Cream Of Celery Soup - Tasty Tuesday!

It's cold in Chicago now.  Our beautiful days of sunshine and 70s are gone.  It's no longer easy, comfortable, or even possible to go outside without a coat.  In my mind, we've officially entered Soup Season.  Earlier this week, I made my Roasted Butternut Squash Soup, and it was good.  Last night, I did a new one, and it was awesomely yummy and again perfectly healthy.

Interestingly, my Cream of Celery Soup doesn't require any cream or milk.  And since I was in the process of doing a 14 day gluten free challenge, I was happy to make this gluten free, too.  Potato does an amazing job of making a beautiful thick texture and a creamy taste.  I've used this technique before with my potato and corn chowder that has barely any milk in it.  It feels wrong calling it "cream of" when there's no cream or milk, but this is exactly what it tastes like.

And this soup was good.  Even my husband who doesn't like celery ate it, and Little Miss kept taking spoonfuls from my bowl after she finished hers.  That's a good sign, right?

Cream of Celery Soup

Ingredients:
6 good size celery stalks (about a pound, but my digital scale broke, so I'm guesstimating)
1 medium baking potato
2 T oil or butter
1 medium onion
2 cloves garlic
3/4 c dry wine
4 c chicken stock (or vegetable stock to make vegan)
1/2 t nutmeg
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Chop your celery into small pieces.  I cut my stalks in half lengthwise (after washing them well) and then chopped them into 1/2 inch pieces or so.  In a heavy soup pan, heat the oil (or butter).  Add the celery and cook over medium low heat.  Stir, then chop the onion after peeling it. The onion should be about the same size as the celery.  Add the onion to the pot and continue to cook.

Cut the potato into similar small chunks.  Personally, I like keeping the potato skin on, so I don't peel it.  If you feel differently, go ahead and peel it.  You want these smaller than you normally would so that they cook more quickly in the soup.

Smash the garlic and remove the skins.  Add the smashed garlic to the onions and celery and cook for a few more minutes, stirring periodically.  You want to cook it until the onion is fairly translucent but before it truly caramelizes.  At this point, add the wine, and cook it down until the wine has reduced by about half.

Add the potato after the wine has reduced, which will only take a few minutes.  Then add the chicken stock - adding the potato first means you don't get splashes of stock.  I'm always thinking, and no, I didn't learn that one the hard way, why?  Add the nutmeg, and stir once.

Bring this to a boil (cover it to bring it to a boil more quickly, then remove the cover once it boils), then turn it down to a simmer.  Cook for 15-20 minutes when the potatoes are soft but not mushy.

Use your immersion blender - still my favorite kitchen gadget - to puree the soup.  If you don't have an immersion blender, you can use your regular blender.  You'll puree it in batches.  Don't fill your blender more than one-third full of a hot liquid, and be sure to use a kitchen towel to hold the lid on.  You don't want the pressure from blending hot liquid to case the top to fly off and spray scalding liquid, so be careful (see, this is why I love my immersion blender - it reduces danger, and it's useful).

Add salt and pepper to taste, and serve immediately.  This is fantastic, even for me who doesn't like celery.  It's a light, fresh and slightly sweet flavor that is a perfect fall dinner.  Because this is such a light soup, it may work better as part of a meal rather than the entire entree.

Enjoy this and more with Blessed With Grace and Tempt My Tummy Tuesday.  Rachel from A Southern Fairytale has an awesome Mouthwatering Monday linkup that I participate in, too.

Peach Blueberry Crisp - Tasty Tuesday!

Mister Man and my husband had their first Cub Scout den meeting of the year last night.  They headed out for Mister Man's occupational therapy then straight to the meeting... at a pizza restaurant.  Little Miss and I were left at home to fend for ourselves.

You know that means we have to do something special, right?  Our local sushi restaurant is closed on Mondays, so that was out.  We decided to make something special for dessert.  She first tried to explain a muffin that had chocolate on top and jam in the center.  I couldn't figure it out until it finally dawned on me that she was talking about my cherry bliss bites.  The only problem?  I can't really make them dairy free for her.

Her next idea was a crisp, which I readily agreed sounded delicious.  I had peaches that needed to be used, so we decided to make a peach crisp - and while I can and did make this dairy free, the recipe I'm sharing is with butter instead.  To make it dairy free with a yummy and surprising twist, sub out mayonnaise for the butter.  Trust me on that one.

