First Fall Meal - Apple-Peanut-Butter Whole-Wheat Waffles

I am so excited about tonight's post! Today held all sorts of food-related excitement.

Playing with Scout on his apartment.

He is just too cute.

For breakfast I got to enjoy a banana-walnut muffin that I made yesterday. We ate them toasted with a little cream cheese on top - yum! I always look back at my breakfasts and wish I had eaten more fruit. That's definitely an area in my day I need to improve; it never hurts to add fruits or vegetables to any meal! My mom usually eats fruit with yogurt or cottage cheese every morning - a great breakfast, but my stomach doesn't love dairy before 8 am (at night it's a different story! Bring on the milk!), so I stick with my whole grains. Still, throwing some berries into my morning routine would seriously improve my nutrition value.

Lunch was yesterday's mac and cheese leftovers, a delightful mini-break from my crazy work day. I'm a teacher, so I work through lunch 98% of the time, either tutoring, writing lessons, grading, attending meetings, or responding to e-mails. However I can say that I have never actually skipped eating. Missing a meal, for me, results in the following:

1. Physical pain. I stand by my conviction that I feel more severe hunger pains than most.
2. Extreme irritability. I guess everyone gets grumpy when they're hungry, but I become desperate for food (I have eaten weird things in these instances) and annoyingly sarcastic. Side note: Being a teacher and being sarcastic aren't always complimentary qualities.
3. Blaming everything on Terry. When Terry notices the aforementioned irritability, he knows it's time for a snack!

I try to pack enough food each day for a morning snack (around 10, when I have my prep period at school), lunch (12:30), and an afternoon snack (between 2 and 4). Some of my favorite snacks include:

• Cheesy crackers (used to be Cheez-Its, but now I make my own)
• Cottage cheese with applesauce or fruit
• Cheese and Triscuits (or Woven Wheats, the Trader Joe's brand of Triscuits)
• Greek yogurt with honey, applesauce, or fruit
• A piece of fruit, like an apple, or a few carrot sticks
• Lara Bars - my current favorite is Pecan Pie
• Half a graham cracker with peanut butter and milk
• Smoothies - usually only in the summer or on a weekend, when I have time for such delicious treats

I do a pretty good job of eating very healthy foods at school. One of my favorite things about my work environment is that I'm very rarely tempted to eat poorly. I stick with whatever I packed. There are the occasional staff donut days, but I'm getting a lot better about only eating what I really want. Plus, splurges are okay! In moderation, virtually anything is okay. (Except a deep-fried Twinkie. I absolutely cannot find any desire to subject my body to such an invention.)

Anyway, on to the first great part of the day: our CSA farm box came today! We subscribe to Farm Fresh To You, a fruit-and-vegetable delivery service through a local organic farm. We signed up a few months ago for a mixed box of fruits and vegetables to be delivered to us every other week. It comes right to our doorstep, and we get so excited to see our loot! This week's box includes:

• Pears
• Apples
• Grapes
• Delicata squash
• Beets
• Swiss chard
• Lettuce
• Onions
• Bell peppers
• Fingerling potatoes
  Our yummy CSA farm box!

After a long day, I absolutely love to work out. As much as I love my students, I need a few minutes to unwind and let go of whatever challenges the day brought. Tonight's workout was Day One of our Push Up Challenge (6, 6, 4, 4, and max - 10) and a 2.5 mile run (the stoplights were all green - it was brutal).

Post-workout cuddle with the kitten.

Post-workout, we came home to pitifully unripe avocados, which were supposed to star in our fajitas. Terry and I decided to do breakfast for dinner tonight, along with making the tortillas for the fajitas. Then when I get home late from work tomorrow, the meal will be pretty quick.

So waffles for dinner it was! I felt inspired by our delicious-looking Gala apples from the farm box and the fact that I keep seeing yummy fall recipes on the interwebs, so I opted for apple-peanut-butter whole-wheat waffles.

Apple-Peanut-Butter Whole-Wheat Waffles

Our first fall-inspired meal of the season!

Waffles:

• 1 1/2 C. milk
• 1/4 C. applesauce/oil mixture (I use a little more applesauce than oil - fill up a 1/4-measuring cup with applesauce a little more than halfway, then fill it the rest of the way with oil)
• 2 eggs
• 2 tbsp. honey
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 1/2 C. whole-wheat flour
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt

Whisk the first seven ingredients (through baking soda) in a large bowl. Add the flour, baking powder, and salt, and stir until combined. Follow the directions on your waffle iron to make these scrumptious waffles! When finished, add the toppings (you can keep them warm in the oven, but we usually just eat while the next ones are cooking).

Toppings

• Spread peanut butter (we used crunchy for some texture) on one half of the waffle, then top with thinly sliced apples and fold the other half over like a sandwich. We tried this combination with buckwheat honey (from our local farmer's market). Delicious!
• You can also top with fruit or berries, maple syrup, almond butter, nuts (I'd love to try toasted pecans with maple syrup), or just plain ol' butter.

Terry ate 5 waffles! I restricted myself to two, but they were surprisingly filling!

After dinner, I managed to roll out a dozen homemade whole-wheat tortillas, which will hold our fajitas tomorrow (check back then for the recipe!). I love knowing that half the work is done for tomorrow; perhaps I'll find time to bake some sweets, because our dessert department is seriously lacking!