Easy Pumpkin Waffles

**I'm interrupting my St. Lucia posts with a quick recipe post.  I just couldn't help myself from writing a food post after taking such a long break from the blog!**  

Happy first day of fall!  The morning air is starting to have a has a nice crisp to it, leaves are falling, and other Fall-y things are starting to happen.  Pumpkin spice and salted caramel mocha lattes at Starbucks and fall decorations sprouting up everywhere are enough to get me in the Fall spirit!  My friend Clare and I are absolutely in love with the salted caramel mocha.  If you haven't tried one yet...you need to...now.

If you didn't already know this about me, I absolutely love anything pumpkin flavored.  Last weekend, I woke up craving waffles.  But then I thought about how it was almost Fall so it would be completely appropriate to make pumpkin waffles!  I got so excited just at the thought of these that I dusted off my barely used Belgian waffle maker and got to work. 

I had a box of hungry jack buttermilk pancake mix, but you could also use Bisquick, or any other pancake mix.  I needed this to be quick and easy since I don’t like recipes with a lot of ingredients and I was hungry and ready to have me some waffles!  
 

I found this recipe online and it was perfect.  All you need is:

                

• 2 cups pancake mix
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup canned pumpkin 
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Mix all the ingredients together until there are no lumps.  Turn on your waffle maker and spray generously with non-stick spray.

 

all the ingredients ready to mix

pumpkin waffle batter

I dropped about 1/3 cup of the mixture into my waffle iron, but the amounts may vary based on the size of the waffle maker you have.  The waffles took only 3 minutes or so to cook.  Once most of the steam was gone, I knew the waffles were pretty much done.  The end result are delicious waffles with a hint of pumpkin flavor.  They weren't overpowering at all.  I just had them with butter and syrup but I'm sure they would be great with pecans, cinnamon sugar, or brown sugar. 

breakfast is served

my waffle assembly line

pumpkin waffles

Enjoy!

Weekend in Review

I had a blast this weekend.  Having Monday off from work helped too! 

Friday night my parents came into town.  I made some cinnamon crumb cake before their arrival.  I used a mix from Trader Joes and it came out great!

Saturday morning we took it easy, drinking some coffee and catching up on some TV.  I introduced my mom to Pioneer woman.  It was splendid.  We spent most of the day in our PJs.

Lounging with Winston and Penelope

My parents gave us some suggestions on vacation spots, so we were looking into that for a bit.  They were not too keen on the Mexico idea, due to all the violence that’s been happening over there in the past year.  I don’t think going to an all inclusive resort that shuttles you to and from the airport is too dangerous, but now we are looking at some other places to see if we can still find a place in our budget and calm their nerves.

My dad made Caipirinhas – a traditional Brazilian drink, made with cachaça (sugar cane rum), lime juice, and sugar.  Mine was STRONG!

Then we headed over to Guapos in Bethesda and stuffed ourselves silly.  Look at all that food!

We went home, started a fire in the fireplace, and watched Moneyball, which was actually very good.  I would recommend it.  I’m not big into sports movies but I really enjoyed this one.  Brad Pitt looked pretty good in it too ;-)

Sunday Morning we had some breakfast and then my parent’s headed back to New York.  It was such a quick trip!  But it was really nice having them visit.  Although they were leaving, the weekend wasn’t over yet!  

Brian and I headed out to a Caps game Sunday night, which was exciting since I’d never been to a game before!  It was a lot of fun…especially because we won!  I would definitely go to another caps game again, although it can get a little pricey.  Our tickets were $40 each, and we ended up spending over $60 in drinks and food while we were there.  But every once in a while it’s a fun thing to do.

After the game we met up with our friends Chas and Liz, and headed over to Duffys in the U Street area for some of their famous wings and tater tots.  It was exactly what I was craving after the game.  And it was nice to catch up with them too!

I hope you all had a great weekend too!