Sweet Potato Waffles

Happy Monday! Are you off for Victoria Day today? Woot woot to all you fellow Canadians who are putting your feet up and enjoying the day off! I just LOVE long weekends. I get an extra bonus because next weekend I am flying down to see my family for Memorial Day, so I get two long, special weekends in a row!

I am happy to say that I seem to have left my funky mood in the dust. Yesterday I spent a lot of time outside enjoying the gorgeous Ontario weather and today we still have sunshine (for now). It's calling for storms later today, so I'm enjoying the nice weather at the moment and have all my windows cranked open to air out the house. I am planning to go through my closets and get some stuff ready to donate to Goodwill. This is housekeeping chore that I don't like to do and if you could peek into my closet you would see that I haven't done it in way too long! I expect that I'm not going to be happy with the fit of some of my clothes, but instead of being all gloomy and depressed, I'm going to use today as my inspiration for dropping the 10lbs I gained  over the winter.

The dogs didn't get the memo that today was a holiday and they were up bright and early wanting to get up and get their day started. I pretended to be asleep for a bit, but eventually caved and got up with them. Since I had all morning to relax and be leisurely, I decided to try my hand at a new recipe I've been wanting to make for quite some time. Sweet potato waffles. Do I have any sweet potato casserole fans in the house?? If you like sweet potato casserole, you are going to love my spin on waffles. I have to warn you that this takes a bit of time to put together and definitely is a recipe for a leisurely Sunday. This recipe made 8 waffles, so I froze 4 that can be pulled out and toasted for a weekday breakie.

Sweet Potato Waffles

Recipe adapted from the Whole Grain Gourmet

Makes 8 waffles (this will depend on your waffle maker of course!)

This is a super yummy recipe for a lazy Sunday morning. It uses whole wheat flour and just 1/4 of brown sugar. The flavour of the sweet potato paired with some crunchy pecan pieces puts this recipe over the edge to pure decadence!

1 1/2 c. whole wheat flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 1/3 c. almond milk (any type of milk would work)

3/4 c. sweet potato, mashed

1/4 c. brown sugar

3 tbsp Earth Balance (or butter), melted

3 eggs (yokes and egg whites separated)

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/3 c. pecans, chopped (optional)

Preheat and oil your waffle iron according to its directions.

Combine your dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Stir until well combined.

In a medium bowl, mix together the almond milk, sweet potato, brown sugar, melted Earth Balance, egg yokes and vanilla. Set aside.

In a small bowl, beat the egg whites using an electric mixer until they form stiff white peaks.

Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.

Fold in the egg whites and pecans.

The batter seemed way too thick to me at first,

but the egg whites did add more liquid than I was expecting!

Pour the batter into the waffle iron and cook according to your iron's directions.

VOILA!

Wholesome and delicious waffles.

Serve your waffles with your favourite toppings. I used Earth balance, maple syrup and a sprinkling of more pecans. The original recipe suggested Honey Vanilla Whipped Cream, which sounds amazing, but was not something I wanted in my house to tempt me!

We also had a side of banana chunks drizzled with syrup & pecans! It was AMAZING!!

What is your favourite breakie on a leisurely day off?

Are you off today? If you are, what are you up to?

Enjoy your day!

Andrea