It's pumpkin day.

Today I woke up feeling like I wanted a real breakfast - something other than a smoothie. So, I dug around in the cupboards and found enough ingredients to make pumpkin waffles. They were delicious! And, since I'm currently fasting and not eating anything refined, or meat, or dairy, I tried to come up with something basically vegan. Here's what I came up with:

1/2 cup pureed pumpkin
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 cup turbinado sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder (raw cane sugar)
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (I made my own from grinding nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon)
1 teaspoon grated orange peel
2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh ginger
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup applesauce
3/4 cup plain almond milk

Combine the pumpkin with the dry ingredients. Mix water, oil, and milk and add to pumpkin mixture. Beat just until smooth. Heat waffle iron and oil lightly. Use about 1/4-cup of batter for each waffle; cook until steam appears. I served them with just plain applesauce on top. Delicious!

And... to top it off, I STILL had extra pumpkin to use up, so I dug out my mom's recipe for pumpkin bars. I modified it to work for me and I ended up with a house that smelled of pumpkin pie!

Pumpkin Bars

Mix together:

• 4 eggs (yes, I used the eggs)
• 1 cup turbinado sugar
• 1 cup cane sugar
• 1 cup applesauce
• 15 oz. (or so) of pureed pumpkin.

Add to that:

• 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 3 tsp. cinnamon
• 3 tsp. pumpkin pie spice (I made my own - see above)
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. sea salt
• 1/2 tsp. fresh ground ginger

Mix all ingredients well. Pur into a large bar pan (with sides) and bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes. Frost with cream cheese frosting when cooled.