favorite fruit, syrup or nut butter!
  2. Can be frozen for up to a month and simply reheated in the toaster!
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Rainbow Summer Rolls!!!

- Victoria Starr Leave a comment

Ahhhh! The joys of summer! The sun, the warmth and the fresh produce! I don’t know about you, but my palate goes through a major overhaul in the summer months. I crave tons of salads, veggies and fruit. Cold foods rule on the hottest days of summer. As I write this, I’m realizing that summer is still 3 weeks away! I’m getting a jump start on my warm weather favorites now, with the possibility of 90 degree heat in the next few days:))

Gorgeous ingredients
Gorgeous ingredients

I stumbled onto the idea of incorporating beautiful beets into summer rolls on a blog The Minimal Baker. They add such beautiful color and flavor! The best thing about these beauties, is there is NO recipe needed! Honestly! Zero! Just gather a mix your favorite veggies, such as cucumber, bell peppers, carrots, beets…..whatever! The addition of mango gives the rolls a blast of fresh flavor and beautiful color. (I wouldn’t make these, without the mango!) The cilantro and mint are key ingredients as well, although, if you aren’t a fan of cilantro, you can probably get away from leaving it out;)

The second best thing about making these rolls, is that they are completely raw! No cooking required! No need to get overheated in your kitchen:)) I use a food processor to shred the carrots and the beets, but the rest of the ingredients can be thinly sliced into strips, using a good knife. To add a bit more flavor and interest, I generally add a teaspoon of seasoned rice vinegar to each of the veggies. This step is unnecessary, but recommended.

The spring rolls are made using sheets of Vietnamese rice papers. Most grocery stores carry them (look in the Asian food section). If you can’t find them, go to an Asian grocery store or purchase on Amazon!

A great gluten free vehicle!
A great gluten free vehicle!

Now the fun begins! To prepare the spring rolls, all you need is a plate with warm water (not HOT)! Place one sheet of rice paper into the water, until the paper gets soft. If you leave it in the water too long, it will fall apart. It might take a couple tries to get the hang of the process;) Be patient and have fun with it!

Prepping the rice paper
Softened rice paper!
Check out the colors!

I place the softened rice paper on a moist cutting board and begin filling it up with my favorite veggie combinations! I love using heirloom varieties of beets and carrots! The colors are amazing! Each spring roll becomes its on work of art! You can fit a lot into these rolls. If you don’t fill them up, there is excess rice paper (not a good thing), so practice make perfect!

Great to use as a quick fix and full of good ingredients!
Clean ingredients:))
Just as tasty as soy sauce, but soy free & gluten free!

Finally, I mixed up a yummy, spicy peanut sauce for dipping. I found this spicy Thai peanut butter at New Seasons Market and decided to incorporate it into the sauce. It’s really tasty and is the ingredients are simple! I mixed 1/4 cup of the peanut butter with 1 TBS of Bragg Liquid Aminos and some water to thin out the sauce a bit.

The rolls will keep in the refrigerator for 3 days, but they are addictive and won’t last that long! Enjoy!!

Aren’t they pretty?
The finished product and sauce!

 

 

 

Paella!!

- Victoria Starr Leave a comment

I am so excited for our trip to Spain in May! I am especially looking forward to connecting to my heritage, through the amazing food. As a result, I’ve been experimenting with some of the flavors that I typically associate with Spain. One of my favorite dishes is paella. Paella is a Valencian rice dish with ancient roots that originated in its modern form in the mid-nineteenth century on the east coast of Spain. The dish is widely regarded as Spain’s national dish.

The finished product!
The finished product!

The three most popular forms of paella are Valencian paella (white rice, green vegetables, chicken and rabbit, white beans and seasoning such as saffron, rosemary and occasionally lemon), seafood paella (replaces meats with seafood and omits beans and green vegetables) and mixed paella (freestyle combination of land animals, seafood, vegetables and sometimes beans). There are MANY variations, with optional ingredients including artichoke, pepper and chicken liver.

