Buttermilk Waffles (Gluten-Free)

I have a special place in my heart (stomach) for waffles.  I grew up with the frozen kind; I had two for breakfast everyday, all the way up through high school.  I never tired of having the same breakfast, and while I eventually switched up my routine in college, there were a few moments where I caved and bought myself a box, for old time's sakes. At restaurants, if an ice cream-topped waffle is on the dessert menu, it's the obvious choice to finish off my meal. A special breakfast out calls for a waffle.  Basically, I'm crazy for them.  I don't make them all that often though, and it's mostly out of laziness (I'm not a fan of standing over a hot iron making one waffle at a time).  However, when the mood strikes, I just have to make myself a batch at home.  There's nothing like a freshly made waffle. 

Gluten Free Blueberry Pancakes

Pancakes are among my favorite ways to start off my weekends.  There's really nothing much better than quickly mixing up a bowl of pancake batter, ladling it onto a hot griddle, and watching it transform into a fluffy and tasty breakfast treat. I've become a bit of a pancake snob in recent years, thanks to my sister, who's without a doubt a bigger pancake obsessed person than I am.  Pancakes from a box are a big no-no.  In my opinion, there's no reason to ever make pancakes from a box, given that they're completely effortless to make from scratch (and they also taste way, way better).  Seriously, I have yet to taste a Bisquick pancake that's as fluffy and tangy as my favorite homemade buttermilk pancakes. 


And then my mom went gluten-free, and suddenly, I was in a predicament.  My mom usually isn't much of a big breakfast person, as she tends to be happy with just coffee and toast, but she does love pancakes.  Blueberry pancakes, especially.  I couldn't very well make my own homemade pancakes to enjoy on the weekend to have my mom watch on without any pancakes on her plate (because what kind of person denies their mother of buttermilk pancakes, right?), so I had to figure out how to make the perfect batch of gluten free pancakes that could hold their own next to my traditional favorites.

Gingerbread Pancakes

Christmas is tomorrow and I can hardly believe it.  So many weeks of preparation and shopping and baking have led up to this day, and I can't wait.  Christmas is by far my favorite time of the year, and I love everything about it.  Tonight, I'll be feasting on Italian specialties at my boyfriend's grandma's house (a real Italian Christmas Eve...I can hardly contain my excitement for the food that's to come), but tomorrow, my family is keeping Christmas Day as casual as possible.  Think pajamas and sweatpants all day, followed by hot chocolate, movies and a few rounds of cards.  It'll be a day to just relax and spend time together, with good food of course.  An easy Christmas at home wouldn't be complete without a special breakfast in the morning (after gifts are exchanged by the tree, of course). 

Big family breakfast are always a source of debate in my house.  It's typically my dad vs my mom vs me and my sister.  My dad is very set in his ways about what a "good" breakfast consists of; it's gotta include freshly made, Colombian-style hot chocolate, cheese and lots of bread.  This year, he wants to have steamed tamales for breakfast, as is traditional in Colombia.  My mom, sister, and I are not going for that though.  My mom is a fan of lighter breakfasts, and is usually satisfied with a coffee, small juice, and a scone or toast with butter and preserves.  My sister and I definitely like more elaborate breakfasts, with either French toast, pancakes, bread puddings...all that healthy stuff, alongside a coffee and an orange juice.   We always have different opinions on breakfast, so family breakfasts are trickier to put together.  In an ideal world, we'd all agree on one option and be done, but instead we typically make two or three options and let everyone choose what they want to eat. One of the options that I'll make sure ends up on tomorrow's Christmas breakfast table are pancakes. 

Buttermilk and Banana Pancakes

Today is the day my sister returns to college, ready to start her sophomore year. My parents have the car all packed up with her things, ready for the long drive ahead of them, and she's ready to face the chilly weather of New Hampshire all over again.  I'm sending my sister off to college with a stack of banana pancakes in her belly, because what kind of sister and blogger would I be if I didn't supply hearty and delicious breakfasts, right?  It's funny that I chose to make banana flavored pancakes, of all things.  When my sister arrived home from college for the summer, I welcomed her with banana nut muffins; now that she's leaving, she's moving on with banana pancakes.  I guess my sister goes bananas for bananas. 