While I had peaches, I didn't have quite enough to fill the dish.  I augmented with frozen blueberries, and oh was that a good choice.  Each time I make something with this combination, blueberry and peach goes together far better than I think it will.

Yes, this is my dish.  Obviously.  It's topped with whipped cream.  Yum.

Peach Blueberry Crisp

Ingredients:
5 peaches, cut into ten to twelve slices, then cut in half vertically to make bit size pieces (enough for 3-4 cups)
2 cups blueberries
1/4 plus 2 T cornstarch
1 t nutmeg, freshly grated
3/4 c flour
1 c oats
2/3 c brown sugar
1 t cinnamon
1 t salt
1/3 c butter, melted

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Place the cut peaches and blueberries into a baking dish.  I used a smaller casserole that once belonged to my grandmother - talk about the ultimate comfort food!  You can leave the skins on or remove them.  I like to keep them on when I'm using fresh peaches, but frozen or jarred peaches usually have them removed, and that's fine.  And yes, you can use frozen or jarred (good jarred, please) when peaches aren't in season.

Place the cornstarch and 1/2 t nutmeg atop the fruit, and gently stir until it is all mixed together.

In another bowl, add the flour, brown sugar, oats, cinnamon, salt, and the rest of the nutmeg.  Stir to fully combine.  Add the melted butter and mix with a spatula until it comes together and creates pea or so size chunks.  You don't want to overstir, but ensure you get all the flour and sugar incorporated.

Carefully pour the topping over the fruit.  Use the spatula to ensure all the fruit is hidden by the topping without pushing it down into the fruit.

Place the crisp into the oven, and bake for 35 minutes, until the top is a beautiful golden brown.  Little Miss and I debated making individual servings in ramekins or a larger crisp.  We decided on the larger crisp, but if you make ramekins, bake them for 25 minutes instead.

Serve with ice cream or whipped cream while still warm.  Or let it cool off and enjoy it at room temperature for breakfast the next day.  Not that I or my husband would ever do that.  Ahem.

Enjoy this and more with Blessed With Grace and Tempt My Tummy Tuesday.  Rachel from A Southern Fairytale has an awesome Mouthwatering Monday linkup that I participate in, too.

Watermelon Granita - Tasty Tuesday!

There are some things I love about summer.  The fresh produce, spending time outside, grilling almost all our meals - those are the things that I love.  Of course sometimes I get a little carried away.  I'll buy a dozen mangoes and realize we can't eat quite that many.  Or I'll buy out the avocado section because they're really good and cheap, but then I need to do something with all of them.  Or I'll buy a huge watermelon that we can't eat fast enough.

Fortunately, there's always a solution.  I'll make my mango custard.  Or I'll freeze the sliced avocado (yes, it works - or I'll make guac and freeze that, which actually works better).  And for watermelon?  That's easy.  I make watermelon granita.

What?  You've never had it?  It's super easy, it's just about completely allergen free, and it tastes amazing on a hot day.  It's sweet and crunchy and frozen.  I've posted before about my mojito granita, but watermelon is pretty awesome, too.

Watermelon Granita

Ingredients:
10 pound watermelon (or so), flesh only and cubed-ish
2 limes
1/2 t salt
1/2 c water*
1/2 c sugar*

*Taste your watermelon before you start.  If it's bland, you may need more of the simple syrup you'll make.  My watermelon this time was blah, so I ended up doubling the sugar content.  Usually this is plenty.

Directions:
Make a simple syrup.  Place the water and sugar in a small pot, and bring to a boil.  Let it boil for two to three minutes, then remove it from the heat.  The sugar will be completely dissolved in the water, so nothing will be crunchy when you eat it.  Super simple, right?

While you're making the simple syrup, cut up your watermelon so you have chunks of the pink flesh.  Place them in a blender and liquefy them.  If there are any seeds, make sure you remove them first.  Pour the watermelon - made in batches, depending on the size of your blender - into a metal 13x9 pan (because it conducts the cold better, trust me).

Pour your simple syrup (which is fine cooled and actually better that way) into the pan with the watermelon, along with the salt.  Zest the limes into the watermelon mixture, and then juice them into it.  Try one lime juiced first and do a taste test after you've gently stirred the mixture.  If it needs more sugar at this point, make some more simple syrup.  If it needs the second lime (mine usually does), add it.

