Oat Waffles

What's for breakfast?

The ideal breakfast for a healthful body is fresh fruits. A fruit breakfast is cleansing on the system and when practiced regularly it will provide the best energy level for your day. Too often people seek a "hearty breakfast" which is actually full of many hazardous foods. Pancakes and waffles loaded with jam or syrup are more clearly suspect, let alone bacon and eggs, but even apparently wholesome traditions like cereal and toast, however natural or whole grained are less than optimal.

Instead of feeling cleansed, refreshed and energetic throughout the morning they have an initial burst of activity (often boosted by caffeine) and by mid-morning they are feeling heavy and depleted of energy. Not everyone is ready yet to go for a fresh fruit breakfast every day. Also, the "breakfast foods" are some of the most comforting and difficult to leave behind. A traditional cooked breakfast can be optimized with use of whole grains and other nutritious foods instead of the usual high fat, high sugar, fiber-less and micro-nutrient-deficient "hearty breakfast."

Oats are as good a grain as they come, but a bowl of oatmeal might not be the top item on your food preferences when it is offered day after day. Oat waffles are another way to eat your oatmeal and enjoy it. Once you see how nutritious and easy to prepare oat waffles are you may find them a useful as part of cooked meal later in the day too.

What's good about them?

Oat waffles can be as simple as oats and water, with no other ingredients. The oat waffles we've been eating most recently are a combination of whole, germinated oats, flaxseed, banana and sometimes germinated almonds. Any of these ingredients makes an important contribution to the diet, but waffles present a chance to put them all together in a really tasty way.

How do you do it?

Whole oats are germinated by soaking in water overnight. If you have a chance to rinse and drain them for a couple days they will begin to sprout and their nutritional content will further multiply. Whole grains like oats have a fair amount of B vitamins, but as the seeds come to life in the water their B vitamin content multiplies, in some cases several times, and the result is increased nutritional density. For short order waffles dry oats can be used, but they will take a longer time in the blender to get processed. Oatmeal can be used instead of whole oats, requires less ambition when soaking, and it is less dense than whole oats, scant 2 cups oatmeal is the same weight as a full one cup whole oats. A basic recipe will use one unit of oats (2 cups oatmeal, or one cup dry oats).

Flaxseed can be ground in a small dry container on the blender, but an electric coffee grinder makes short work of the process. Grind 2 tablespoons of seed by your method of preference.

In a large blender jar place the oats (and almonds if you are using them) and add enough water to get it spinning well. You may need to add additional water after a minute or two as the mixture thickens. Add a small banana to the batch and continue blending. You may also like to add favorite spices and flavors (like cinnamon, or nutmeg or vanilla). Blend until smooth throughout. Add the flaxseed powder last and stir to mix thoroughly. Flax is added last because it absorbs the extra moisture and prevents having too soupy of a batter.

Non-stick spray your waffle iron if needed. Add batter, using a bit more than with traditional waffles because this batter is unleavened and will not rise or expand as much. It will take quite a bit longer to cook (7 minutes or more).

Variations

A variety of flavors can be obtained by using various fruit juices and milk substitutes in place of the water. Fruits other than bananas and nuts other than almonds make additional flavor variations.

Examples:

• crushed pineapple in juice and coconut milk for a tropical flavor
• applesauce in place of some of the water and banana and apple pie spices
• pumpkin instead of banana with pumpkin pie spices

What do you eat them with?

A butter and syrup binge dilutes the healthful benefits of oat waffles. Consider using fresh fruits as toppings. If you need something more saucy or syrupy to keep everyone happy try fresh fruit sauce or half syrup.

Fresh Fruit Sauce

Cooking fruit causes it to lose some of its nutrients. Instead try making a porridge of water or fruit juice and some type of starch (cornstarch, tapioca flour, etc), cook it to a thick paste and let it cool slightly. Blend the cooked starch with raw fresh fruits until you reach the desired consistency. Grated apple, mashed ripe peaches, or berries are all good.