#NationalWaffleDay

As the great Leslie Knope said, “We have to remember what’s important in life: friends, waffles, and work. Or waffles, friends, work. But work has to come third.”

I thought I’d take a fun spin on #nationalwaffleday by pulling some of my favorite recipes that you can make IN a waffle iron, that aren’t waffles. Yeah, you heard me.

Being a bit more of a ‘savory’ breakfast person myself, these are tried, true, and delicious.

Without further ado…

Waffle Hash Browns

OneIngredientChef has an absolutely fabulous recipe for this ‘waffle’ and they sold me on it so well: “I love making homemade hash browns, but even in a non-stick pan, they always stick. Often, I would end up with more hash browns permanently affixed to the bottom of my pan than on my plate. Then the other day, I saw a picture online that showed how to make hash browns in a waffle iron and I immediately ran into my kitchen to try it. And… it worked! Not only did it work, but the hash browns were more perfectly cooked than in any other method I’ve tried, with virtually no oil, in 5 minutes, and nearly instant cleanup.” – umm, sounds to me like you simply can’t lose with this!

Stupid easy: grated potatoes (you can use frozen!), a can of black beans, a bell pepper, white onion, nutritional yeast, and salt and pepper. What’s pretty wild is that you don’t even have to cook the pepper and onion before tossing this all together and adding it to the hot iron. Close the lid, cook for 5 minutes, and once you look brown and crisped, you are DONE. They did disclose that you can’t get it out in the beautiful waffle shape, but you can get it all out cleanly. I promise, you won’t care what this looks like. I love topping with a fried egg and some hot sauce. Easy, simple, delicious, complete meal!

Stuffing Waffles

Holy. Moly. There is nothing in the world that looks better to me than this as a huuuuge stuffing/Thanksgiving food fiend. Here’s what’s up – get junky, use the stuffing from the box. Simply place the wet stuffing mixture into a waffle press and let it cook for a few cycles – they definitely need more time than your average waffle. You’ll know when they’re done, they’ll be golden and crispy!

The recipe that I got this from, GrilledCheeseSocial.com, uses this in an outrageously drool-worthy Thanksgiving grilled cheese, with mashed potatoes, Muenster cheese, and cranberry sauce. Wow. Personally, I would LOVE to try that, but I think that this opens the doors for so much delicious potential. Keep it in the breakfast genre and top with an egg and some hot sauce (can you tell how much I love the incredible, edible egg?), top with fried or baked chicken for a savory meal – whatever you want! All I know is that this is a must-do in the waffle iron.

Waffle Iron Quesadillas

Doesn’t get ANY easier than this recipe for waffle iron quesadillas and plenty of ingredient wiggle room. At this point in your life, you know what you like in quesadillas, and you know what your family members like. You make individual quesadillas, so it’s super simple to appease anyone’s needs.

Prepare your quesadilla fillings (saute your veggies, fry up your chicken or choice of protein, and, most importantly, get your cheese ready. Heat up your waffle iron, and, if necessary, cut tortillas to fit in the waffle iron – for this, I recommend the small “taco” tortillas and using two for the top and bottom – makes this stress/work free! White, corn, wheat, makes no difference – totally go with your preference. add in your ingredients once you have the bottom tortilla down. You’ll know this is done when you’re golden brown and bubbly. Top with guac, sour cream, salsa – whatever! Delicious, easy, simply. Enjoy! Huge thank you to Tablespoon.com for this awesome idea.

So there you have it – top non-waffle recipes on #nationalwaffleday. Blasphemy? I think not.