Healthy Pumpkin Cheesecake Waffles (gluten free!) for National Pumpkin Cheesecake Day!

It’s time for another GREATIST recipe contribution!

I’m so thrilled that I get to be an official recipe contributor to such an awesome health focused blog! Who doesn’t love Greatist?!

This time, my challenge was to create a healthified pumpkin cheesecake for National Pumpkin Cheesecake Day… TODAY, October 21st! I decided to step out of the box a tad and make up a recipe that wouldn’t necessarily be for dessert… but for a perfect Fall/Thanksgiving inspired Brunch that embodied the delicious flavors of Pumpkin Cheesecake!

So… what did I come up with?

Why these super amazing, incredibly moist, delicious and sweet, Healthy Pumpkin Cheesecake Waffles… oh, and they’re gluten free too!

If you are feeling let down because you don’t have a waffle iron at home, don’t fret! You can EASILY use this batter for pancakes too!!

The waffles are nice though because they make perfect little pockets for the cheesecake drizzle!

The waffles themselves are a mix of healthy, whole grain oats, (use gluten free if needed!), pure pumpkin puree, a big sprinkling of cinnamon, and a nice dose of pumpkin pie spice!

I used stevia as my sweetener of choice, and right now I’m loving the Sweet Leaf brand, as they do not add saccharin, aspartame, refined sugar, maltodextrin, fructose or artificial sweeteners, and it is simply made from purified extracts of the stevia leaf!

If you aren’t a stevia fan, you can use pure honey or another unrefined sugar in it’s place! 🙂

The waffles are moist, and dense, but not too heavy… just right! And the pumpkin flavor shines through!

For the cheesecake drizzle, I simply combined light cream cheese with pure honey!

The perfect drizzle for that classic cheesecake taste!

We had Thanksgiving here in Canada already, and these made perfect use of the plethora of pumpkin puree I have strewn around my kitchen!

For those of you who are South of the border and celebrate Thanksgiving in November, keep this recipe in mind as a perfect Thanksgiving Day brunch!

And for those of you who don’t have Thanksgiving as a holiday where you live – just call it an any-day Fall/Autumn brunch, or lunch, or dinner, or snack, or ANYTIME meal!