Waffles-oatmeal-pumpkin-pear 3The best way to get your kids up for breakfast on a Sunday is to have a routine of pancakes or waffles going!  If they haven’t already jumped into your bed demanding one of the above (and this applies only to tweenage and older kids)(because the younger ones would have been up and jumping on your head from the crack of dawn), the delicious aromas wafting up into their bedrooms will rouse them pronto.

Here’s yet another version of my squash or fruit-infused waffle. This one has a whole cup of oatmeal and wholegrain flour in it, and of pumpkin puree. To bring the earthy pumpkinniness down a notch (if you’ve ever dug out a Halloween pun’kin, you’ll know what I mean), I added a few drops of almond essence. Its nutty aroma goes well with the squash, and the waffle is topped with slivers of Bartlett pear and whipped cream, sweetened mildly with agave syrup, which is also livened up with almond essemce.

Waffles-oatmeal-pumpkin-pear 2Tip: To keep your waffle iron going for years, spritz it with Pam or brush it with olive oil (as I did today) before plonking down the waffle batter into it.

Tip 2: To avoid slaving away post-breakfast with the cleanup, arm yourself with one of those Ikea dish brushes and fresh, clean water in a bowl. Dip and run along the still-hot iron (make sure it’s OFF) to get all the gunk to evaporate straight into the atmosphere (or your face), et voila – a grime-free griddle! Follow this immediately with a date with your beautician. (Okay, it’s not that bad!)

What you need:

  • pumpkin puree, 1 cup
  • rolled oats (Quaker’s 1-minute quick-cook oats is fine!), 1 cup
  • wholegrain flour, 1 cup
  • milk, 1 cup
  • eggs, 3, separated
  • agave nectar, 1 tsp
  • salt, dash or two of
  • almond essence, a few drops
  • cream, 1/2 cup
  • fresh pears, Bartlett or any other preferred kind
  1. Separate the eggsWaffles-oatmeal-pumpkin-pear 1
  2. In one bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, milk, pumpkin puree, oatmeal, flour agave, almond essence, salt. A handbeater makes light work of this.
  3. Preheat your waffle iron
  4. In another bowl, with a clean whisk, beat the egg whites till glossy and stiff
  5. Fold the egg white into the batter in the first bowl
  6. Spritz the griddle with Pam spray or brush with olive oil
  7. Plonk soup-spoonfuls of batter onto the waffle iron
  8. Meanwhile, wash your egg white bowl
  9. Reuse it to beat the cream till peaks form, add almond essence and 2-4 tsp of agave nectar
  10. When the waffles are done, serve as you please. Or as I pleased above, with almond whipped cream and slivers of fresh pearl. Enjoy!