Of course, I opted to make a freestyle paella. The main components being seafood (large shrimp, mussels and calamari) and Spanish style chorizo. It’s actually very easy to make, but there are many steps to follow, so I have included a pictures to help illustrate.

Prepare seafood
Spanish chorizo
The Sofrito
Sauté chorizo
Add chicken stock
Add rice!
Nestle seafood into rice!

The most important suggestion I can make is to prep all ingredients ahead of time! Chop, measure and organize. This will ensure a seamless process and also provide the best chance for perfect paella:))

 

 
 
Paella
Serves 6
A delicious recipe for this Valencian specialty!
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Prep Time
30 min
Cook Time
1 hr
Total Time
1 hr 30 min
Prep Time
30 min
Cook Time
1 hr
Total Time
1 hr 30 min
Ingredients
  1. 1 Onion, Chopped
  2. 4 Garlic Cloves, Minced
  3. 1 Serrano Chili, Minced
  4. 1 Handful of Parsley, Chopped
  5. ¼-1/2 Cup EVOO
  6. 1-2 Lemons, Juiced
  7. 1 Bell Pepper, Chopped
  8. ½ tsp Saffron Threads
  9. 3 tsp Smoked Paprika
  10. Salt to taste
  11. Pepper to taste
  12. ½ Cup of Dry Sherry
  13. 6 Cups of Chicken Stock
  14. 1 Pound of Spanish Chorizo
  15. 3 Cups Short Grain Rice
  16. ½ Pound Large Shrimp
  17. ½ Pound of Calamari or White Fish of your choice, Chopped
  18. 6-10 Mussels, Scrubbed and Cleaned
Instructions
  1. Gather, clean prep and chop all ingredients!! Remember that a crust that forms at the bottom of the pan is ideal....a burnt crust is a no-no! Practice makes perfect:)
  2. Make the sofrito!
  3. The sofrito is one of the most important components to the flavor base of your paella!
  4. To make, place serrano chili, parsley, EVOO, the lemon juice and salt to taste in food processor and blend until all ingredients are finely minced. Place to the side.
  5. Heat 4 TBS of EVOO in paella pan (or large, shallow, saute pan).
  6. Add chopped chorizo and cook until browned (about 5 minutes).
  7. Add onions and bell pepper and saute until soft (about 5 minutes).
  8. Add garlic and paprika and saute for about 1 minute.
  9. Add sherry and simmer, stirring constantly for about 3 minutes.
  10. Add rice and stir until translucent.
  11. Stir in broth, saffron and a hefty sprinkle of salt.
  12. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for about 15 minutes.
  13. Add the sofrito, stirring it in well.
  14. Cook the seafood in the rice, starting with nestling the mussels into the rice, in the center of the pan. (It should take about 15 minutes for the mussels to open up and start to cook).
  15. Once the mussels have opened up, place the rest of the seafood into the rice, as well.
  16. Cover the pan, tightly with foil and continue to simmer until the rice is al dente (about 10 minutes).
  17. Discard any mussels that have opened.
  18. Remove from heat and allow the rice to continue steaming for 10 minutes.
  19. Serve with lemon slices and enjoy with a glass of vino tinto!
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Cacao Brittle

- Victoria Starr Leave a comment

So, I decided to get a monthly gluten free snack subscription from tastypantry.com to keep my creative juices flowing in the kitchen! Every month a carefully curated collection of goodies miraculously appears at my door. Everything has been very tasty, but nothing has inspired me as much as one particular product…..Cacao Brittle. It looked completely uninteresting to me. So much so, that I didn’t even try it for a week. One bite, and I realized that I was hooked! Crunchy, barely sweet, chocolate goodness. Just a hint of banana….which is a good thing, since I don’t like bananas:)

But what is Cacao Brittle? It is simply chocolate flavored, banana chips. I read the ingredients on the label and realized that I had all the ingredients I needed to recreate this GF chocolate yumminess. Banana, cacao powder, cacao nibs, almonds, coconut, maple syrup, vanilla extract, cinnamon, salt. Throw everything into a food processor, until it turns into a beautiful chocolate, chunky mixture. Place it on a parchment lined cookie pan. Roll it out, so it evenly covers the pan, using a sheet of Saran Wrap (it’s very sticky). Remove the Saran Wrap.