I happen to love baked banana treats too.  Muffins and banana bread are fantastic, and I even love a good banana cake, but I think pancakes would have to be my favorite way to work with bananas.  For some reason, they just make me think of my childhood.  I say, "for some reason," because I didn't really grow up eating pancakes.  I was a waffle-girl, 100%, and I would never trade a waffle for a pancake.  I think that whenever I did happen to have pancakes sitting in front of me, they were either of the banana or chocolate chip variety. While I can't really pinpoint how I ended up loving banana pancakes as much as I do, or why they make me think of myself as a kid, the moral of the story is that I love a good banana pancake. 

Lemony Dutch Baby with Mixed Berry Sauce

We did it, we did it! We made it all the way to Friday.  The weekend is here and it's time to have some fun, do nothing, bake some treats, and sleep in.  Sleeping in...HA!  As if I do that on the weekends.  I mean, I guess waking up at 8 in the morning on weekends instead of 6:30 is slightly better, but I really just long for a lazy, lazy, lazy Saturday or Sunday where I wake up at 11 am, that critical hour where it's too late to really eat breakfast but too early to eat lunch.  The only obvious solution to such a critical dilemma is to simply make something delicious and special for breakfast, and pretend it's a substantial lunch meal anyway.

That's exactly what I chose to do last weekend (minus the waking up at 11 am part).  I woke up at my normal weekend hour, and just wasn't in the mood for breakfast.  I'm not sure why, because I've grown to really like having breakfast every morning, but this past Sunday I was just not feeling it. Maybe I was lazy, maybe I wanted to change up my routine, maybe a bit of both.  Whatever my reasons for not having breakfast that day were, I found myself at the critical 11 am hour hungry and in need of food.  I hadn't had breakfast, and it was too early for lunch, so I did the only reasonable thing and made myself a Dutch Baby for lunch.  I wouldn't call it brunch, because there was no lunch element to this meal, aside from the time it was consumed.  This was pure breakfast for lunch.

Cornmeal and Blueberry Pancakes

 
The blog and all my social media channels have been unusually quiet as of late.  I mean, I'm not the biggest user of social media (something I hope to improve on!), but I typically have an Instagram-worthy photo of something delicious to share on a fairly regular basis, at the least.  Or, I'll share something scrumptious and delightful that I've found somewhere in the land of the Internet on Facebook.  Or, I'll have something posted by Tuesday, so that my typical two posts per week are nicely spaced out.  None of that is happening this week.  I wish I could say it was because I've been a busy little bee working on secret projects or off on a super top secret foodie adventure (I wish), but the truth is that my single, lonely recipe post of the week and social absence is the result of something far less exciting.  I was just too darn sick to cook anything this past weekend.

Although I guess that's not totally true, because I'm here talking about pancakes (or I will be in a moment).  I woke up in a slight funk on Friday morning and by Friday night I just felt baaadd (great Fourth of July, right?), and on Saturday morning I woke up feeling even worse.  I usually like to play tough and skip out on going to the doctor, but thankfully my mom got angry at me and made me go (thank you, mama!).  I got a bunch of prescriptions that didn't really make me feel any better, but they did a great job at making feel really really sleepy, so I ended up sleeping through what I had been hoping would be a productive, food-centered Saturday (not like I would have been able to actually make anything had I not gotten drowsy  medication, but whatever).  I still felt pretty sick and pretty sleepy on Sunday, but I forced myself out of bed to make something to share on the blog.  I just had to make at least one thing, and while I originally had plans for more elaborate things to prepare, life got in the way.  I was sick and the oven was off-limits because our air conditioning stopped working over the weekend (I'm happy to report that it works now!), so I needed something comforting and really quick to make that was either no-bake or stovetop-only.  Pancakes seemed like the most obvious solution. 

Black Pepper Bacon Waffles

Wait, it's Friday already!?  Normally, that's a really good thing (TGIF!) but today, it also means that it's the last day of Breakfast Week, and is slightly upsetting.  I had so much fun working on these breakfast posts and it's sad that this is the last one.  At least I made sure that my final Breakfast Week post was a good one- Black Pepper Bacon Waffles.  Sounds a little crazy, but trust me, this recipe is really pretty amazing.  

