Sunday, October 26, 2014

Pumpkin Waffles

We're coming to the end of October. Today our gym hosted a Barbells for Boobs charity WOD in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. It's always so great to see so many people come out to support a great cause, work out together, eat and socialize. But mostly I love to see everyone support and cheer on each other. Events like this remind me of why I love my CrossFit community so much. It doesn't matter what's going on in my life, when I walk into my box, I know I'm surrounding by people who care. Today one of our newest members showed up about an hour and half after we started running through our heats for the workout. The final heat was just about to start when I noticed he was standing to the side. He had come to do the WOD (Grace, 30 clean and jerks.) but was the only person left. After the heat finished, he went out the floor and started warming up. A good number of members figured out that he was about to go by himself, and even though they had already done the WOD (some having JUST finished a few minutes before), they set up a bar and went again! Just so he wouldn't be the only one working out. If that's not the epitome of gym support and camaraderie, I don't know what is! Way to go CF Tally!


Fall is here and it never fails, year after year I find myself in the mood for more things with apples and pumpkins. Last week I made pork chops and smothered them with sauteed onions and apples. I highly recommend you try that out immediately. Savory and sweet. Winner winner. I also made a pumpkin soup and these pretty delightful pumpkin waffles. I have come to love using cashew butter more and more. I find the flavor to be more mild than almond butter and the smooth creaminess to create a more fluffy texture. But, if you want to use almond butter in place of the cashew butter, I think it would work just fine!

Pumpkin Waffles



Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes
Serves: 4

Special Tools:
Food processor
Large bowl
Waffle maker

Ingredients:
1⁄2 cup pumpkin puree
2 large bananas
4 large eggs
1⁄2 cup cashew butter
1⁄4 cup melted coconut oil
1⁄4 cup coconut flour
1/4 cup cashew flour
2 tablespoons pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 tsp of sea salt
organic maple syrup, for serving
*Disclaimer, if you're feeling naughty, I spread some pumpkin butter on my waffles instead of syrup. I bought mine from Trader Joe's!

Instructions:
1. In a large bowl, mash your two bananas and then place them in the food processor.
2. Add the pumpkin puree, eggs, cashew butter, coconut oil, and vanilla (all of your wet ingredients).
3. Puree until well combined.
4. Then add the rest of the dry ingredients and continue to puree until everything is incorporated. You might need to use a spoon or spatula to push down the sides once or twice.
5. Heat your waffle maker according to the instructions. This gives the coconut and cashew flour time to really absorb into the batter.
6. You might need some additional coconut oil to grease your iron. Mine doesn't require it.
7. Make your waffles according to the manufactures instructions. I poured somewhere between 3-4 tablespoons (close to 1/4 cup) of batter into my waffle maker each time.
Mine yielded about 10 waffles. Keep the waffles on a warm plate until you have used all of the batter.