Pumpkin Protein Waffles

I got a waffle maker last weekend (on sale for $19.99 in Target on my US trip – I couldn’t resist!).

Since then I’ve been going to town, playing around with some protein waffle recipes. I have a delicious vegan chocolate chip protein waffle recipe that I am putting the final touches on and should have soon.

For now, though I want to offer up this, inspired by Katie’s delicious Banana Bread Protein Waffles recipe.

The photos are not going to be exciting for this post because I couldn’t wait to scarf this one down. But I couldn’t let that hold me back from posting it in time for you guys to try this out for your weekend breakfast.

Though, here’s another pic for you: Yesterday morning I had this waffle with the topping and my favourite additional toppings – lowfat whipped cream, banana slices and a few 70% chocolate chunks…

And yes, I know it’s not the season for pumpkin. Let’s just accept that in the food blogging world, we enjoy pumpkin year-round, yes?

Ah yes, and the stats: more than 20g of protein in this waffle and just over 250 cals – including the topping! You can’t beat that for a filling and delish breakfast, can you?

Pumpkin Protein Waffles with Pumpkin Almond Butter Topping (inspired by these)

INGREDIENTS (makes 1 large waffle – same size as picture. If you have a different sized waffle iron, this may make more):

1/3 cup oats
1/3 scoop vanilla protein powder (around 2 tbsp)
3 tbsp canned pumpkin
3 tbsp cottage cheese or nonfat Greek yogurt
2 tbsp egg whites (or 1 large egg white)
1 tbsp milk of choice (I used almond) – use more if it needs more thinning out
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 packet stevia
1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Optional pumpkin topping:

1 tbsp milk of choice (I used almond)
1 tbsp pumpkin
1 tsp almond butter (or other nut butter – I’ve also made this with peanut butter and it’s still great!)
4 drops liquid stevia (or other sweetener)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Blend oats until they’re finely ground into a flour. Mix in a bowl with protein powder.

2. Place pumpkin, cottage cheese or Greek yogurt, egg whites and milk into blender and blend till smooth.

3. Stir into flour and protein powder mixture, adding in baking powder, stevia and spice. Mix until combined and pour onto a hot waffle iron. Cook according to your waffle iron’s settings.

4. While waffle is cooking, place each of the topping ingredients into a small dish and microwave for 20 seconds. Stir well and pour over waffle, topping with some lowfat whipped cream if you like. Enjoy!

Nutritional information per waffle if recipe makes one (including the optional topping):

Updated to add: If you don’t have a waffle maker you can *try* to just thin this batter out with a little extra almond milk and make it as pancakes, but I haven’t actually tried making in pancake form (I can’t see why it wouldn’t work though). But to save you the trial and error, I already have two pumpkin protein pancake recipes on my blog! Click here for the regular and here for the vegan version. Enjoy!

QUESTION:

• Next weekend is my biiiirthday (July 1st to be exact!) and I’m heading to Seattle with my best friend to have some fun! Anyone have any recommendations of places to check out/eat/see/do/shop/play etc? 🙂