Waffle Iron Dinners

Thursday nights are always a tough night in our home for family dinners. The fridge has thinned out from last weekends shopping trip and we have eaten up all our leftovers. Mentally, we are ready for the weekend and don't feel like cooking anything substantial.

Our solution: pull out the waffle iron, it can do much more that make basic breakfast waffles and is a snap to clean!

There are many recipes out there for Zucchini Waffles, but we encourage you to stack ours up against the rest. We find that the other recipes produce a soggy product, while ours have a crunchy exterior and fluffy interior!

Veggie Waffles
-2 cups of grated vegetable (zucchini, sweet potato, parsnip) feel free to mix a few veggies. The waffles pictured above are made with zucchini. Note*: when grating the vegetables, make sure they are in smaller pieces (about 1 inch in length maximum).
-1 egg
-1/4 cup of milk
-1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese
-1/2 cup of brown rice flour
-1/4 cup of finely diced onion
-1 tsp salt
-cooking spray if your waffle is not a non-stick

Heat your waffle iron on high.

Put your grated veggies in a sieve and cover with paper towel. Push down on the veggies trying to rid them from as much water as possible. (Some veggies, like parsnips, may not leak much water).

In a small bowl whisk together the milk and egg. Then add the Parmesan cheese, brown rice flour and salt. Mix until combined. Lastly, stir in the onion and veggies.

Spoon the batter into your waffle iron and cook until done. Make the waffles any size you want (larger waffles will take a bit longer to cook). Cool on wire wrack.

When ready to eat, pop your veggie waffles in the toaster and toast on medium-high to get crunchy! Serve with applesauce and plain yogurt.

Sloppy Jills!

We all know Sloppy Joe, right? He’s filling, messy, perfectly sweet and tangy and tends to spend lots of time in cafeterias.  But have you heard of his healthy, vegetarian and more sophisticated sister, Sloppy Jill? Probably not…because we just invented her! The Sloppy Jill sandwich is a nutritious, low-fat and more upscale version of the classic meat sandwich we all grew up loving.  Our reinvented version features lentils, which are loaded with protein and easy to digest and of course, hidden veggies!  This one pot meal will leave your family asking for “more SLOPPY JILL’S PEA-LEASE!”

Ingredients:

1 ½ cup green or brown lentils

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 clove of garlic chopped

½ cup chopped onion

½ cup bell pepper

½ cup diced carrot

1/2 cup ketchup

2 Tbsp maple syrup

2 Tbsp chili powder

½ tsp smoked paprika

3 Tbsp tomato paste

1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 Tbsp yellow mustard

½ tsp sea salt

½ tsp black pepper

1 cups water

- The morning you plan on making this meal, leave lentils to soak in a bowl of water.  This will shorten the cooking time of the lentils and make the beans more digestible.

- Rinse and drain soaked lentils and place in a large pot. Fill the pot with enough water to fully submerge the lentils and bring to a boil. Let the lentils simmer for about 20-25 minutes or until fully cooked but still somewhat firm.

- Drain lentils and set aside.

- In the same pot you made the lentils in pour in oil, onions and garlic and let cook for about five minutes over medium heat.

- Add bell pepper and carrot and cook for another 8 minutes.

- Add lentils, ketchup, maple sugar, chili powder, smoked paprika, tomato paste, balsamic vinegar, mustard and water.

- Mix all ingredients together and bring to a simmer for 20 minutes.  If you’d like the filling “sloppier” add a Tbsp of water at a time until you get your desired consistency. Add salt to taste.

- Remove from heat and allow to sit for another 10 minutes to thicken up.  

- Serve with your favorite sandwich bread or roll.

Serves 8