Pumpkin Smash Smoothie

By Lindsey Riley (The Crafting-Challenged Blogger)

October is just a few short days away, and that means popular fall entrees and goodies are becoming available at various restaurants and coffee shops. Like Mallory mentioned earlier this week, pumpkin flavored snacks and drinks have already made their way onto menus and have caused a war of pumpkins.

Photo: Property of Jamba Juice

There's still one contender waiting to join this battle. Next week, Jamba Juice is bringing their Pumpkin Smash smoothie back to the menu for a limited time. For those who have no idea what this is: Imagine taking a pumpkin pie and throwing it into a blender until it was in liquid form.

Personally, I am beyond excited to drink pumpkin pie from a Jamba cup but if it weren't for my campus meal plan, I wouldn't be able to afford to drink this smoothie a few times a week. Also, while Jamba Juice is healthier than some drinks, there's still quite a bit of sugar mixed with those vitamins.

So how can we be friendly to our health and wallet and still consume this wonderful fall beverage? Well, we can make it ourselves of course! I found us a good recipe through Skinny Kitchen with Nancy Fox. This is a Weight Watchers friendly recipe (only worth four points), and it has half of the calories and sugar that the Jamba drink has.

All we need is:

• A blender
• 2 cups fat-free vanilla frozen yogurt
•  ½ cup canned pumpkin
• 1 cup light vanilla soy milk or reduced-fat milk
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• ½ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 cups ice

Now what?

• Add all of the ingredients into the blender. Blend on high until smooth. This should only take you five minutes, if that, to create.
• Consume beverage with a smile!

I am better at cooking than crafting, but I still like these quick and easy recipes. I felt like this drink tasted the exact same as Jamba's but for the sake of tradition, I'll probably end up in line at Jamba to get one of their own.

And now that you have an easy recipe to follow, you can make this drink all year long! #winning <- ;D

Let us know what you think of this recipe!