Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Greek Yogurt Pumpkin Chia Smoothie

Okay so, first I got intrigued by a couple pins for pumpkin chia pudding and you know the way I made mine was that I got a regular-size can of pumpkin puree, emptied the pumpkin into my mixing bowl, filled the pumpkin can with almond milk, and then measured how much milk that was in a measuring cup. It's 1-3/4 cup, if you want to know. I do not a) make my own pumpkin puree, or b) use partial cans, or c) write recipes with 1-3/4 cup as a measurement. In future, I will be making this with a can of pumpkin puree and a pumpkin can of almond milk; if you make your own organic pumpkin puree, use two cups of pumpkin and two cups of homemade organic almond milk.

2 c or a can of pumpkin puree
2 c or a can of almond milk
2 Tbsp agave,
actually optional
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 c chia seeds

Whisk together the pumpkin, almond milk, agave, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a mixing bowl. Stir in the chia seeds.

Chill for two hours.

DISGUSTING. I always fall for these recipes that are like oh this is just like pudding, but hello I still remember what pudding is!

Which left me with like a quart of pumpkin chia pudding. Made with half a cup of chia seeds, I'm not normally reluctant to pitch a cooking disaster but chia seeds are, like, a dollar each. I'm also not normally reluctant to exaggerate, but they seriously are expensive. What did I have to lose, the next night I whipped some up into a smoothie.

DELICIOUS!

greek yogurt pumpkin chia smoothie

I use the Bella Cucina Rocket Blender to make my smoothies.

Okay so, you mix up your pumpkin chia pudding as above. Probably don't need the agave, you're going to sweeten your smoothie to taste anyway. Put it in a container and into the refrigerator. I suppose you could freeze the pudding in ice cube trays and then you'd have pumpkin cubes, but I actually think you want regular ice cubes to lighten up the smoothie just a bit.

a scant cup of pumpkin chia pudding
a scant cup of greek yogurt
2 ice cubes
almond milk
a squirt of agave or honey or maple syrup or blackstrap molasses
a spoonful of creatine,
optional

I'm saying "a scant cup" because I put in four big spoonfuls of pumpkin and yogurt, and that's just under a cup. That's good, that's a good amount of protein. Add two ice cubes, almond milk to fill the cup, and a squirt of agave. Screw on the cap, stick the cup on the motor base, and blend for 30 seconds. Then take it off the base and give it a little shake to get anything that's stuck on the top of the cup. Blend for another 20 seconds or until the smoothie is churning freely from top to bottom.