#60 Crispy CornMeal Waffles courtesy of William Sonoma

My New Year’s resolution is to be free of goals. At this stage in life, I am changing my perspective on a lot of things....I've been tasking myself "how can I be stress-free to lead a healthy lifestyle?"  If we allow ourselves to stop caring about insignificant things,  something amazing will start to happen. Once we move out all the materialistic garbage, we finally create room for the things we love to take up residence in our lives. 

A few years ago I was always focused on goals and was intent on setting and working on these goals. I lost a lot of weight by working on popular diet programs, and did my spring cleaning and gardening way before time. I even cleaned up all the clutter from my basement….. the list of goals I achieved was tremendous! But there was too much stress... I’ve pretty much given up on goals now because for one---my basement is cluttered up again!!!

So this year, I 've decided that I don’t need goals to tell me what to do. I get excited about doing what I would like to do already… I just need to focus and get fixated on one thing rather than being open to new opportunities’ all the time. I like being free to pursue something I am passionate about (for instance this blog)  rather than sticking to something I am tired of doing…. being liberated from goals means I will always be excited about what I am doing and accomplish something that way. I noticed that I may have lost a bit of extra weight without the pressure of unachievable goals recently just by working out and eating right. I am utterly happy because I have no set goals! LOL! No cause for concern---I still organize my basement and pantry and do my spring cleaning as usual, only without setting goals!! 

Anyway, let me get to the point --another New Year resolution---I got rid of my old George Foreman Grill and got myself a brand new one. The new one came with four removable plates and one was a waffle maker. I wanted to use the waffle maker, so here is a recipe from William Sonoma that inspired me to make these crispy soft waffles. After this trial, I will always be experimenting with waffles using whole grain flour, because the crispy outside and the old fashioned luscious taste of these waffles have already inspired me to look into all the choices!! 

http://www.williams-sonoma.com/recipe/crispy-cornmeal-waffles.html?cm_src=RECIPESEARCH

Even though the recipe calls for serving the waffles with orange sections in Grand Marnier I prefer sliced strawberries in Grand Marnier with them. I did not have strawberries in my fridge so here is my version.....

Ingredients:

Unsalted butter- ½ stick

All purpose flour-1 cup

Stone ground Yellow Cornmeal-1 cup

Baking powder- 2 tspn

Baking soda-1/2 tspn

Salt- a pinch

Buttermilk- 2 cups

Pure Maple syrup- ¼ cup

Eggs-2

Method:
1. Preheat the Waffle maker. Melt the butter and set aside.

2. Separate the egg yolks from the whites.

3. In a bowl, beat the egg whites until frothy. Keep aside.

4. In another large bowl, whisk together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

5. Combine the buttermilk, maple syrup and egg yolks well in another bowl and pour the liquid

Ingredients into the dry ingredients until just combined. Stir in the beaten egg whites and butter.

6. Spoon out ½ cup of batter onto the Waffle iron and spread the batter with a wooden spoon to the edges.

7. Close the lid and bake until lightly browned and crisp.

8. Serve the waffles immediately.

9. I served them with fried eggs over easy, maple syrup and whipped cream since that is our favorite.