The next part is the hardest of the whole thing.  Get the pan into your freezer without spilling anything.  And yes, I have succeeded at this before.  Let it freeze for a half hour or so.  Pull it from the freezer, and you'll see where it's started to freeze at the top and around the edges.  Use a fork to scrape across the frozen parts to separate the ice crystals.  Place it in the freezer, and continue doing this until the granita is completely frozen and it is made up of little bits of icy chunks.  If you're anything like me, set a timer so you remember to scrape it each time.  If you forget, you can melt it and start over - not that I've ever had to do this before - and it's just fine.

Once it's ready, place all of it in a sealed container and serve frozen.  It will stay good for a couple weeks, but it's so good and so healthy, it will never last that long, right?

Enjoy this and more with Blessed With Grace and Tempt My Tummy Tuesday.

Sweet Potato Turkey Meatballs - Tasty Tuesday!

When I was at Type A a little over a week ago (wow, has it really been that long already?), the North Carolina Sweet Potato Commission. I was excited because I love sweet potatoes. I'm not a fan of the overly sweet marshmallow topped confection that people try to pass off as a side dish at Thanksgiving, but sweet potatoes in a more subtle form are one of my favorite things. I make sweet potato fries and chips all the time, and the wee ones love them.

 The NC Sweet Potato Commission brought two items for us to try, and I fell in love with the sweet potato turkey meatballs (their original recipe). I know it sounds a bit odd, but they were beyond good. They were by far the best food I had onsite, and I couldn't wait to make them at home... and doctor them a little, of course.

Sweet Potato Turkey Meatballs


Ingredients:
1 lb sweet potato, baked
1 1/2 pounds ground turkey
1/2 c red onion, diced
1 t salt
1/2 t cumin seeds, toasted and ground
1 T dried parsley or 1/4 c fresh
2 cloves garlic, minced
olive oil

Directions:
Roast your sweet potato, and this is something you can do a couple days ahead of time if you like.  Preheat the oven to 400 degrees, and pierce your sweet potato a few times with a fork.  Bake it at 400 for 45 minutes, then let cool.

While this is baking, toast your cumin seeds in a small pan over medium heat, shaking the pan every few minutes.  Once they've toasted, use a spice grinder or mortal and pestle to grind them into cumin powder.  The toasting makes them taste so much better.  You can also use this time to dice the onion and mince the garlic so they're ready, too.  If you're using fresh parsley, roll the leaves then cut along the roll to easily chiffonade them.

Cut the sweet potato in half and scoop out the baked insides with a spoon.  Mash them well in a separate bowl with a large fork.  Once they've lost all their chunks, add the turkey, onion, salt, cumin, parsley, and garlic.  Gently mix together the mixture with your hands until the ingredients are fully incorporated.

Preheat your oven (again) to 400 degrees.  Prepare a jelly roll pan lined with a sil pat or parchment paper.  Roll the meat mixture into golf ball size meatballs and place them on the jelly roll pan.  Brush them lightly with olive oil, then bake at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes until the tops are golden and the insides are fully cooked.

These are awesome just on their own, served with some greens or corn or whatever other summer accouterments you have on hand.  They would also be great in a pasta with marinara, but I'm not cooking pasta in summer.  In fact, shhhh I actually roasted my sweet potato and cooked the meatballs on my grill so that I wouldn't have to turn on my oven in the heat.  It totally works.

Enjoy this and more with Blessed With Grace and Tempt My Tummy Tuesday.

Bacon Egg Salad - Tasty Tuesday!

So here's the deal.  I don't like mayonnaise.  It's my dirty little secret... well, that and the fact that I also don't like peanut butter.  Have you ever noticed that there is not a single recipe I've ever posted that includes peanut butter?  Sometimes, though, there's a recipe out there that has mayonnaise in it that I sorta like.  Or that I want to like.  It's just that mayonnaise is given the starring role when it should really just have a bit part.  And so I'll remake that recipe to my liking, which generally doesn't even have a mild family resemblance to its gloppy ancestor.

This week, I took on egg salad.  Because I sort of really like egg salad, just not the kind that's falling all over the place with may and is more dressing than sandwich filler, not that I normally even put egg salad on sandwiches.  I actually like this by itself of wrapped in a couple Bibb lettuce leaves or on crackers or even wrapped in a tortilla.  If it's  going on bread, the bread has to be toasted; I really don't want anything even pretending like it might be or get soggy.

