This is science. And Waffles.

Chemistry is science.  Cooking is chemistry.  Therefore, cooking is science!

We are Jenn and Trevor, a couple of biochemists who spend a truly inordinate amount of our free time inside the kitchen or dreaming of food.  We are also athletes who pay very close attention to our diets.

As we all know, dieting can lead to a host of nasty mental triggers and trip-ups. Trevor and I like to use dieting as a means of optimizing our kitchen chemistry skills.  Using many standard and some not-so-standard ingredients and methods, we have created some really good food.  Between the two of us, we have lots of tricks, workarounds and substitutions, but our favorite way to intensify our meals is to

Throw an Egg on It!

Welcome to our adventure. (And I do mean adventure, it can be a wild ride!)

For example...

Today I wanted waffles.  We hit up a sale at our local thrift store yesterday and I found a belgian waffle maker for $2.50.  This was going to cause trouble... We all know that Belgian Waffles are super carbohydrate dense.  48g in 1 serving?!  I might eat that many carbs in 2 whole days. Today wasn't a gym day so the fewer carbs the better, eliminating those waffles from my menu.  Has that ever stopped me from getting waffles?

No, not so much.

By combining eggs, pork rinds (yes, pork rinds!) flax, butter and yogurt (I know, right?!) we made ourselves some amazing diet-acceptable waffle substitutes.

These did not last long...

Low Carb Cinnamon  Waffles

What you'll need:

4 ounces pork rinds, about 1 cup
19g flaxseed meal
20g butter
4 eggs (200g)

113g nonfat greek yogurt

3 packets of granulated Splenda
1 Tbsp cinnamon
1 Tbsp vanilla 

1/2C water

Desired toppings *

What you'll do:

Put the pork rinds in a food processor until well ground. In a medium bowl, beat the eggs well; stir in all but the pork rinds.  Plug in your waffle iron to preheat it.  Add the pork rinds and let stand for 10 minutes (while the waffle iron heats) until the batter thickens. It won't look like traditional waffle batter, it will be much tighter (not as runny).  Ladle the batter into the hot waffle iron and cook. Fill the waffle iron with more batter than normal since there won't be as much spreading of this batter.  Remove them when nice and brown and firm to the touch. I like to pop them into the toaster oven for 10 min or so to get them REALLY crispy.  When they are cooked to you liking, serve with your desired toppings.

This batter is so savory, it doesn't need much dressing up after cooking, but if you must, you can add Low carb maple syrup, low carb honey, fruit, whipped cream, sugar free jam, etc*

 I got 425g of waffles and made it 4 servings .

These freeze really well.  Escpecially if you pop them in the toaster to thaw/crispify them.

*Toppings are not included in the counts below. 

Per Serving (106g): 293 Calories; 18g Fat; 28g Protein; 2.4g Carbohydrate; 1.4g Dietary Fiber; 1g Net Carbs

Overall, I was happy with these waffles.  The batter comes together nicely, though it behaves somewhat differently than traditional batter.  Without gluten present for structure and elasticity in capturing air bubbles, the rising potential is limited to the egg proteins.  I have a couple ideas to work around these obstacles .... stay tuned for round 2.