Waffles (and a fun Christmas breakfast!)

We love waffles at our house, so when I saw this fun Christmas idea with waffles on Pinterest, I just had to try it!  Then I realized I've never blogged my waffle recipe, so here I am killing two birds with one stone.

Waffles
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/4 cup oil
1 cup flour
1 heaping Tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder

Preheat waffle iron according to manufacturer's instructions and grease if needed.

Separate eggs, placing whites in a small mixing bowl and yolks in a large mixing bowl.  Beat whites until soft peaks form.  In the bowl with the yolks, add the milk and oil; mix well.  Add flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder and mix just until incorporated and most lumps are out.  Fold in egg whites to incorporate.  Pour batter according to manufacturer's instructions and cook.  If you'd like to freeze waffles, allow them to cool completely, then place in a zip-top bag and freeze.  To reheat, either place in the microwave or toaster until warm.

To make the Christmas trees:

For the trunk: Either make a normal waffle and cut into rectangles or use a piece of bacon.

For the tree: Add green food coloring to the batter; cook waffles.  If they come out too brown, turn the heat down on your waffle iron.  Because my waffle iron makes waffles that are so thick, in order to cook the middle of the waffle, the outsides ended up with some brown on them, but my daughter didn't even seem to notice!

When waffles are done, separate into triangles.  If yours are thin enough, you can just overlap them like this one here.  Mine are too thick, so I cut little triangles out of the bottom of each one and just fit them together like a puzzle.

Star: I cut a slice of an apple, then used a star cookie cutter to get the star.

Ornaments: I used M&M's because I had them on hand (they were left-over from my daughter's Halloween stash), but you could also use fresh berries (which, unfortunately, aren't cheap right now).