Bacon Egg Salad


Ingredients:
5 eggs
2 slices bacon, cooked
2 T mayonnaise
1 t lemon juice
1/4 c parsley chopped
1 T whole grain mustard
salt and pepper, to taste
Optional: red pepper or celery - I just happened to not have any on hand, but chop to match the size of the bacon and add about a quarter cup or either or both

Directions:
This is all about the egg.  Go ahead and cut your bacon into matchsticks and then half the match sticks and start cooking them, but your focus is really on getting a well boiled egg if you want good egg salad.  I know that many recipes call for you to place your eggs into already simmering water and blah blah blah, but I have a few too many burns doing it that way, so I go the lazy man's route.

I put my eggs in a pot with cold water, covering the eggs by about an inch.  I cover the pot and turn on the heat to medium high.  And then I listen.  The second I hear water boiling (which usually means the splash of water on the burner as it bubbles out of my pot), I run into the kitchen and turn off the heat.  I set the timer for fourteen minutes for my large eggs and then prepare an ice bath.  When the timer goes off, I put the eggs straight into the ice bath (a bowl I fill with ice cubes and then water so it stays cold) and let them sit there for about five minutes.  Only then do I attempt to peel my eggs.  Lesson on boiling eggs?  Don't use your fresh eggs.  This works so much better when your eggs are a little older.  They're less likely to stick to the shells, but hey, we aren't going to be pretty with these eggs anyway, are we?

Once you have your eggs peeled, you want to slice them.  Since I don't want a gloppy, mushy mess, I literally only slice them one way and that's it.  I want to retain as much of the original texture of the egg as possible because we are celebrating the egg in the egg sandwich, right?

By now your bacon should be long done and well cooled, right?  If not, the eggs aren't in a rush, so go ahead and cook your bacon until it's crispy.  The halved matchsticks should turn into a great size for the salad by now.  Drain them on a paper towel, as we don't want all that grease going into our salad.

Add all ingredients to a bowl.  Yes, I cheated with this one and used dried parsley because I thought I'd bought parsley but didn't check the fridge, and my memory failed me.  It was cilantro.  The dried works well, just remember to use 1/3 the quantity of the fresh herb you'd use when you're substituting a dried herb.

Use a large fork to mix gently until it's all combined.  Taste for salt and pepper and adjust as needed.  Serve on toasted bread, crackers, in a roll up, by itself, wrapped in lettuce leaves, however you want.  Just be grateful that this isn't the goopy, gloppy mess you used to get in the cafeteria.

Enjoy this and more with Blessed With Grace and Tempt My Tummy Tuesday. Also posting now with A Southern Fairytale and her Mouthwatering Monday.

Blueberry Crumb Bars

Todayis the last day of school for the wee ones.  As a special treat, I decided to make them something that reminds me of summer.  There are certain foods that just scream summer to me, blueberries and lemons chief among them.  And voila, I decided to make blueberry crumb bars.  I edited them to make them dairy free, but use butter if you can.  Mmmm, butter!
And yes, these were a huge hit.  I'm storing them in the fridge because I want a cool treat in the heat of summer, and they do really well there.  So what foods scream summer to you?

Blueberry Crumb Bars

Ingredients:
1 egg
1 c butter (or butter substitute for me), room temperature
1 1/2 c sugar, divided
3 c flour
1 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1 t cinnamon
1 lemon - zest and juice
4 c blueberries - I used frozen, use fresh if you have them
2 T cornstarch
1/2 t nutmeg, fresh grated

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 375 and grease a 9x13 glass baking dish.

In a bowl, mix together the butter and the egg and butter.  Add the baking powder, lemon zest, cinnamon, and salt, and mix well.  Add 1 cup of the sugar and the flour and mix until it's crumbly but not overmixed.

In another bowl, mix together the blueberries, cornstarch (use 4 t instead of 2 T if using fresh blueberries), remaining 1/2 c sugar, lemon juice, and a little nutmeg together.

Pour a little over half the dough crumbs into your prepared pan and pat them down.  Pour the blueberries atop that, then sprinkle the remaining crumb mixture on top of the blueberries.

Bake at 375 for 50-60 minutes, until the top is a beautiful golden brown color.  Let this cool completely befor you cut it so that it doesn't juice all over the place.  Store it in the fridge for a great cool sweet treat.

Enjoy this and more with Blessed With Grace and Tempt My Tummy Tuesday. Also posting now with A Southern Fairytale and her Mouthwatering Monday.

Peach Coconut Milk Ice Cream - Tasty Tuesday!

