New Meal Monday: Quinoa Waffles

Growing up, breakfast--in particular waffles--were a big part of our holiday traditions, in more ways that one.
For years, on Christmas morning, my father would make waffles for breakfast.  Somehow, every year on Christmas Eve, we'd be out of milk...and somehow every year we'd hear sleigh bells while he was getting milk. He'd come bursting in the door, milk in hand, talking about a blur through the sky as we were dashing upstairs to get to bed.  Somehow every year, we were none the wiser.
When I got my own place, one of the first things my dad got me was my own waffle iron.  He also passed down the family recipe (the directions on the side of the Aunt Jemima box, plus a couple additional ingredients).  I've tried on various occasions making waffles from scratch, and while they came out well, I usually felt like taste didn't outweigh the extra effort, so I find I kept using the mix.
A little while back my wife came back from one of the great breakfast places we have locally raving about some quinoa-waffles she had ordered.  I thought this could be an interesting opportunity to try something new! Plus, while we love waffles, we find they don't stick with you in the morning the way something like eggs do--and I figured the quinoa would help rectify that! 
A lot of quinoa waffle recipes call for using quinoa flour but we used fully cooked quinoa--a good use of the previous evening's leftovers! Plus, another bonus was my 15 month old daughter seemed to love them just as much as my usual waffles!
Enjoy!

What you'll need:

• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tsp cinnamon sugar
• 2 Eggs
• 1/4 Cup melted butter
• 1.75 cup milk
• 1 Tbsp sugar
• 2 Cups flour
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 Cup cooked quinoa, cooled

How you'll do it:

1. Preheat Waffle Iron.
2. Whisk two eggs in a bowl. Add butter, milk, sugar and vanilla and whisk till well mixed.
3. In separate bowl, mix together cinnamon sugar, salt, flour, baking powder.
4. Once well combined, slowly add to milk mixture, whisking constantly.
5. Once ingredients and mixed well (no lumps!) stir in the quinoa till well combined.
6. Pour onto waffle iron and cook till done (3-5 minutes depending desired crispiness!) 
7. Mixture should make about 12 4-inch Waffles.  If refilling the same waffle iron allow iron to heat back up before pouring in next batch. (Also, stir mixture just before filling iron each time to avoid quinoa from clumping)