Waffles are the ultimate breakfast food for me, hands down.  I grew up eating frozen waffles for breakfast just about everyday when I was growing up.  My mom would always buy the Eggo brand, and I became a die-hard Eggo fanatic. I would eat the other brands she bought sometimes, but I would never like them as much as I liked the Eggo waffles.  Plain, chocolate chip, and banana were my favorite flavors, and I loved eating them with pancake syrup,  chocolate syrup. or fruit jellies.  The most important part of my waffles-for-breakfast was ensuring that every hole in the waffle had a good amount of whatever was topping my waffle that particular morning.  It must have been part of my OCD self.  Anyway, now that I've gotten older and my taste buds are ever so slightly more refined, I've grown to appreciate waffles that come from beyond the confines of the freezer section of my supermarket.  Yeasted waffles, Belgian waffles, buttermilk waffles, fried chicken topped waffles...I love them all. That's not to say that I won't eat my childhood favorites now, because believe me, I will, but my tastes have matured just a bit.  I think that plain buttermilk waffles topped with fresh fruit and syrup are my favorites, but I'm definitely open to other flavors.  I really want to experiment more with savory waffles, and I think that these Black Pepper Bacon Waffles were a good place to start.  

Buttermilk Chocolate Chip Pancakes with Raspberry Sauce

It's time for one of the most exciting weeks on Ambrosia.  Never mind that it's technically St. Patrick's Day.  I've got something that is in my opinion, way more awesome.  Ready for it?

IT'S BREAKFAST WEEK.

Oh yes.  It's a week full of brand new ahhmazing recipes that are perfect for special weekend breakfasts.  I would imagine that this is something that would excite most people.  If not, maybe I'm the weird one that's unusually enamored with special breakfast foods, but for some reason, I don't think that's the case.  I love breakfast for breakfast, and I love breakfast for dinner, and I'm crossing my fingers that you guys all love breakfast too.  If you don't understand this weird breakfast obsession of mine, then hopefully this week you will change your mind.

This breakfast week idea is actually a collaboration between me and my sister.  By collaboration, I mean that I suggested the idea, she immediately approved, I cooked the breakfast foods, and she ate them.  Well, she ate some of them.  She's home from college this week for her spring break, and since I've been baking up my breakfast week recipes in advance (because of scheduling issues...there's only so many hours of daylight on the weekends!), she tried a handful of the recipes that I have lined up for the week.  I was able to make two recipes this past weekend, so she got to try those, and one of my other recipes is apparently freezer friendly (I kinda just stuck the breakfast item in question in the freezer and hoped for the best), so she got to try that one too.  Today's pancake recipe, however, was not made this past weekend, so she didn't get to sample it.  It's ok though, because this is actually only a slight variation of her own original recipe!

Dutch Baby with Cranberry Syrup

Hi guys!  Here I am again posting a not-super-healthy recipe in January, despite the fact that it's resolution frenzy/detox/back-to-normal season.  I know, I get it. I'm working on it too.  I ate too many cookies in December, and decided that "that extra day off from the gym would be ok" too many times.  Too many mugs of hot cocoa were enjoyed as a form of relief from cold December days, and too many drinks were had on New Year's Eve. Even though we're coming out of this season of food excess, I can't seem to stop myself from wondering...when can I make post that cake recipe idea that just popped into my head?  When will it be appropriate to go back to consistently posting delicious buttery goodies?  Will people hate me if all I want to bake and photograph is frosting swirled cake in January?  What about ice cream?  Surely people will be ok with an ice cream post...maybe.  I hope I'm not the only one who's been having these thoughts.  By no means am I saying that we should all give up on our resolutions of having a better, fitter, healthier 2014, but we should be realistic.  I for one, cannot give up dessert or chocolate, no matter how hard I may try.  I can't and I won't.  The occasional treat is always helpful, both for our bellies and our sanity.  So, let's promise each other that we will simply take things in moderation, and not deprive ourselves of a little indulgence here and there, so long as we make good choices the rest of the time!  I'm already back to my healthy eating habits and lifting lots of heavy things at the gym, but right now, it's the weekend.  Time to celebrate!  

Since it's the weekend, let's celebrate at breakfast time.  Breakfast is one of my favorite meal times, although I guess I should be more specific.  I love brunch.  Brunch is great because it happens later in the morning, meaning that I have more time to sleep in, which is always a good thing.  I do like regular weekday breakfasts though, and I'll usually have an egg white omelet or a big bowl of PB+J oats.  Weekend breakfasts are the best though, because I have more time to get creative and whip up something special, usually in the form of pancakes or French toast.  Every now and then, however, I get into this weird mood where all I could want in this world is a stack of beautiful, fluffy pancakes with syrup dripping down the sides of them, but I just feel like I can't bring myself to stand over a griddle and flip pancakes.  And the stirring that comes before that.  And the bowls that need to be washed after that.  I don't know why my laziness sometimes gets the better of me (and inconveniently when I'm craving a stack of pancakes), but when this situation comes up, I have a simple solution.  Dutch. Baby.

