Sausage, Potato, and Cheese Waffles

From Everyday With Rachael Ray



Ingredients:
1 link sweet Italian sausage (about 3 ounces), casing discarded
1 baking potato, grated and excess water squeezed out
4 tablespoons butter
1 3/4 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 tablespoon chopped flat-leaf parsley
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 1/4 teaspoons pepper
2 cups milk
2 large eggs, lightly beaten

Directions:
1. In a medium skillet, cook the sausage over medium-high heat, breaking it up with a fork, for 5 minutes. Add the potato and butter, lower the heat and simmer until the butter is melted, about 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool, about 10 minutes.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, cheese, parsley, salt and pepper. Stir in the milk and eggs until smooth. Stir in the sausage-potato mixture.

3. Using a waffle maker, cook the waffles according to the manufacturer’s directions.

Comments:
Now first off, let's just say these waffles are named in kind of mis-leading manner. Yes, there is sausage, potato, and cheese in the batter. But you don't taste the cheese or potato. And only taste the sausage when you bite into a chunk. Mostly what you taste is pepper and baking powder. So go easy on the pepper.

All in all, not a hard recipe to figure out. I don't really do waffles so much so Adam ended up manning the waffle iron. Division of labor and all that... I'm not sure I really liked these too much for the aforementioned imbalance of flavors. Or maybe I just don't like waffles. Who can say?

Taco Salad Waffles

From Taste of Home



Ingredients:
1 pound ground beef
1 cup salsa
1 can (4 ounces) chopped green chilies
1 envelope taco seasoning
8 frozen waffles
Shredded cheddar cheese, shredded lettuce, chopped tomatoes, cubed avocado, salsa and sour cream, optional

Directions:
In a large skillet, cook beef over medium heat until no longer pink; drain. Stir in the salsa, chilies and taco seasoning. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer for 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, toast waffles according to package directions. Layer with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, avocado, salsa and sour cream if desired. Top with beef mixture.

Comments:
I felt like such a failure with these. I forgot to get lettuce, ran out of salsa, and the waffles I had in the freezer were STRAWBERRY. Ugh. I was going to run to the store to get things in order for this, but Adam reminded me we had leftover burrito shells so we skipped the "salad waffle" part of this and just made it "taco." For what it's worth, they were good. :)