‘Make ahead chocolate banana nut waffles and prepped daily school lunches will change your life!  Get your kids off to get a great start everyday with a balanced breakfast and fueling nutritious lunches!’

Pancakes or Waffles?  Which is it for you???  In our house, its evenly split down the middle.  The boys prefer a big stack of pancakes while the girls rather have heavenly, luscious waffles that are crisp on the outside yet oh so fluffy on the inside.  Either way though, the batter is always the same so it’s never a big deal around here to have both options available!  I mean really.  Pancakes, waffles… neither is a bad option right?  Its an added bonus that either option is SO easy to make!

I’m honestly quite surprised that I haven’t prepped waffles for Makena’s breakfasts before!  16 whole weeks into the school year and not a waffle in sight for prep!  Probably because they are usually reserved for special weekend breakfasts, but in honor of January 2017… it was certainly time to start things off right with one of our family favorites!  Because I’m still not feeling quite 100% yet, I even went a step further with the typical breakfast prep and had Makena cook her OWN waffle breakfast each morning!  All it took was making the batter on Sunday night (took all of about 60 seconds) and then storing it in the fridge for the week.

Can’t wait to share the new kitchen gadget…

So, pancakes are definitely much easier in terms of cooking (when you use a large griddle pan), but again… waffles… mmmm those waffles!  The problem is my 11 year old is kinda of useless when it comes to the oven, stove, fire, knives, or “cooking” anything that doesn’t involve the toaster or microwave.  Definitely not the most hands on kinda kid in the kitchen, but I’m hoping to ease her into actual “cooking” a bit more this year.  When we decided that we would be doing waffles for this breakfast prep, I knew our big Belgian waffle maker would be far too intimidating for her overly cautious little mind and hands.  So I decided to invest in the PERFECT kid friendly mini waffle maker… invest all of $15 I mean!

DASH “Go” Mini Waffle Maker

Gaahhhhh, how darn cute is this thing????  Why buy frozen Eggo’s that are not exactly the most nutrient dense waffle option when you can make your own AND control the ingredients & flavor???  Personally, making your own waffle/pancakes tastes so much better anyways!  This is the PERFECT size for kiddos and not only can they make the pancake batter themselves (just stirring everything themselves in a large bowl), but now they can easily MAKE their own waffles as well?  Genius!  This is an especially good option for fellow sick mommy’s, extra busy work mommy’s, or mommy’s of kiddos who beg to cook and make their own food!

Love it…

The DASH mini waffle maker is compact, non stick, no buttons or settings to mess with (just a little light to indicate when the cooking time is complete), and a large plastic handle to lower/raise.  It doesn’t get terribly hot either which reduces the risk of any fingers being burned.  We bought the red one, BUT it also comes in PINK, WHITE, BLACK, STAINLESS STEEL, and even MINT GREEN!!!  I secretly want a little collection of ALL of them, how cute would that little family of waffle makers be?!

Let’s breakfast prep shall we?

So the easiest way to prep your batter is to throw everything in a high speed blender.  Thank you VitaMix for being so awesome and perfect… not a day goes by this thing isn’t used (usually 2-3 times a day actually).  Easy, simple ingredients into the blender.  Mix on HIGH until very very smooth!

Add mini chocolate chips to your batter if desired… we use Enjoy Life.  Just pour the desired amount in the blender and stir with a spatula (do NOT blend into batter if you want full chocolate chips of course).

Then you can either make your entire batch immediately OR store the batter in the fridge.  For this breakfast prep, I actually decided to DOUBLE the recipe so we would have batter for Makena to make her breakfast each day AND another batch I could cook off and freeze.  Pancakes and waffles are always my first breakfast choice for making ahead and freezing!  Just pop one or two in the toaster and viola… quick, easy, and healthy breakfast (or snack) option for the the kids and husband!

One batch for the freezer…

One batch for a week of fresh waffles…

Each morning Makena could come downstairs, preheat the DASH waffle maker, grab the batter from the fridge, and cook up a couple of waffles for herself!  Nothing intimidating, she felt independent and confident “cooking”, and I was even able to catch a few extra ZZZ’s.  ALWAYS a bonus for mommy’s 🙂

Breakfast for the week is served… and I barely had to do ANYTHING 🙂  I dig weeks like this!!!

Chocolate Chip Banana Nut Waffles

Print recipe

Serves	15
Prep time	10 minutes
Cook time	10 minutes
Total time	20 minutes

Ingredients

• 3/4 cups gluten free oats
• 2 tablespoons coconut flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3 tablespoons psyllium husk
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 Large whole eggs
• 1/4 cup 'Vanilla' MuscleEgg egg whites (or 1 whole egg or 1/4 cup plain egg whites)
• 1 Medium mashed banana
• 2 tablespoons coconut oil or butter (melted)
• 1 tablespoon honey or sweetener of choice
• 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cup milk of choice
• 3oz Greek yogurt
• 1/4 cup Enjoy Life chocolate chips

Optional

• 4 scoops KidzShake 'Vanilla' protein
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Directions

Step 1
	Place all ingredients (EXCEPT chocolate chips and walnuts) into a high speed blender and mix on high until completely smooth. Let batter sit for 5 minutes. If batter is too thick after 5 minutes, add a little more milk. Stir in chocolate chips.
Step 2
	Cook waffles or use batter to make pancakes. Top with walnuts and maple syrup if desired. Makes approximately 15- 4" waffles.

Note

NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION (makes 15- 4" waffles): calories- 76, fat- 4 grams, carbs- 7 grams/fiber-2 grams, protein- 4 grams PER WAFFLE

Now LUNCHES for the week:

MONDAY:

Leftover filet mignon, arugula, Alexia tater tots, and strawberries/rice crackers for snack (not shown)

TUESDAY:

Leftover chicken tacos, carrots, grapes, and pistachios

WEDNESDAY:

Leftover chicken soup, popcorn, strawberries, flax chips

THURSDAY:

Turkey pita, chez its, radishes, cutie orange

FRIDAY:

Leftover chicken, rice, and cabbage, apples, seaweed, celery

And here are all of previous prep weeks right at your finger tips:

>> 2016-2017 KIDS BREAKFAST & LUNCH IDEAS <<

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