Whole Wheat Oatmeal Raisin Waffles

By now, I should think you know that waffles are one of my all-time favorite breakfast foods.  The same way some people are obsessed with pancakes, I am obsessed with a big, fluffy Belgian style waffle.  Or any kind of waffle, to be perfectly honest.  Frozen supermarket waffles, while definitely nowhere near as good as homemade waffles, are a simple food that I find completely comforting and delicious.  I have many delicious memories revolving around frozen waffle breakfasts from when I was little.  Frozen Eggo waffles and Aunt Jemima syrup were the norm, and my go-to option.  I loved my waffles in every way, shape, and form, whether they were covered in fruit jam or syrup.  As long as every square had topping in it, I was good to go. My idea of the perfect waffle may have changed drastically from when I was in middle school, but nevertheless, I will admit that I get a craving for a frozen waffle with fake syrup every now and then, a craving that a homemade waffle just can't satisfy, regardless of how good it is.  Sometimes, it's that bit of nostalgia that is the answer to our cravings, or at least that's how I feel.  During my senior year of college, I bought a box of frozen waffles for the first time in several years.  I heated them up, drizzled some syrup over the tops, and was instantly satisfied.  It was such a perfect breakfast! 

Once my frozen waffle craving had been satisfied, I was back on the homemade waffle game.  The frozen waffles were good, but they reminded me of how much I really enjoy their homemade counterparts.  Since then, I've shared with you recipes for Spiced Brown Butter Waffles and Chocolate Waffles, and I've thought that both of those recipes produced some mighty good waffles.  There's so many different waffle variations that I would like to try, and since I'm sure that I would love each and every one, I know that I have my work cut out for me.  It's a tough job, but someone's gotta do it, right? Might as well be me.  

Blueberry and Peach Yogurt Buttermilk Pancakes

Hello, and happy weekend!  I hope everyone has some kind of fun weekend plans in store for themselves.  I know that I'm going to be spending some quality time with my ice cream machine this weekend.  I have big plans for it, and you guys should all start getting excited for them, trust me.  But, until that time comes, I have another recipe that should get everyone equally excited.  Blueberry and Peach Yogurt Buttermilk Pancakes.  I made these for breakfast last Saturday morning, and I think they are officially going onto my list of favorite weekend breakfast items.  

During the week, I usually have a very simple, uncomplicated breakfast that I can prepare really quickly before rushing off to the train every morning before work.  Breakfast usually consists of a small glass of orange juice (I have to have this at breakfast everyday; the same way some people need their morning cup of coffee to function, I need my orange juice) and an egg white omelette with turkey bacon.  It's quick to make and packs a good amount of protein.  If I want to switch up my breakfast routine a little, I'll have some oats mixed with egg whites, berries and honey (adding egg whites to oatmeal sounds kinda weird, but it actually makes the oats really creamy and delicious) along with my glass of orange juice.  On weekends, though, I usually like to make myself something a little more elaborate.  Waffles, French toast, and fancier omelettes are usually what I go for on weekends, with pancakes being at the top of the list for both me and my sister.  We're just pancake-obsessed.  There's few things that are better than a tall stack of warm pancakes, topped with butter, fresh fruit, and a nice helping of syrup, right? 

French Toast with Mixed Berry Syrup

Guess what guys.  At this exact time (10:56 AM) in exactly two weeks (May 23, 2013), I will be officially moving out of college...for the LAST time.  I will also have a real Bachelor's degree.  It's a bit crazy, and I don't know if I can handle those thoughts just yet, so I will be pushing them aside (again), and talking about something else, something that I know everyone can relate to.  My mama!  Ok, maybe you can't all relate to my mom, but you all have your own moms that you can think about.  Mother's Day is quickly approaching, and as always, I'm a few days behind on my posting.  I had two Mother's Day related posts in mind, but then life got in the way, and I had a final studio review that lasted until 9 pm, after which I promptly went to bed because I physically could not keep my eyes open any longer, and two full 9-5 days of work followed by senior dinners and events. Classes may have ended on Monday, but Tuesday and Wednesday I was the busiest little bee.  But anyway, back to my mama!