Now it needs to be dehydrated. I don’t have a dehydrator, but my oven has very low temperature settings. So, I set the oven to 150 degrees, put the pan in the oven and crossed my fingers. Every hour, I checked on it’s progress. 4 hours into the process, I could tell it was going to take much longer than I thought. At that point, I removed the pan from the oven. The brittle was pliable, but solid, so I began breaking it into pieces to speed up the dehydration process. Then I went to sleep, trusting that it would be perfect in the morning……and it was!

My brittle was much thicker, almost like a thin chocolate cookie. Joy! I figured it out on my first try! Now, I want to try some variations, with different nuts, spices and flavors:) It does occupy your oven for 10 hours, but do it overnight, like I did and it makes it all worth it!

Cacao Brittle
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Ingredients
  1. 1 banana
  2. 2 handfuls of almonds (or any nut of your choice)
  3. 2 handfuls of shredded coconut
  4. 1 handful of cacao nibs
  5. 1/8 cup raw cacao powder
  6. 1/4 cup maple syrup to taste
  7. 1 tsp vanilla extract
  8. 1 tsp cinnamon
  9. 1/4 tsp salt to taste
Instructions
  1. Process all ingredients in a food processor. Incorporate all ingredients, until you get the consistency you desire.
  2. Place onto a parchment paper lined cookie sheet and roll out evenly, placing cling wrap on top of the mixture. Remove cling wrap.
  3. Place in oven at 150 degrees or in food dehydrator. In 4-5 hours remove pan from oven and check the consistency of the brittle. It should break apart fairly easy, into large chips. Place back into the oven. Check again in 6-8 hours. Should be crispy all the way through, when it is done! Let it cool and then store in ziplock bag for 5 days.....it will be gone in 1 day:)
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Spanish Octopus Salad

- Victoria Starr Leave a comment
The salad
The salad

Most people keep canned tuna fish in their cupboard. I do too, but I also have developed a fondness for many different packaged seafoods. These foods are staples for many people in European countries, such as Spain. Considered delicacies to this Pacific North Westerner, I found a fantastic variety at the shop in EVOO, in Cannon Beach last month. But the big question remains…..What does one do with canned octopus??!! Here is my tasty solution…..

A delicious jar of octopus salad
A delicious jar of octopus salad
Spanish ingredients
Spanish ingredients
Canned Octopus
Canned Octopus
The main ingredients
The main ingredients

I took inspiration from a salad I had at St. Jack in Portland, which was crunchy, colorful and tasty.  My first step was to pick crunchy veggies, so I chose a mixture of romanesco, carrots and onions. Really, any cruciforous veggies will do! These choices were equally pleasing to the eye! Beautiful, bright green and orange colors of the veggies, looked amazing with the white and purple in the octopus:) Now, my next task, was to make the mixture tasty.

I chopped all of the veggies and the octopus into small chunks, to allow the flavors to blend well together. I decided to go with a Spanish blend of flavors. A nod to the octopus which came from Spain! Sherry vinegar, smoked paprika, lemon, salt and EVOO. I placed everything into a mason jar, gave it a good shake, placed in the fridge for a few hours and waited patiently for the flavors to come together.

Yum! This was a perfect, midweek, light dinner. I ate the entire jar of goodness in one setting and now I’m scrambling to find more of this amazing octopus on the Internet. As luck would have it, a new store, specializing in Spanish foods just opened in the Pearl. It’s called  Conserva. You should check them out!