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Chicken and Waffles with a Bourbon Pecan Maple Syrup

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Confession. I don’t make everything by scratch. Premade waffle mix and chicken strips from a restaurant makes a Saturday brunch favorite super easy!

Waffle Mix

My favorite mix is Kodiak Waffle Mix. Kodiak’s mission is to inspire healthier eating and active living with nourishment for today's frontier. It’s packed with protein and whole grains.

Waffle Maker

There are so many types of Waffle Makers out there, but I’m partial to the square ones. My choice is the Hamilton Beach 2-Slice Belgium waffle maker. It makes the perfect waffle for your brunch boards.

Chicken

Making fried chicken is hard. While I perfect a fried chicken recipe, I use chicken tenders from any fast food restaurant. These are from Culvers.

Maple Pecan Bourbon Syrup

This I did make. For 2 servings.

• 1/4 cup broken pieces of pecan

• 1 cup 100% maple syrup

• A shot of bourbon (more or less)

Toast the broken pieces of pecan in a small skillet on medium high. (No oil needed). When you start smelling them add the maple syrup. Note I’m using 100% maple syrup. I'm trying to not use refined white sugar and high fructose corn syrup, so my go to maple syrup is a 100% maple syrup (check the labels). When it starts simmering add the bourbon (my go to is Buffalo Trace). If you’re a little extra and on a gas stove, feel free to flambe the syrup.

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Slow Cooker Carnitas

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Carnitas is a delicious taco filling made from the pork butt (also know as the port shoulder).

• 2-3 pounds of pork butt

• 2 tsp salt

• 1 tsp pepper

• 1 jalepeno

• 1 diced onion

• 4 cloves of garlic (minced)

• 1 apple diced

• 1/4 cup Apple Cider vinegar

Rub

• 1 tbsp Cumin

• 1 tbsp Dried Oregano

• 1 tsp chili powder (if you can find it, use chipotle chili powder)

• 2 tsp Red Pepper flakes (adjust for spicyness)

Make the rub. Rub the pork butt with the rub. Place it the rubbed pork in the slow cooker. Add the rest of the ingredients to the slow cooker, on top of the pork. If ingredients fall to the side, that all good! Cover and slow cook on high for 6 hours or low for 8 hours. If you like your carnitas a little crispy, after it’s cooked transfer the pork to a shallow oven safe dish and broil it in the oven for about 7 minutes. You can serve it like tacos with tortillas or in a quinoa bowl, recipe to come.

Note: I own an instant pot, it’s wonderful for many things, except this recipe. This carnitas recipe is best made in a slow cooker (aka crock pot).

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A LITTLE NOTE ABOUT SUGAR

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Sugar is addictive. Especially refined sugar. Refined sugar comes from sugar cane or sugar beets, which are processed to extract the sugar. The most common form is white granulated sugar. I noticed that my body would just get super tired and I would get the worst headaches after eating desserts that contained a lot of refined sugar. Usually in ice cream, cakes and pastries. So I decided to try to replace it with alternatives. As you’ll notice in my recipes I try to replace refined sugar with pure ingredients such as maple syrup, agave or honey.

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GF/DF PIZZA

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Let’s face it pizza is the best when it’s full of dairy and gluten. But with a little extra work and this GF dough recipe, eating a delicious DF/GF pizza is possible. Let’s take about some premade items first.

Toppings

Go all out, if you like sausage with peppers or tomatoes and anchovies. Add the toppings of all your desires. Don’t forget the pizza sauce and DF cheese.

Dairy Free Cheese

When I look for a DF Cheese, I try to stay away from products with soy. One of my favorite cheese for pizza is Violife’s Just Like Mozzarella Shreds.

GF Pizza Dough Recipe

• ¾ cup warm water

• 1 tablespoon maple syrup (the syrup makes the crust brown, so don’t omit it)

• 4 tbps of Quick Yeast (or one packet of yeast)

• 285g (aka 2 cups) of GF Flour (make sure it includes Xatham Gum)

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1 large egg

• 1 tablespoons olive oil

• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

Preheat oven to 425°

Mix warm water with maple syrup and yeast. Set it aside until it foams (about 5 minutes)

While the yeast is sitting mix the flour and salt in a mixer (with the paddle attachment). When the yeast is ready, add the yeast mixture, egg, olive oil and apple cider vinegar until it forms a dough. Now it’s going to look like regular but a little stickier. Instead of rolling it out like you would normal dough, place the dough on a large piece of parchment and flatten it with your hands - be sure to oil your hands for this part. Press it out to a 10-12 circle.

Pre-bake or Parbake the dough fo 10 minutes. You’ll probably see the term parbake on some recipes. Parbake just means prebaking the dough before you load it up with toppings.

Time for the fun part, load up with your toppings. Put down a layer of pizza sauce. My favorite is Whole Foods Pizza Sauce because it doesn’t include any addiitonal sugar. The sugar in the jar is just from the tomatoes. Then layer your cheese and the rest of your toppings.

Bake for another 12-15 minutes. Let it cool for a few minutes before you serve it.