Homemade No Butter Waffles

I love this recipe. It truly is a "pantry" recipe, meaning that you are likely to have every ingredient you need to make it already on hand (which makes it the perfect recipe to make on the weekends even before you've had a chance to do your weekly grocery shopping).

AND - the bonus for this recipe is that it doesn't call for butter. So, if you have a dairy allergy, are dairy intolerant, or simply don't have any on hand, you're still good to go with this recipe. I have substituted Almond milk for the milk in this recipe with success. So keep that in mind if you fall into any of the non-dairy categories.

No Butter Waffles

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp granulated sugar

2 large eggs, beaten

2 cups milk

3/4 cup vegetable oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

1. In a large mixing bowl, mix together dry ingredients. 
2. Add eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla, and stir to incorporate. Mix until batter is mostly smooth and without lumps.
3. Heat waffle iron. 
4. When iron is heated, pour batter onto the center of waffle iron until it spreads approximately 1/2 - 1/4 inch away from the edges. This will prevent the batter from seeping out of the sides of the waffle iron as the waffles cook.
5. Remove the waffle from the iron when indicator light turns on. Continue in the same manner until you have used all of the batter.
6. Serve waffles warm with toppings of choice. Makes 5 Belgian waffles.

Delicious waffle toppings:

Strawberry Syrup

Blueberry Syrup

Powdered Sugar

Fresh Fruit

Maple Syrup

Four Ingredient Orange Coconut Italian Ice

Today I bring you another super-simple recipe that is perfect for warmer weather. This time, it will help you use up those oranges that are sitting on your counter that didn't quite make it into this week's lunch boxes for the kiddos. ;-)

What I like about this recipe (besides the fact that it only has four ingredients) is that it tastes very similar to orange sherbet, orange creamsicle ice cream, or the Orange Push Ups that we all know and fondly remember from our days of running after the Ice Cream Man with change in hand.

Orange Coconut Italian Ice

2 medium oranges

1 3/4 cup coconut milk

4 Tbsp sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1. Peel and section oranges. Place sections on a tray and freeze for 1-2 hours.
2. Place coconut milk and half of the frozen orange sections into a food processor or powerful blender. Puree, scraping down the bowl as needed. Puree until the mixture is creamy and smooth. Add the remaining orange sections, sugar, and vanilla and puree again to combine. 
3. Pour into a freezer safe container and freeze for a few hours. Serve with your favorite toppings.

Notes:

Let this sit out for a few minutes to make it easier to serve.

If you're looking for other quick and easy Summertime recipes, give these tried and true Harris Sisters recipes a looksee:

Peanut Butter and Banana Ice Cream

Miss Daisy's Frozen Cherry Salad

Frozen Lemonade Pie

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Two Ingredient Peanut Butter Banana Ice Cream

When you usually have bananas turning brown on your counter, I bet you either make banana bread or banana muffins, or stick them in the freezer for future baked goods, right? Well, that's what I usually do with them (unless we've got a hankering for smoothies, that is).

Today, I bring you a super simple recipe that is perfect for Spring and Summer. It's only TWO ingredients (three if you want to get super-fancy). You'll be glad you saved this one. It's a great way to use up those bananas without heating up your kitchen.

Peanut Butter Banana Ice Cream

4 large ripe bananas

2 Tbsp peanut butter

1 tsp vanilla (optional)

1. Peel bananas and slice into small pieces. Arrange banana slices in a single layer on a baking sheet. Freeze for 1-2 hours.
2. Place banana slices into a food processor or powerful blender. Puree banana slices, scraping down the bowl as needed. Puree until the mixture is creamy and smooth. Add the peanut butter and vanilla (if using) and puree again to combine. 
3. Pour into a freezer safe container and freeze for a few hours. Serve with your favorite toppings.

Notes:

This is the perfect recipe to let your kids help with. I let the kiddos slice the bananas. While the slices weren't sized perfectly, it doesn't really matter when you're just going to puree them for the final product.

If you have a hard time creating a creamy consistency, you can add 1-2 tablespoons of milk to help puree the banana slices. 

Make sure you are using a powerful food processor or blender - we recently upgraded to a Ninja from the Cuisinart blender that we received in 1999 as a wedding present. While we were sad to see our old standby blender go, the Ninja is leaps and bounds more powerful than our old friend.

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How to Make Homemade Vegetable Broth

Vegetable broth (or vegetable stock) is a staple in vegetarian cooking, and it's so simple to whip up a big batch and freeze it to have on hand for all your upcoming recipes. And as an added bonus, when making your own, you can control all the ingredients, including any that you may be allergic to and/or any that you may want to limit (like additional sodium).

I have included a basic recipe below if you want to start today, as well as a Super Simple version that allows you to substitute leftover kitchen scraps you save from favorite recipes. 

