Healthy Pumpkin Almond Milk Latte

Does the advent of Labor Day usher in pumpkin season?  Judging by the fact that three grocery stores we visited were out of pumpkin, I think I might be behind the eight ball already.

DF Evon finally found some when she was out and picked up a couple of cans for me so I could try some recipes that have been on my radar.

I was inspired by the chalk drawing at my local Starbucks, “Happy Pumpkin Spice Season.”  They have a seriously good artist at that store.

Fancy drinks are something I very rarely get but I thought if I made something at home, I would know what ingredients were in it and how many calories my morning drink was adding to my day.

A YouTube and blog site, Clean & Delicious, showed an easy and good-looking video for Pumpkin Spice Latte.  Several recipes I looked at called for an espresso machine or other things I don’t have. But this recipe just calls for 1/2 cup of strong coffee. Nothing more special than a saucepan and a blender.

You know, I’m always about using ingredients and equipment I have on hand.  So the lack of pumpkin availability threw me for a bit of a loop.  And I’m hesitant to share a recipe knowing you might have trouble finding an ingredient. But I want to share the season, for heaven’s sake.

Sharing and recommending, but not saying this is the best thing I have ever had.  Maybe because it’s still hot summer here?  Not breaking out sweaters and boots any time soon.  Still white jeans season for me. But I totally got hooked into the pumpkin deal.

Coffee with cream is my usual morning treat.  No sugar, no ice, no fancy syrup.  Maybe a sprinkle of cinnamon.  But this recipe calls for 2 teaspoons of maple syrup.  I tried to leave that ingredient out, but it didn’t work and I had to add it in.

I also had a bit of a mess with the blender.  Putting hot ingredients in the blender is always a risk for an explosion, so I’m usually really careful and put small amounts of liquid in.  Not sure where I went wrong with this.

Oh, well, it was an excellent opportunity to clean the cream-colored runner and mop the floor.  Nothing like pumpkin sprayed everywhere at 7 in the morning, right?

It turned out to be a pretty drink and I might make it again soon, but I won’t be going out of my way to find pumpkin for a coffee again.

Patio and Back Yard

Our area has had near-record-breaking rain this year.  It’s the nicest summer we’ve spent here in terms of temperatures, but lots of humidity and lots of mosquitos.  Whoo.  It turns out it’s easier to spend time on the patio and in the hot tub when not being dive-bombed by blood suckers.

But.  The living room is a huge wall of windows overlooking the patio and yard, and every time I entered that room I saw a mess out there.

So.  I got out my patio cleaning gear and sprayed myself down with Off.  Everything got (another) good bath.  It seems like I have spent the entire summer cleaning rain and dirt off furniture.

Now there is more shade, I moved furniture and plants around and everything is roomier now.

Hub has been working on touching up the powder coated furniture.  He stripped the covers off two of the seat covers and put them through the washer.  They turned out much better than hosing and scrubbing. 

The furniture looks fine and it will make it through the winter, but sooner or later we’re looking at completely replacing those cushions and cha ching, I know that’s going to be a big expense.

Mexican Bird of Paradise

We have several shrubs in our yard known locally as Mexican Birds.  They are pretty and hardy and don’t mind dry heat.  But apparently they love the rain.  Huge and lush this year. And butterflies!  This particular bush has probably 100 butterflies in it every day.  Beautiful.  Like magic.  Almost worth putting up with mosquitos.  Nah.  Not really.

I tried to get an up-close picture of some of the butterflies, but it didn’t really turn out.  And, I couldn’t really tell what they were doing.  Umm, this isn’t a porn blog.

Thanks for sharing a tiny bit of my uneventful week.  I wanted to talk about books, but I guess I really wanted to talk about pumpkin latte.

Until next time, happy trails.