I love ice cream in the summer.  There's nothing like that cool and creamy yumminess on a roasting hot summer day.  I used to make ice cream and frozen yogurt all the time, but with Little Miss' dairy allergy, I haven't made ice cream in years.  With summer coming up, I'm going back to using my awesome machine and making ice cream that is fun and also has ingredients I can pronounce in it.

With Memorial Day yesterday, I took my chance to start making good on my ice cream resolution.  With the dairy allergy, I decided to make a dairy alternative ice cream.  Have you ever had coconut milk ice cream?  It is so good and creamy and delicious, and no, it doesn't make everything taste like coconut.  It's lighter and more refreshing than regular ice cream, I think.

Peach Coconut Milk Ice Cream

Ingredients:
2 cups coconut milk (the full fat will give you the creamiest results)
2 cups peaches - separated (it's not peach season; I used good quality jarred peaches)
2 T brown sugar (yep, brown - yum)
1 t lemon juice
1/2 juice - not syrup - from the peaches, or simple syrup (equal parts water and sugar, boiled then cooled)

Directions:
Before you start, ensure you have sufficiently chilled your bucket for your ice cream - assuming you're using a machine that requires you to have a frozen bucket.  Mine needs to be in the freezer overnight, and now that I'm making ice cream again, I'm keeping my buckets in the freezer permanently.

Place the coconut milk, 1 cup of the peaches, brown sugar, lemon juice, and peach juice into a blender.  Blend on high for a minute or so until it's completely incorporated.  Add the remaining cup of peaches and blend on low for ten second, just until the peaches are chopped into bite size pieces.  Honestly, this is one of those times when I fall in love with my Vita-Mix all over again.

Taste test the ice cream base - someone's gotta! - and ensure that it's too your liking.  I don't like my ice cream super sweet, so you may need to doctor it a bit to get it perfect for you.  That isn't to say that this isn't sweet - it definitely is - but it isn't syrupy.

Prepare your ice cream maker.  You don't want to take your bucket out of the freezer until this point, or it will start to melt.  Carefully pour your base into your ice cream maker, and turn it on.  Let it churn for 20-30 minutes.  You don't want it to go too long, but let it start to get a little solidified and have plenty of air incorporated.

Pour your almost ice cream into a container that you can seal and put in the freezer for two to three hours, and you're ready to go.  This ice cream does best when you let it warm up just a little bit by sitting out 10 to 15 minutes before serving.  It will keep in the freezer, but it's best in the first few days after you make it, but it's good no matter what!  We served this with fresh fruit atop it yesterday, and it was awesome.

Enjoy this and more with Blessed With Grace and Tempt My Tummy Tuesday. Also posting now with A Southern Fairytale and her Mouthwatering Monday.

CousCous Salad - Tasty Tuesday!

Memorial Day is next Monday, and I can't wait.  Around here, that always have plenty of food and family and friends - and of course, fun.  My focus right now is on the food.  While I have some favorites that I know we'll pull out, Mister Man's bacon cheddar stuffed burgers for example, I always like to try to find something new and different just for fun.

As I scrolled mentally through the possibilities, I decided I wanted to do something with tomatoes and avocadoes, but I didn’t want to do a straight avocado salad. I’ve done that before As I strolled through the grocery store picking up ingredients – tomatoes, avocado, onions, garlic, and the like, I decided I wanted to make it with couscous, not the least of which because I have a huge bag of couscous at home and hadn’t used it in awhile.

It was a good call. I got creative with the ingredients and the cooking, and oh did the salad turn out delicious. It’s literally making my mouth water just looking at it. When I make it on Monday for our Memorial Day barbecue, I’ll add a little queso fresco to it (which I left out so dairy free Little Miss could eat it), but aside from that I am satisfied with attempt one. So what are you making for Memorial Day?

CousCous Salad

Ingredients:
1 c couscous (I used the Israeli pearl couscous, but feel free to use what you have)
1 1/2 c chicken stock (or vegetable stock to keep it vegetarian/vegan)
1/2 c chopped onion
2 T olive oil
2-3 tomatoes, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced (please don't use the nasty bottled stuff)
2 T dried parsley (or 1/4 c fresh, chopped)
2 t salt
2 avocadoes
2 limes, juiced
1 t sugar or honey
1 c corn kernals (frozen or fresh and roasted)
1/2 c queso fresco

Directions:
Heat the stock to the point of steaming but not boiling in a saucepan.  While this is heating, add the olive oil to a different hot pan - not a nonstick one, but a good cast iron or heavy aluminum one.  Once it starts to shimmer, add the onion and let it cook for a couple minutes while you chop your tomatoes.  Add the tomatoes and then chop the garlic and add it.  Add the couscous, as well, and stir for a couple minutes while it toasts.

