Breakfast, In A Hurry!

Our family eats cereal or oatmeal once, maybe twice, a week, and those mornings are usually the most hectic ones. The rest of the week I will make muffins, scones, pancakes, or something similar. I know this sounds like a lot of work, but if the ingredients are prepared the night before, it's not such a big deal. Trust me, if I left making breakfast to the morning...well, it would never be made! I am just too lazy. By getting the dry ingredients measured into a bowl on the counter and the wet stirred together in another (put in the fridge), it's as simple as stirring together and popping the pan into the delay-started, pre-heated oven. It takes me almost twenty minutes just to get everyone's cereal, yogurt, and juice together anyway; in that amount of time the muffins are beeping and I'm dressed and ready for the day.

Another even easier breakfast to pre-make is waffles. No, waffles do not have to be difficult and time consuming to be light, fluffy, and delicious. My sweet husband occasionally makes his version when I go out of town, and he whips the egg whites and does a lot more steps than I ever would. I throw all the ingredients in a bowl with a little yeast and put it in the refrigerator overnight. The batter is nice and bubbly in the morning and ready to drop onto a waffle iron, baking only about 5 minutes. This particular recipe is great because it usually yields more than we can eat, and so I freeze the leftovers for another morning, giving Eggo a run for their money. Tonight I already have it all set to go for tomorrow, and I whipped up a strawberry-rhubarb compote to top the warm waffles with. Yum!

Overnight Waffles with Strawberry-Rhubarb Compote

Place in a large bowl and mix thoroughly:

1 1/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup all purpose flour
2 tbsp sugar
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast (1 pkt)
1/2 tsp salt
1 3/4 cups milk
2 eggs
1/3 cup canola oil (or a combination of unsweetened applesauce and oil)

Cover loosely with plastic and place in the refrigerator overnight.

To bake the waffles, preheat a greased waffle iron. Stir the batter and pour onto the iron, about 1/2 cup for each waffle. Place on a rack while preparing the others (so they don't get soggy).

To prepare the compote:

In a saucepan, place:
4 cups sliced rhubarb (fresh or frozen)
3-4 cups strawberries (about 1 ten ounce bag frozen; quarter fresh berries before adding)
sweetener, to taste (I used about 1/2 cup honey)
1/4 tsp cinnamon, optional

Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until fruit breaks down and becomes thick. Serve warm, or cool, place in the fridge, and reheat the next morning.