What did you have for breakfast? Was it cold, crunchy, and boring? Was it full of empty calories that will likely leave you with a hunger raged belly by 9:47 AM? You know, it doesn’t have to be that way…

Almost six years ago (Gasp! Have I been in the working world for that long!?), my co-worker, Onna, introduced me to pumpkin in lieu of eggs/oil when baking with cake mix. It was an instantaneous lazy love relationship, me and pumpkin.

And then, along with many of my other kitchen crushes, this staple came to a close when I assumed the role of a mostly gluten-free baker. Not. Cool. It was a tough break-up.

But tonight, when I discovered this gluten-free cake mix (on sale), it was as if no time had passed. We even decided to spice things up a bit by adding flaxseed to the mix, which created a chocolatey, 215 calorie breakfast bar with 4.5 grams of fiber and 3.5 grams of protein per serving. Heck! Eat two!

Mix one box of cake mix (preferably gluten-free) with one can of pumpkin and 3/4 cup of ground flaxseed. Follow the mix instructions, realizing that it may only take half the time to cook, and enjoy! Orrrr…. prepare half of the mix and freeze the rest like me. I’ve never frozen batter before, but I’m hoping it prevents me from consuming 10 servings in an unfortunate, but typical, 36 hours.

I was hoping these would be as dessert like as the gluten-filled, non-flax version, but they weren’t. However, as far as breakfast is concerned, they’re the perfect amount of slightly sweet.