Phew! We made it to Monday.

These are not words you will hear me say often, but this weekend was a doozy. Over the past two years, we have been repairing our home after being flooded by Hurricane Harvey. It has been a LONG process. Because we are not even in a flood plane, much less a bad one, we did not have flood insurance. This is why we have been doing all of the repairs ourselves and it has taken us two years. My mom was such a blessing in this department. Talk about an impressive woman. She taught me how to put up Sheetrock, texture walls, install baseboards and quarter round, and countless other things I could’ve gone my whole life not knowing. She lived with me and my family for several months until our house was “live-able” again. Now that she is gone, I am having to tackle some projects that are intimidating to me. This was the case this weekend. We have a bay window in our breakfast room that has all kinds of odd angles and nothing is symmetrical. It has been a dark cloud in the back of my mind. I needed to do the trim work around the window, and I have not done anything like this before.

Some things I have learned from my mom:

• I am capable of doing hard things.
• I am so much more competent than I give myself credit for.
• It is okay to fail once, twice, three times, as long as you don’t give up.
• YouTube can be a great teacher.
• Not knowing how to do something is not an excuse for not trying.

The first lesson is my favorite. I even wrote it on a sticky note above my desk. I am capable of hard things. Guess what! The trim looks great! I only had to redo two of the boards and make one extra trip to Home Depot. I feel so proud of myself! You can do hard things too! Take on this week like a champ.

We have an overflow of potatoes this week in our house, for some reason, so I decided to revamp my usual hash browns in a skillet recipe. Have you seen the unusual waffle iron recipes everywhere? You can waffle anything from cinnamon rolls to meatloaf. My favorite is the hash brown. It cooks so fast, gets extra crispy because of all the nooks and crannies in the waffle iron, and is so fun for the toddler. One great way to help reduce picky eating is to offer foods in different shapes or prepared differently. A waffle iron can be a great tool for this.

For added fun, we used our animal shaped waffle iron called the Waffle Zoo. It makes a giraffe, elephant, and a lion shaped waffle. I like this one because they waffles are super thin and crispy, plus so fun! Here is one that is very similar on Amazon. My Waffle Zoo was a gift from a lovely friend several years ago (even before I had kids, because I also love animal shaped waffles). They have so many varieties out there, you can definitely find one that your kids love.

We ended up taking these zoo animal hash brown waffles to-go this morning to our park. If you haven’t tried park picnic breakfasts, I highly recommend. Because it gets so hot in Texas so early during the summer, we often don’t make it outside if breakfast runs a little late. We ate (in the shade), played on the playground (in the shade), and visited the injured animals zoo located in the park.

We love our local park!

The great thing about this recipe is that you can add in anything you want. I love chopped bacon and chives. Leftover, finely chopped, roasted veg works great as an add in. We’ve also used sweet potato and purple yams for the main component and they came out well. The added egg gives a little protein boost for the morning.

Another great tip is to use your food processor or a Salad Shooter to grate the potatoes, because who has time to hand grate a pound of potatoes?

Step 1: Peel and grate potatoes

Step 2: Soak potato shreds.

Step 3: Add spices.

Step 4: Waffle those potatoes!

Waffle Iron Hash Browns

Ingredients

1 lb potatoes (my favorite is gold, but can also use sweet potatoes and purple yams for added color fun)

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

2 eggs, beaten

optional ingredients: chopped bell pepper, chives, bacon, ham, diced tomatoes

Instructions

1. Peel and grate potatoes. I like using my salad shooter or the grater attachment for my food processor to speed up this process.
2. Add potato shreds to bowl. Cover potatoes with water and soak for 2-3 minutes.
3. Drain potato shreds and place in a thin, clean dish towel. Squeeze excess water out of potato shreds.
4. Add spices to potatoes and mix well. Add eggs and stir.
5. Spray waffle iron with cooking spray (I prefer avocado oil). Scoop potato mixture into waffle iron. You can mound the mixture a little, because the potatoes will smash down when you close the lid. This will ensure the potato cake holds together.
6. Follow instructions on your waffle iron to cook hash brown waffle like a normal waffle. I like to cook mine 1-2 minutes than a typical waffle for extra crispiness. An extra spritz of avocado oil after the typical waffle cycle ends and before my extra time helps crisp as well.
7. Enjoy!