Now that Thanksgiving is over, is this a familiar sight in your fridge?  I love leftovers.  It means a few less meals to prepare over the week, and more time to do other things like showing my daughter how to play Mario Bros.  Eating the same thing for a few meals is fine, but I prefer some variety.

For a while now, I’ve seen recipes for making leftover waffles.  I happen to have a double waffle maker which gets used maybe once a year.  It’s a great waffle maker, but we just don’t have the time to make waffles.  And it happens to be Black Friday, but I refuse to do battle out on the roads and in the stores.  Instead, I decided to experiment with my waffle maker, which turned out to be a mashing success.  Haha get it?  Mashing success…..  Ok anyways.

I took inspiration from a Serious Eats waffled mashed potatoes recipe.

I mixed together two eggs, oil, and milk.

Then I mixed in leftover mashed potatoes and my creamy cheesy bacon brussels sprouts.  I chopped up the brussels sprouts into smaller pieces first.

This recipe should work with other leftovers too.  If you don’t have cheesy bacon brussels sprouts, try using other leftovers like chopped up green beans, corn, chopped up ham, etc.  OOOOR another good idea.  Use candied mashed sweet potatoes, cranberry chutney, toasted nuts, etc to make a sweet leftover waffle.  Mmmm.

In a separate bowl, I mixed together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and pepper.

Then I gently folded the flour mixture into the wet mixture.

While I was making the batter, I preheated the waffle maker.  My waffle maker has an adjustable temperature dial that goes from 1-6, so I set my dial to 4.  I sprayed some nonstick cooking spray onto both sides of the iron.  Then I plopped about 1/3 cup of the batter onto each section of the waffle maker.  My waffle maker will beep at me when the waffles are ready, so I didn’t have to worry about setting a timer.  It took about 6 minutes for my waffles to cook.  Depending on the waffle maker you are using, you may have to adjust the cooking time.

Waaaaah!  Waffles that are not sweet!  This is one of the best looking leftover dishes I’ve ever seen.  Needless to say, it also tasted really good.  Golden brown and crispy on the outside, fluffy and soft on the inside.

I dressed my waffle up with a slice of leftover roasted beef tenderloin and red wine and shallot sauce.  I will have to post the recipe for the beef tenderloin soon, it was really freaking good.

Thanksgiving Leftover Waffles
Ingredients
(Makes 4 waffles)
– 2 cups mashed potatoes
– 2 cups cheesy bacon brussels sprouts
– 2 eggs
– 2 tbs oil
– 1/3 cup milk
– 1/2 cup flour
– 1/2 tsp baking powder
– 1/4 tsp baking soda
– salt and pepper

Directions
– Preheat your waffle maker.  I turned the temperature to medium high.  Spray both sides of the iron with nonstick spray.
– Chop up the cheesy bacon brussels sprouts or whatever leftovers you have into smaller pieces.
– Mix the eggs, oil, and milk in a bowl.  Add the mashed potatoes and cheesy bacon brussels sprouts.
– In a separate small bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and pepper.
– Fold the flour mixture into the wet mixture.
– Once the waffle maker is preheated, pour about 1/3 cup of the batter onto each section of the iron.  My waffle maker automatically beeps once the waffle is cooked.  If you do not have this nifty option, it took about 5-6 minutes to cook.  You may need to adjust the cooking time depending on your waffle maker.