Ohhh guys...I'll be honest, making these this morning was pure torture.  I had already pureed my pumpkin last night but I should have mixed the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet ingredients in another bowl last night.  Because here's the thing... I like to eat as soon as I can in the morning.  Sometimes it's okay and I can wait about a half hour or so but generally I like to eat at least a little something right away.  This morning I woke up famished.  As I've mentioned before, I'm training for a marathon (Disney 2013!) and yesterday was my long-run day.  I ran a whopping 12 miles.  The furthest I've ever run on my own (i.e. not in a half marathon with 1000 other people).  So, although I ate enough yesterday, my body still wanted fuel 18 hours later, and sitting there mixing ingredients to make waffles was torture.  Next time, I'll make things the night before so I can go ahead and pop em right in the waffle iron.  I've also been dying to test out my waffle iron that I got months ago on sale at Williams-Sonoma.  It's so shiny!

But on to the waffles... so last week in my produce basket I got a pumpkin.  The possibilities seemed endless.  I pulled out one of my favorite go-to cookbooks, Healthy in a Hurry.  I looked in the index under pumpkin, and saw pumpkin waffles.  It jumped off the page.  There wasn't a picture in the book to get my mouth watering but the ingredients alone had me ready to make these immediately.  

Unfortunately, right away wasn't really an option.  See, I don't do mornings.  Like AT.ALL.  I saw this some-ecard that totally summed up my life... "I'm not a morning person, I'm not a night person either...but I can rock 11:30 am like nobody's business."  That is me.  I do not do mornings at all.  So I knew I would have to wait until the weekend to make these bad-boys.  

The first thing to do was puree the pumpkin.  I followed the Pioneer Woman's directions for this:

So I pureed the pumpkin last night, then mixed the batter this morning.  Below is a picture of the finished batter, and below that is the recipe!

Pumpkin Waffles (adapted slightly from Healthy in a Hurry)
The Elements:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole-wheat flour
2 tablespoons brown sugar
3/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon (this is the best cinnamon ever)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup skim milk
Fresh puree from one small to medium pumpkin
2 large eggs
1/4 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (I recommend this one)
1 tablespoon finely grated orange zest

Procedure:
Mix the dry ingredients in a small bowl (first 5 ingredients)
Mix the wet ingredients in a large bowl (last 6 ingredients)
Now add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients in the large bowl, in parts, and mix just until combined.
Take about 1/2 to 3/4 cup of batter and put in the middle of a waffle iron set on your desired temp. (I would suggest medium to medium-dark because although the outside was crispy, the inside was a nice warm soft pumpkin-y center).  I like to use an offset spatula to spread the batter a bit before closing (see below).  When waffle iron says the waffle is done, check to see if it's to your liking then take out. 

Drizzle with some 100% Pure Maple Syrup... yum!

The Verdict: I just made one and enjoyed that with some delicious syrup.  Then I later made the rest of the batter and individually put each waffle into a ziploc bag to freeze so I could enjoy 1 waffle later during the week without much effort (and no wait time except the toaster!).  These were delicious.  Soft in the middle, crispy on the outside and full of pumpkin goodness.  These screamed fall and were absolutely fantastic.  I will probably make them for the family over Thanksgiving, as they are easy to make and a nice twist on plain waffles!