Pumpkin Week: Pumpkin Spice Latte

Welcome to day 3 of Pumpkin Week! I hope you've been inspired by the Dinner in a pumpkin or that you're craving some Pumpkin Butter. Before we get to todays recipe, I thought I'd share some pictures of us carving our pumpkin.

Living in an apartment complex, not only do you have a miniscule kitchen, but your husband also doesn't get many opportunities to us his drill and other handy tools. When I suggested we break out the drill for our pumpkin, he was all for it. I took a turn drilling a few wholes but mostly left all that heavy duty man stuff up to my manly husband. Because he looks good wielding that drill.

That's right, we used our drill to create a polka dotted pumpkin! Our scary faces aren't that scary and we didn't have enough skills to make some complicated drawing/carving so instead we made it polka dotted. And I love it. It's fun and doesn't seem out of place now that Halloween is over.

Besides carving pumpkins, one of my favorite Fall things is pumpkin spice lattes from Starbucks. But daily coffees from Starbucks get expensive so I decided to try a homemade version. It was delicious and super cheap. And just so you know, whipped cream makes things so much better.

Pumpkin Spice Latte

Source: Recipe Girl

1/2 cup whole milk

1 tbsp unsweetened canned pumpkin puree

1 tsp packed light brown sugar

1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup hot brewed, strong coffee

2 tbsp half & half cream

1 tsp granulated white sugar, or more to taste

whipped cream, optional but not really cause whipped cream makes everything better

ground nutmeg

In a microwave-safe glass or bowl, whisk together milk, pumpkin, brown sugar, spice, and vanilla. Microwave for 1-2 minutes. Watch closely and remove from microwave when it gets hot and frothy.

Pour the pumpkin milk into a tall mug or glass. Add hot coffee. Pour in the cream and add a teaspoon of sugar. Stir and taste, adding more sugar, if desired.

Top with whipped cream and a sprinkle of nutmeg. Serve immediately. Enjoy!

Creamy Iced Coffee

Neil loves coffee. Well, maybe not so much loves as needs coffee. Every night, I set the coffee machine to go off at 4 in the morning so when he stumbles into the kitchen his little shot of caffeine is waiting to wake him up. I'm not really a coffee person. I love the jolt of caffeine but the coffee taste doesn't do it for me. At least when it's hot. I love a frappuccino though.

Iced coffee is apparently the new thing. Or maybe the new thing is making coffee ice cubes to put into your iced coffee so you don't have to deal with the watery taste of melted ice cubes.

I'm trying to kick my daily coke habit (cola for those who don't know me at all), but I still need caffeine or else I get headaches. I know this isn't much better for me than coke in terms of sugar and calories and what not but I'm hoping it will help me at least not need to drink a can of coke everyday. And then I'll be an iced coffee addict. But at least I won't have to go out to one overpriced coffee place and pay $4.00+ for something I could just make at home!

The recipe below is how I take mine. Feel free to cut back on the amount of milk/sugar if you don't like yours overly sweet!

Creamy Iced Coffee

Source: Allrecipes

1 1/2 quarts brewed coffee, room temperature

1 cup milk

1 cup half and half cream

1/3 cup white sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

In a pitcher, combine cooled coffee, milk, and half and half. Stir in sugar and vanilla extract. Chill in refrigerator until ready to serve. Serve over ice. Enjoy!

Strawberry Banana Smoothie

When my 7 alarms go off in the morning, I usually hit the snooze button for at least 6 of them. Yep you read that right. It takes about 13 alarms to get me out of bed in the morning. And even after I turn that last one off, I usually lay in bed for another 5 minutes telling myself that I'll just count to thirty and then get up. And around 20, I forget where I was and have to start counting. I'm so not a morning person.

So since I'm basically dysfunctional in the mornings, I'm not really a breakfast person. I'll have the occasional bowl of cereal and I love when the hubs makes me bacon and pancakes but I never eat breakfast during the week. But since I'm all about making new goals for myself this week, I decided I was going to eat breakfast every morning, or at least drink it.

Smoothies are so easy to make in the morning, especially since I added almost all the ingredients to a plastic bag and stuck it in the freezer. So all I have to do is empty the bag into the blender, add the milk and honey, and pulse that baby up. That's about as much work as I can handle in the morning.

Strawberry Banana Smoothie

Source: Tyler's Taste Test Original

1 banana

4 strawberries

1/4 cup ice

1/4 cup of vanilla yogurt

1/4 cup milk

honey, to taste (if you like your mornings a little sweeter)

Place all ingredients in a blender and blend :) Enjoy!

For All You Harry Potter Fans... Butterbeer!

I have a confession: I love Harry Potter. Both the hubby and I are addicted and we can't even count how many times we've seen the movies and read the books. We're pretty awesome at Harry Potter Scene It and whenever we move back East, our first vacation will most likely involve a trip to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios. Unfortunately, the hubby is coaching on the range this week so he has to leave for work before 4 in the morning. As much as we love HP, being on the range around loaded pistols and rifles coaching Marines on how to shoot with very little sleep probably wasn't a good idea. So instead we bought our tickets for 7:00 Friday night and I will just have to try to keep myself from going in the morning while hubby is at work!

When I saw a recipe for Frozen Butterbeer, I decided we had to make it before seeing the movie! I don't really drink but I'm going to go out and buy a bottle of butterscotch schnapps just for this recipe!

When the Hogwarts students went into Hogsmeade, butterbeer was their drink of choice. There isn't enough alcohol in it to have an effect on humans but it will make a house elf drunk! In the books, butterbeer is served hot and foaming but the recipe I'll be using is for frozen butterbeer. Enjoy!

Frozen Butterbeer

Recipe from Cook Like a Champion

For the butterbeer:

1.5 cups cream soda

6 tbsp butterscotch schnapps

2 cups ice

For the foamy topping:

6 tbsps heavy cream

1 tbsp butterscotch schnapps

Combine the cream soda, schnapps, and ice in a blender. Blend until slushy. Pour into a glass or mug. In a small bowl combine heavy cream and schnapps. using an electric mixture, whisk together until almost whipped. You want the cream mixture to be slightly loose, not as firm as whipped cream. Top the butterbeer with the foamy topping and serve immediately. Serves 2. Enjoy!

I can't believe this is the last movie (with the exception of the second part). Seeing how much they've changed makes me want to have a Harry Potter Movie Marathon and enjoy a nice tall glass of butterbeer!