My family doesn't usually do anything overly elaborate for Mother's Day.  We usually go to a family potluck-style brunch at my cousin's house for some relaxed Mother's Day fun, or well, at least that's what I've been told.  I've had to miss the last three Mother's Day celebrations because I've had final exams to study for and papers to write (actually, now that I think about it, I had an exam on Mother's Day my freshman year...yep, I had a final exam on a Sunday...).  This year, however, will be different.  I only have one exam to study for, and one independent research project to finish (FREAKING out about this one, as I'm still so behind, but that's obviously nothing new), so I'm going home to be with my family on Sunday, and I'm so excited!  I'm going home on Saturday, and my mom is going to make my grandma's super famous arroz con verduras for dinner, as per my request.  Ahh, gotta love mom for that!  I'm very excited to go home and spend some time with my mom and all the other important moms in my life, and of course, I'm equally excited for brunch.  Did I ever tell you guys how much I love brunch?  No?  Well, guys, I'm slightly obsessed with brunch.  It's true. 

Healthy Jam-Swirled Silver Dollar Pancakes

There are certain things about being home that I love, and don't love.  There's mostly good things, I promise though.  I love being able to cook in a fully equipped and fully stocked kitchen, I love being home for delicious home-cooked meals, driving my dad insane with my sister, and getting to take a break from the hustle and bustle of school and Manhattan (although after a couple of days, I do start to miss it pretty terribly...).  Being at home is great, but it does come with its downsides.  

Number 1- I never get any school work done, because baking, taking photos, and editing photos is time consuming, and just plain more interesting. 

Number 2- My eating schedule gets a little wonky.  You see, I like to wake up early and get my baking started literally the second I get up.  I can't be wasting precious moments of daylight, inspiration, and creativity on making myself an omelette (although it probably wouldn't hurt if I took ten minutes aside to make myself some breakfast), and then there's the inevitable necessity of sampling of my less-than-healthy (but delicious and hard to resist) food....  

Number 3- I get lazy about working out, which is a problem.  I love working out, and at school, I have no problem with fitting in 5-6 good workouts a week, but when I come home...that's a whole other story.  I just have a hard time getting myself to exercise on my own when I'm home for some inexplicable reason that is completely beyond me....ugh.

Chocolate Waffles

Waffles, again!  I know, I know, this is the third waffle recipe I'm posting on the blog, and the fact that there's only been two pancake recipes and absolutely zero recipes for French toast (whattt...???) might suggest that I am a bit of a waffle fanatic.  This is, by the way, a totally true statement.  I've brought you guys classic Belgian waffles and spiced brown butter waffles, and now, I'm presenting to you what I think is the most special waffle so far. It's indulgent, delicious, and super special.  I mean, how good does a chocolate waffle drizzled with chocolate syrup and topped off with fresh berries sound?  It sounds pretty good to me!  

I know I've mentioned before that I used to eat frozen waffles every single day before school for YEARS.  It was my favorite option for breakfast, and I liked pretty much every waffle variety that Eggo came up with. Chocolate chip and banana were my favorites, but I still loved plain waffles with good old syrup (and when I say syrup, I don't mean maple.  I mean Aunt Jemima's butter-flavored syrup).  My dad always worked nights, so he would be home in the mornings and would stay up long enough to get me and my sister to school, and he'd always make us breakfast.  Sometimes, my dad would like to make breakfast feel just a little more special by placing my waffles on a big plate, pouring over a really intricate drizzle of chocolate syrup, and finishing the waffles off with a dusting of powdered sugar.  It might not have been the healthiest breakfast, but I loved it regardless!  It seemed so fancy back then, and it always looked so pretty!

Spiced Brown Butter Waffles

This recipe I'm posting right now is totally NOT the recipe I had been planning on sharing today.  Yup.  Spiced brown butter waffles (as delicious and amazing as they were, just wait), were NOT supposed to be posted today.  Today, I had been intending on posting a whole wheat oatmeal bread.  You know, one of those really nice artisan-looking breads that has a beautiful golden brown crust, with a nice sprinkling of oats on the top?  And this one was supposed to be even more amazing, because it was a no-knead bread that gets baked in a dutch oven, so it looks even more artisan-like than it already is.  That's what I should be posting today, but, due to my carelessness, you will have to settle for these waffles (which are REALLY good, I promise) instead. You see, today is my dad's birthday!  I had totally planned on baking him a nice loaf of bread (his favorite thing ever!) and posting it today for him, but like I said before, I was careless, and because of that, there is no bread post for today.  

