Pumpkin Spice Smoothie

Happy October! In my last post, I mentioned that we’re heading into the season of all things pumpkin. My second post, here, featured pumpkin muffins with white chocolate chips. If you make them, you should know that they come out very sticky and dense. I’m planning on re-working that recipe so stay tuned for that!

The problem with so many pumpkin things (muffins, cake, that ever-popular pumpkin spice latte), is that they are totally loaded up with sugar. This smoothie is an awesome way to get your pumpkin fix without all that nonsense. Being the basic white girl that I am, I like my #PSL as much as the next girl in Hunter boots, but until right now, I’ve never looked up the nutrition info. A Starbucks tall (or medium to the rest of the world) pumpkin spice latte has 380 calories! Seriously! Let’s top that off with a nice big dollop of 14g of fat, and a shot of 50g of sugar just for good measure. We all know that our bodies don’t process liquid calories the same of solid food, so that lovely hot drink is not going to fill you up the same way 380 calories of a sandwich, or salad, or fruit would. So if you need a pumpkin spice latte to feel like it’s fall, have one. But then don’t let it be a thing you drink constantly from now until the New Year. Don’t deprive yourself, but be aware of what you’re consuming!

Pumpkin on it’s own is an awesome food, and another one that I think is pretty underrated. 1 cup of pumpkin has 30 calories, but almost 200% of your daily vitamin A intake. You’ve also got 17% of your daily vitamin C in there to help keep your immune system safe from all those fall sniffles. Make sure when you’re buying canned pumpkin, that it’s pure pumpkin, and not pumpkin pie filling. Pumpkin pie filling already has sugar and spices added to it, but we both know you’re already sweet enough and don’t need that.

This recipe makes 1 serving.

Ingredients:

• 1 small frozen banana (peeled)
• 1/3 cup plain low fat yogurt
• 2/3 cup canned pumpkin puree
• 1 tbsp chopped pecans
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• tiny splash vanilla
• 1 cup almond milk (or whatever milk makes you happy)

1. It’s a smoothie, do you really need instructions?
2. Throw everything in your favourite blender/Magic Bullet/Ninja.
3. Blend until smooth.
4. Pour into a glass and top with pecans if you want to feel like you really have your life together.