Breakfast for Dinner Night

I've had a hankering for a breakfast-for-dinner night for a while and decided to try a multi-grain waffle recipe I'd seen on the Eating Well site. I had on hand all the ingredients, except I used the suggested substitution of corn meal for wheat germ. The oatmeal soaks for a while in the buttermilk, and I think this made for a nice smooth batter. Also on hand, and in need of cooking, was the remainder of a package of Niman Ranch bacon from Trader Joe's. As our oven is caput (new one being installed tomorrow!! Keep your fingers crossed all goes well), it was a perfect time to use our tabletop convection oven. It worked out great; the bacon came out crisp without the wrinkling usually produced by pan-frying. Also, this was our first opportunity to make scrambled eggs in our new set of Circulon cookware from Costco. I was holding my breath because, to me, if the pans don't perform well on something as simple as eggs, then they have to go back. No disappointment here; no sticking, even heating, easy cleanup. Extra bonus: the extra waffles made for a delicious breakfast -- spread with peanut butter and sprinkled with chopped pecans. Yummy!


Multi-Grain Waffles
Makes 8 servings, 2 waffles each
2 C buttermilk
½ C old-fashioned rolled oats
2/3 C whole-wheat flour
2/3 C all-purpose flour
¼ C toasted wheat germ or cornmeal
1 ½ Tsp.s baking powder
½ Tsp. baking soda
¼ Tsp. salt
1 Tsp. ground cinnamon
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
¼ C packed brown sugar
1 Tbsp. canola oil
2 Tsp.s vanilla extract

1. Mix buttermilk and oats in a medium bowl; let stand for 15 minutes.

2. Whisk whole-wheat flour, all-purpose flour, wheat germ (or cornmeal), baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a large bowl.

3. Stir eggs, sugar, oil and vanilla into the oat mixture. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients; mix with a rubber spatula just until moistened.

4. Coat a waffle iron with cooking spray and preheat. Spoon in enough batter to cover three-fourths of the surface (about 2/3 cup for an 8-by-8-inch waffle iron). Cook until waffles are crisp and golden brown, 4 to 5 minutes. Repeat with remaining batter. (our waffle iron is larger, so I think I used about a full cup of batter for each waffle.)