Things you probably didn’t know you could do with a waffle iron
I don’t know about you, but by the time exam season rolls around, I have pretty much given up on attempting to maintain some semblance of a healthy lifestyle. There’s something about countless hours of studying that takes away my will to make anything that takes more than five minutes of effort, and so I usually end up eating entire bags of sour cream and onion chips for dinner.
The one thing I will always take time to make is waffles, because I think waffles may be the thing I love most on this planet. My dad gave me a waffle maker for my birthday a few years back, and I think it remains my favourite present to date.
It turns out that you can make a lot of things in a waffle maker. You want brownies, but don’t want to wait an hour or go to the store? Waffle maker. You want hash browns, but don’t want to pay for them at a restaurant? Waffle maker. You have leftover Thanksgiving food and you don’t know what to do with it? Waffle maker. You want pizza? Waffle maker. The possibilities are literally endless, but these are a few of my favourites:
Brownie Waffles
You can use literally any brownie recipe, or even a boxed brownie mix. All you have to do is pour the mix into the waffle iron, close the iron and wait 5-7 minutes. They taste exactly like the brownies that sit in the oven for 45 minutes, but they’re also superior because they’re not just brownies, they’re brownie waffles.
Hash Brown Waffles
This is an especially easy and terribly bad-for-you idea. It requires only one dollar worth of tater tots and a few months off of your life due to grease and salt overload.
Take a handful of tater tots (frozen or thawed) and line them up on the waffle iron, making sure that the entire area is covered. Close the iron and wait 2-3 minutes. And there you have it – easy to hold, easy to eat, delicious cholesterol-raising hash brown waffles.
Leftover Waffles
This idea is actually pretty genius. Post-Thanksgiving, Christmas, or any other big meal which includes stuffing and mashed potatoes, gather together all of the leftovers you can find. In a large bowl, mix all of these leftovers together into a paste, using the mashed potatoes and stuffing as a sort of glue to hold it all together. Spoon this onto the waffle iron, close, and wait 3-5 minutes. What comes out of the waffle iron is magic – it’s an entire turkey dinner in one convenient waffle. Instead of syrup, drown this waffle in gravy.
Pizza Waffles
While this requires a bit more work than the previous ideas, it is most definitely worth it. The first thing you’ll need to do is acquire pizza dough. This is relatively easy to make yourself, but you can also buy it at most of the specialty food stores in downtown Guelph.
Roll out a small amount of pizza dough, and rub pizza sauce (or regular tomato sauce, or pesto, or barbeque sauce – if that’s how you roll) onto one side of the dough. Add all of the toppings you would usually put on your pizza. Next, fold the dough in half, sealing all of the edges and containing the toppings and sauce inside the dough. Put the ball of pizza on the waffle iron and close, cooking for 4-6 minutes. The toppings and sauce should stay inside the dough, like a calzone, but a waffle calzone!