The FAQ Egg McMuffin

Sometimes, I just need to face the ugly truth...I frequently eat in my car. I'm not as bad as those women who put on makeup while driving, but I always feel like SUCH a slug when I eat in my car because it just seems so...sloppy. Apparently, though, I'm not alone. I just read that 19% of American meals are eaten in the car. Wow. Almost 1 in 5 meals are eaten while moving. (I've been reading this and many other thought-provoking items about the origins of our meals in the BRILLIANT book The Omnivore's Dilemma, by Michael Pollan. If you are even mildly curious how the food (even organic food) you eat gets to the table these days, and/or you want to know about how some allergens get into non-allergenic foods, you should take the time to read it. It's calm, intelligent, thoughtful and balanced observation. One of the more disturbing pieces is how the proliferation of cheap corn grown by American farmers is impacting the entire planet: obesity, increasing fossil fuel consumption and shifting the dynamics of global agriculture as a whole... I am not kidding when I say this is an important book.)

Essentially, I am just not a morning person and 75% of the time can't seem to get out of bed early enough to make it to work on time AND eat a decent breakfast. Add to the that the difficulties inherent in being the Food Allergy Queen, so what do I do? I plan ahead and try to be a little creative. I have a great gluten-free waffle recipe from Gluten-free Kitchen, by Roben Ryberg (of Miss Roben's gluten-free bakery), whose cookbook on which I frequently rely because she uses potato starch and cornstarch as her gluten-free substitutes. (Many other GF recipes are based on rice flour, which I am allergic to.) So when it's waffle time, I make the entire recipe, let them cool and store in the freezer in a Ziploc. While my coffee is brewing, I toss a waffle in the toaster oven, quickly fry up an egg, and ta da! An FAQ version of the Egg McMuffin...portable and delish when wrapped snugly in napkin so nothing escapes and can be eaten with one hand, while nibbled safely at stop lights only, of course. (I've also included a picture of a sit-down waffle breakfast too.)

Waffles
From Gluten-free Kitchen, by Roben Ryberg

1/4 c sugar
3/4 c cornstarch
3/4 c potato starch
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum (which can be made from soy or corn, be careful if you're allergic to either)
1/2 teaspoon salt

1/3 c light vegetable oil
2 eggs
3/4 c milk or dairy substitute of choice

Mix dry ingredients together in a medium-sized bowl. Mix wet ingredients in a separate bowl. Gently stir wet ingredients into dry and mix slowly getting all the lumps out of the batter.

Preheat waffle iron, and spray with nonstick spray. When heated, pour about 2/3 c batter into iron until light brown and done. Respray in between each waffle for best results!

Makes about 4 7-inch diameter round waffles.