How To Make Waffle Butterflies

Waffle Butterfly

Here’s a fun project to brighten your morning.  Kids of any age will love helping to make their own personal waffle butterfly.  If you use frozen waffles, the whole thing takes about 3 minutes.  Best of all, your kids will be having such a good time decorating, they won’t realize that they’re inadvertently getting a serving of fruit.

Jim's Pancakes

When it comes to making pictures and characters out of food, it’s important that the dish be prepared quickly.  There’s a guy at a site called Jim’s Pancakes who is making incredible, intricate sculptures out of pancakes.  I love what he’s doing, but there’s a problem with making complex, edible spaceships and football stadiums for breakfast.  If you play with your food for too long, your breakfast might look cool… but hot?  It is not.

That’s what I like about these waffle butterflies.  Once the components are prepped, the butterflies take just seconds to make and your waffles are still warm and crisp.

Ingredients For Waffle Butterflies

You’ll need 2 waffles – frozen or homemade.  Besides a banana, you’ll need a small selection of other fruits or berries.  I decided to decorate my butterfly with a kiwi and some strawberries.  You might also try blueberries, raspberries, cherries or dried cranberries.  The more colorful the fruit, the more lovely your butterfly.

I like to think of the ingredients as a cocoon – ready to release a breakfast of unmatched glory.  Or if I’m in a bad mood, I just think of them as 2 waffles and some fruit.  But then, everything comes together and my bad mood flies away like some kind of winged insect.

Now, let’s transform these simple ingredients into a beautiful butterfly.

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Cranberry Sauce For Breakfast

Cranberry Sauce For Breakfast

It’s there for every Thanksgiving dinner and it’s there after every Thanksgiving dinner.  It’s the one holiday staple you can count on being in your refrigerator the next day.  The concept of having cranberry sauce with meat and potatoes is cemented in our holiday traditions.  It’s on the table.  It’s pretty.  But, it’s often unused.  Maybe it’s a matter of tradition not keeping up with tastes.  I’ll have gravy on my turkey and potatoes for Thanksgiving.  If I want a berry compote with my meat, I’ll go to IKEA later.

You know what I’m thankful for this Thanksgiving? Leftover cranberry sauce!  I’ve begun watching it during holiday dinners – eyeing it like the last piece of of chocolate in the box – hoping that nobody takes too much.  Because I know… cranberry sauce is better for breakfast than it is for dinner.  There are few hard truths you can rely on in this life.  That’s one of them.

So whether you’re reading this the day after a holiday or you’re finally ready to use that can that’s been in your cupboard for two years… get ready.  These are the 9 best ways to use cranberry sauce for breakfast.

Cranberry Sauce In Oatmeal

#1. Swirl it into your oatmeal.

Cranberry Sauce On Pancakes

#2. Put it on pancakes. (Recipe: Cranberry Sauce Pancake Topping)

Cranberry Sauce In Pancakes

#3. Put it in pancakes. (Recipe: Cranberry Sauce Pancakes)

Cranberry Sauce On Toast

#4. Mix it with cream cheese to make a tasty topping for toast.

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Raspberry And White Chocolate Muffins

Raspberry And White Chocolate Muffins

Raspberries and chocolate make a great team, especially white chocolate with its creamy, delicate flavor.  These Raspberry and White Chocolate Muffins are incredibly easy to make.  Preparation takes about 10 minutes and baking time is 20 minutes.  Follow along as I take you step-by-step through the recipe.

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Happy 4th of July Breakfast

Every Independence Day, I like to give my breakfast the red white and blue treatment.  It’s easy, fun and always beautiful.  All you need are some berries and yogurt or whipped cream.  For the red berries, I usually go for a combination of raspberries and strawberries.  For the blue berries, I use rare Japanese Sakuranbo berries.  Just kidding.  I use blueberries.

Fourth Of July Berry Parfaits

The great thing about these ingredients is that you can use them to turn many breakfast staples into patriotic masterpieces.  Use them in layers to make yogurt breakfast parfaits.  Use oatmeal for your white ingredient (although it’s more tan) to make oatmeal parfaits.  Pancakes and waffles are like a painter’s canvas just waiting to became red white and blue works of art. Continue reading