Pumpkin Waffles w/ more protein

A few weeks ago, we started reading the If You Give A... series by Laura Numeroff.  Mr A really took a liking to them and so I began telling him If You Give Mr A a Waffle stories.  So of course, Mr A wanted waffles, and being the sucker mom that I am, I made him regular 'ole buttermilk waffles.  Just regular AP flour, no carrots or pumpkin.  In addition, I served them to Mr A with a little bit of maple syrup on top, just like the book. But then lo' and behold, I start reading about preschoolers and breakfast and how a regular waffle with maple syrup ends up being just like spoonfuls of sugar in their bodies after a couple hours.  All the carbs are quickly broken down into glucose and kids burn and crash quickly.

That's when I realized I needed to add some protein into Mr A's breakfast.  Unfortunately, the recommendation is to just add an egg or peanut butter into your child's breakfast.  Well, we can't do that because Mr A is allergic to egg and peanut butter!  He's not a big meat eater either so I didn't see sausage or ham as a true possibility.

This got me thinking about a waffle recipe that was contributed to my class recipe book last year.  The mom said she played around with the recipe to get a freezer stable, high protein waffle to feed her family in the mornings.  When I saw she put in tofu, I was kind of appalled.  I've had a lot of tofu in my life.  I'm a big fan but using it in baking - that just seemed wrong.  However, I've seen tofu as an egg substitute and a yogurt / dairy substitute.  So it did make some sense that you could toss in half a brick of tofu into waffle batter and it wouldn't be too noticeable.  The taste reminds me a little of unsweetened soy milk.  There's a subtle soy taste, but it's not over powering.  I was pleasantly surprised.

Since my first experiment with waffles using tofu, I've tried adding a half brick of tofu to a few of my favorite breakfast recipes-- carrot-spiced waffles and pumpkin muffins.  Add a half brick of smashed or pureed silken tofu and it works.  The waffles and muffins are a little denser but the tofu almost melts in when you bake the batter.  There aren't any chunks in the waffles or muffins when you bite into them.  I keep the whole wheat to AP ratio about 1:1 and I don't serve the with honey or maple syrup, unless it's the weekend and there's no school.