Hi all. My hubby came home one day last week with a pumpkin spice latte from McDonalds and was raving about it. It smelled really good but I don't like coffee so that got me thinking about trying to come up with a pumpkin Protein shake. I've been playing around with it for about a week and have finally found just the right pumpkin pie taste, and it's quite good if I do say so myself. I thought I'd share the recipe with my fellow sleevers.

Add to blender:

1 cup (8oz) skim milk

1 scoop vanilla protein powder, I use unjury

3 tablespoons canned solid pack pumpkin (NOT pumpkin pie mix)

pumpkin pie spice to taste

Blend well on high for a minute or two.

Add:

2 teaspoons Jello instant sugar free vanilla pudding mix----this helps to thicken the mixture and makes it a more shake-

like consistency.

Blend on high for another minute or two, pour and ENJOY! Makes about 12 oz once fully blended.

I actually drink my shake in the morning on the way to work but I mix the first 4 ingredients in the blender as directed the night before, refrigerate overnight, and then in the morning I add in the pudding mix, blend for a minute or two, and off I go. And this recipe is easily tweaked to suit your own taste buds----you could use a different type of milk, fresh pumpkin puree instead of canned, more or less pumpkin pie spice (or different spices altogether), other additions, etc. During my experimental trials I made a couple shakes with Torani sugar free Pumpkin Pie syrup added to the recipe and that was good too. Just play around with the recipe until you come up with what tastes great to you.

Love it, wish someone would send me some packed pumpkin in a care package so I could try this right now!! I wonder if a more natural thickener than Jell-O would work, like tapioca powder ... and for those of you out there who are jonesing for a Starbuck's Pumpkin Spice Latte, here is a much healthier version (there is no actual pumpkin anywhere near their latte) ...

http://www.foodiefiasco.com/?s=pumpkin

This recipe sounds heavenly!! I'm all pumpkin at the moment.. Tomorrow I'm baking a GF pumpkin cake thing... It's got coconut flour and tapioca starch.. Sweetened with honey!! Anyway family want to give it go... This protein shake is next on the make/bake list for sure!!