Homemade Vegetable Broth

5-6 oz sliced mushrooms

4 Tbsp olive oil

4 cups chopped onion

2 cups chopped celery

3 cups chopped carrot or parsnips

1 cup chopped fennel bulb (optional)

Salt, to taste

2 large garlic cloves, smashed

2 Tbsp tomato paste

1 Tbsp fresh rosemary

2 tsp dried thyme

1 tsp black peppercorns

4 bay leaves (optional)

1/2 cup chopped parsley

approximately 4 quarts of water

1. Heat the olive oil over high heat in an 8 quart stockpot. Add the mushrooms and saute until they are lightly browned and have given off some of their moisture.
2. Add chopped onions, celery, carrots, and fennel (if using) and stir to coat. Sprinkle with salt. Cook over high heat for several minutes, stirring occasionally. Cook until the vegetables begin to brown. Considering there are so many vegetables with a high moisture content, it may take more heat and longer time to brown.
3. Add the garlic and tomato paste and stir to combine. Cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring often. Add the rosemary, thyme, peppercorns, bay leaves (if using), parsley, and water. (Water should cover the vegetables and herbs.) Bring to a simmer and then drop the heat until you just get a bare simmer. The surface of the stock should just barely be bubbling. Cover and cook for 1 1/2 hours.
4. Using slotted spoon, remove all the big pieces of vegetables. Discard or compost. 
5. Set up a sieve over large bowl or pot. Line the sieve with a paper towel and pour the stock through it. When you have poured about half the stock through, stop and let what is in the sieve filter through. Then, change the paper towel and filter the rest of the stock in the same way.
6. To store, pour into quart-sized Mason jars and refrigerate for up to a week or freeze. If you freeze in glass jars, leave at least 1 1/2 inches of headroom so that the stock can expand without breaking the glass of the jars.

Super Simple Vegetable Broth

Every time you prepare a recipe, save your vegetable trimmings to store in a gallon-sized Ziploc bag in  the freezer until you collect enough to make this homemade vegetable broth from the saved scraps. 

Gallon-sized Ziploc bag of frozen vegetable scraps/end pieces and herbs

2 Tbsp salt (or to taste)

1 tsp whole peppercorns

2 bay leaves

4 garlic cloves, minced

approximately 4 quarts water 

1. Save the cut end pieces of vegetables and herbs in a gallon Ziploc bag in your freezer until the 

bag is full. Onions, carrots, and celery are the base of a good vegetable broth, but use these guidelines for which vegetables to save for your broth:

• Good vegetables to save include: onions (including papery skins), green onions, celery (including leaves), carrots, mushrooms, leeks, scallions, shallots, and zucchini. 
• Good herbs to save include parsley, thyme, rosemary, garlic (including papery skins).
• Do not save broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, cabbage, turnips, rutabagas, collard greens, kohlrabi, and kale because they will make your broth bitter. 
• Do not save potatoes or sweet potatoes because they will cloud your broth.

2. Once the bag is full, add the frozen contents to an 8 quart stock pot and fill with water until the contents are covered by a few inches. You don't need to thaw the vegetables first.

• Add 2 tablespoons salt (or to taste), 1 teaspoon whole peppercorns, 2 bay leaves, and 4 cloves minced garlic (if you did not already save an abundance of garlic in your frozen vegetable bag).

3.  Cover and bring to a boil. Simmer the broth for 1 1/2 hours.

4.  Strain and store as described above in steps 4-6. 

Notes:

These recipes make about 5 quarts of vegetable broth.

You'll note that you remove all vegetables and herbs and then strain thoroughly before jarring and freezing. Because of this, there is no need to perfectly or finely chop any of the vegetables before you cook them. A rough chop just to get them to fit into the pot will do just fine.

Also, you'll note that the directions call for you to simmer. You'll want to make sure that you follow this closely. If you were to keep your broth at a rolling boil, much of it would evaporate during the cooking process!

Use either of these vegetable broths as the base for recipes, such as soups or risottos.

Some of Our Most Popular Recipes That Use Vegetable Broth

• Crockpot Broccoli Cheese Soup
• Roasted Tomato Soup
• Roasted Asparagus Risotto
• Tomato Risotto with Roasted Vegetables
• Crockpot Mexican Enchilada Orzo

One Man's Trash: Vintage Blendo Barware

If you will recall, I recently introduced you to my newly acquired vintage blendo glassware set.  Well, this is it's first cousin!  Here is yet another fabulous vintage find that came home with me from last year's Girls' Weekend.   It's another ombre glassware set, but this time we are talking barware!

It's a very large shaker with five high ball glasses, all finished in an ombre iced lemon color.  Makes me think a round (or two) of Tom Collins should be on the summer drink list this year!

This set is also from the 1950s.  And as luck would have it, it still wore the price sticker from when I bought it last summer.  It was marked at $25 for the 6-piece set (a steal of a deal to begin with), but I brought it home for only $18!  

So there you have it!  Another day, another vintage find!  And this was will be making me smile all summer long!  What vintage treasures will you be hunting for this summer?