What could I have possibly done that was so careless that I had to switch around the order of my posts?  It's something kind of silly, and I couldn't believe it happened.  I completely forgot to grease the dutch oven I used to bake the bread....yuuupppp.  Silly me.

I'm not sure how I managed to forget something as important as greasing the pot I was baking in.  I've been baking for so long, that lining my baking sheets and greasing cake pans has become automatic, so this was just silly.  I baked the bread in the dutch oven pulled it out of the oven, got super happy because it looks SO GOOD, let it cool for a bit, and then went to take the bread out...and I realized that I had derped. Sigh.  No matter how much I tried to shake the dutch oven, or how often I ran a knife along the edge of the pot, that loaf of bread was just not going to come out.  I called in for reinforcements (aka my sister and my mom) and they failed at getting the bread out too.  We gave up, just tore a piece off the top, and it was delicious.  My mom eventually managed to somehow get the bread out, and of course, it was only one tiny sport that was actually stuck to the bottom of the dutch oven.  Ugh.  Oh well.  That bread was so good, that it will definitely be re-made and the recipe posted sometime in the future.  My dad loved the bread anyway!

The Fluffiest Buttermilk Pancakes

Just about two weeks ago (maybe one and a half?)  it finally happened.  It FINALLY happened, and it was seriously about time.  I can't even begin to explain to all of you guys how much I had been waiting for that day to come, and when it came, boy, was I ready.

My family's cell phone plan with T-Mobile finally ended.  This of course, only meant one thing...time to get an iPhone, FINALLY.  I was beyond excited, and when I finally got to open that pretty little white box holding a pretty little white iPhone inside, the world finally seemed right.  It didn't matter that I was super tired from waking up at 6 am to go to work, or that I was really hungry because I had to skip dinner to go get my phone, or that I was missing my day's workout.  None of that mattered, because I finally had an iPhone to call my own, and because I could finally get rid of that awful excuse of a phone that I used to have (seriously, I had the WORST phone ever).  That may have been a little over-dramatic, and not really true, because missing having to miss dinner was a bit annoying (I got home from work that day at 7, and we had to be at the AT&T store before it closed at 8, so I was basically running on what I had for lunch at 1 in the afternoon!).  Regardless of how hungry I was that evening, my new iPhone totally made up for it.

The best part of getting a new phone is definitely getting to customize it- programming it with your contacts, picking a ringtone, downloading apps...ahhh, I had so much fun.  Of couse, one of the first apps I got was Instagram, and my sister suggested I also get an app called, "Hipstamatic," because it has more interesting camera options (I'm totally taking my sister's word on this, because I really have no experience with Instagram, so I can't really compare the two), but also gives you the option to share all your photos via Instagram (and I also had to get it because it was called "Hipstamatic"...the name made me laugh and shake my head at the same time...).  All I know is that it made the photos I took on my iPhone look great, so I was happy with that!

Lemon Ricotta Pancakes with Blueberry Sauce

Breakfast foods are really starting to grow on me.  Remember way back, several months ago, where my New Year's resolutions were to get back in shape and eat breakfast everyday?  I'm happy to say that both of these resolutions have been kept!  Exercise and breakfast are still a part of my daily routine, which is a really, really good thing.  Especially when my breakfast food changes a bit from my normal everyday breakfast of scrambled eggs and fruit, to something a bit more exciting, like Belgian Waffles or pancakes.  Regular buttermilk pancakes are good and all, but they can become a routine choice.  I mean, if the idea is to diverge from the normal and everyday breakfast menu, I'm definitely going to get a little more creative when whipping up stack of pancakes, that's for sure!

Belgian Waffles

I take waffles very seriously.  I'm not kidding here.  I ate waffles of the frozen variety every single weekday morning for breakfast before going to school for the entire duration of my pre-college school years, aka, 12 years.  Or something like that.  I don't exactly remember when the whole frozen-waffle-for-breakfast-craze actually started, but I do remember finishing off high school with it.  Waffles and I go wayyy back.

It's a no-brainer that I love waffles, given that they were my breakfast item of choice for so long.  I had this rule when eating waffles.  I refused to eat the waffle until every square had a little bit of whatever topping I was using.  It didn't matter if it was maple syrup, a fruit compote, or a fruit jam, every single square had to have the topping before I could even consider eating it.  I don't know why really.  It was just a thing of mine.  The only exception I made to that rule centered around frozen banana waffles.  Those I liked to eat plain for some reason...again, I don't really know why, I just did.