Broke as a Mofo

While I certainly didn't make any extravagant purchases in Maui, this trip definitely tapped out my bank account. It's been a while since I've been so strapped until payday (which is still over a week away). I'm also PMSing, so I'm stressed, poor, hungry and in need of chocolate.

The one good thing about tight money times is that it forces me to cook all meals from scratch and try new recipes to accommodate my strange and limited assortment of remaining food items. I'm finally using the tempeh in my fridge that I've been too scared to try. I'm making seitan for the first time with the wheat gluten I bought months ago. I'm using every scrap of vegetable in my crisper. I'm eating more brown rice than any human being should.

And I'm making waffles, CHOCOLATE WAFFLES.

I was craving chocolate desperately, but had no money to go buy some. I don't usually eat chocolate, so it's not something I have in my cupboards. And honestly, even when I crave chocolate, it's usually chocolate things, like cake, not chocolate itself. And dark, fudgy chocolate. Lucky for me, I always seem to have cocoa powder left over from a previous birthday party or fancy dinner. I dug thru my recipe books and found these Chocolate Chip Brownie Waffles in Veganomicon. Due to pantry and taste constraints, I made a few modifications:
Instead of soy yogurt, I just used soy milk with a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar to culture it.Used white whole wheat flour instead of plain flour.Used walnuts instead of pecans.Omitted chocolate chips. There are no words for how delicious these turned out. Okay, there are words - words like DELICIOUS, FUDGY, CHOCOLATELY, AMAZING and PERFECT. They knocked my chocolate craving out cold without being overly sweet and the strawberries added a great freshness. The kids loved them too, but I was too busy shoving waffles in my mouth to take a picture.

For those of you who have this cookbook, definitely give this recipe a try. For those of you who don't have - hahah, that's just silly, OF COURSE you have this cookbook already.

Now if you excuse me, I have a giant pot of brown rice to make.