Pour the hot stock atop the couscous.  Add the salt and parsley (only if you're doing dried - if you're using fresh, add it at the very end when you add the lime juice),  and cover the pot to simmer the mixture for 8-10 minutes.

While the mixture is simmering, cut the avocado into cubes and crumble the queso fresco.  Once the couscous is cooked, stir in the corn and lime juice (and parsley if you're using fresh), along with the sugar.  Once this is mixed, add the avocado and gently mix it.  Sprinkle the queso fresco atop the salad and serve while still warm or chill and serve the next day.  This will keep for just a day or so because of the avocado, but I doubt it will last that long!

Enjoy this and more with Blessed With Grace and Tempt My Tummy Tuesday. Also posting now with A Southern Fairytale and her Mouthwatering Monday.

Tasty Tuesday - Pumpkin Waffles

Yes, I've been in a bit of a Blissdom haze lately. That hasn't been my entire focus, happy as the wee ones are to know that. As part of Little Miss's school's reading program, the school earned a pancake breakfast day. The teachers cooked pancakes for every student in the school who had achieved the reading incentive for the past week.

It's awfully sweet. I love all the extras that her principal and teachers do to go above and beyond. Unfortunately, some of the treats - including the pizza for the entire school this Friday - don't work for us. Little Miss has a dairy allergy and can't eat the pancakes. (Or so I hope - a local restaurant has told us multiple times that their pancakes and waffles contain no dairy!) The last two years, I've made special waffles for her instead of the pancakes.

Why waffles? It's really obvious with waffles instead of pancakes - to her and to the teacher - that she's eating what she's supposed to. Plus, I have a waffle maker, and I figure I should use it when I can. Unfortunately I don't like waffles, so this is purely for the wee ones. And my husband, who always sneaks some.

This time? I went with pumpkin. And they were good. Or so I was told....

Pumpkin Waffles

Ingredients:
1 1/2 T baking powder
1 T cinnamon
1 t allspice
1 t nutmeg, grated
1/2 t salt
2 1/2 c flour
1/2 c brown sugar
1 c canned pumpkin
1 t fresh ginger, grated
2 c milk (dairy free for us - I love coconut milk or at least rice milk for it)
4 eggs, separated
1/4 cup butter substitute, melted

Directions:
Preheat your waffle iron. These will take a little longer to bake, so if yours has an adjustable temperature, turn it up higher than you normally would. If it doesn't (mine doesn't), just know you'll need to bake these longer than normal waffles.

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, brown sugar, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, and salt until they're well-mixed. In a separate bowl (ok, so I use a large liquid measuring cup so I don't have to dirty another bowl - I'm lazy), mix together the pumpkin, milk, ginger, and egg yolks until completely blended (save those whites!). Slowly add the butter (substitute) so that it doesn't cook the eggs or turn into a solid lump. Make sure you're whisking as you add the melted butter. Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.

Take the egg whites and put in a clean metal or glass bowl. Whip until medium peaks form. They will look like this:

Fold the egg whites into the waffle batter. That means you'll want to add about a third of the egg whites to the batter and sacrifice their fluffiness. Incorporate them as gently as you can. Don't stir them like you normally would. Instead scrape underneath the batter with the spatula and turn the batter over on itself. This will help keep the egg whites aerated and your waffles fluffy. After you get the first third incorporated, go ahead and add the rest of the eggs, folding as gently as possible and using as few motions as possible. Once you have very few or small white streaks remaining, your batter is done.

Pour batter into your waffle maker. Mine takes almost a cup per waffle, but all waffle makers are different. Let the waffles cook until no more steam come from the sides before removing, using a fork to gently pry the waffles out, if needed. Remember that these will take longer than normal waffles, so don't go by the "done" timer on your waffle iron.

These store well in a sealed container for a few days, or feel free to freeze them. When I want to serve them after the first day, I pop them in the toaster for a bit, and they turn out great. I have a happy family!

Enjoy this and more with Blessed With Grace and Tempt My Tummy Tuesday. Also posting now with A Southern Fairytale and her Mouthwatering Monday.