Fall Treat - Pumpkin Spice Latte with Honeycrisp Apples and Caramel Yogurt Dip

I found the yummiest fall treat ever! First, brew some coffee (decaf is fine too) and add about 1/4 tsp (or more) of pumpkin spice to your coffee grounds to infuse this wonderful fall flavor into your coffee (without he $4 Starbucks price!)

While that is brewing up and making your kitchen smell warm and heavenly, finely slice up a juicy honeycrisp apple, (think "chips") about 1/8" thickness. Take about 1/2 cup of some 0% Fage Greek yogurt and put into a ramekin or small bowl and add a tsp or more of this awesome Caramel dip I found in the health foods section at Hyvee (Walden Farms also makes some amazing salad dressings, marinades and other items too! See their nutrition page for all their products at a glance - I just noticed they have Alfredo sauce - yay!!) Add a couple drops of vanilla extract, a few dashes of pumpkin spice, mix and taste, add more of any ingredient until it is to your liking.


Add some sugar free french vanilla creamer or sugar free almond milk to your coffee when it's done brewing and sit back to sip on your pumpkin spice latte and crunch on those divine honeycrisp apples, savoring that sweet caramel yogurt dip. All of this with no guilt - you're still under 200 calories : D Super treat!

Monday Morning Blast - aka Cinnabun & Coffee Smoothie

Okay, stay with me, alright? This is going to sound a little unconventional, so just bear with me for a minute.

I always have leftover coffee in the morning that I want to drink, but microwaving it is NOT always my first choice. I think about making a blended iced coffee, but then I feel like I should be blending a smoothie instead. So I just recently found an awesome new secret weapon in my world of making veggie smoothies... an AWESOME whey protein that has nearly no carbs and tastes incredible! ...I think it's better than even the shakes at the health clubs. Today, Hyvee had 10% off the health food section so I bought a bunch of different flavors of NNW 100% Healthy Whey protein powder because I loved the samples I had tried.

(samples- $1.97)

The kids have been LOVING these too. I thought the Cinnamon Bun sounded really good, so I thought I'd experiment.

(medium bags- $12 something)

Here's what you need:


coffee (I'm not sure how much I added, but maybe 12 oz? Cold coffee would be best) (10 cal)
1/2 frozen banana (50 cal)
big handful of kale, maybe 3 leaves, no stems (36 cal)
heaping tsp of flax seed (17 cal)
quick pour of liquid sugar free vanilla creamer (30 cal)
2 Tbs of Cinnamon Bun protein powder (50 cal)
2 splendas
Ice as desired
(less than 200 cal, roughly)

First blend the coffee, powder and flax seeds to pulverize them, there's benefits to this which I'll talk about further, but there are also benefits to eating them whole, so if you don't mind drinking the seeds whole, that's really okay too.
Then add the other ingredients and 6 cubes of ice, then add more ice until it's to your desired thickness.

This tasted like a cinnamon roll flavored coffee frappucino, SO good.

But here's why I really liked it, especially for a Monday...
I really need a super boost on those mornings, so the coffee is a great addition to my smoothie (two birds with one stone) the kale and the flax is an awesome way to sort of detox after a weekend of kids' birthday cakes and eating out for social stuff, which usually makes me feel pretty horrible by Sunday night. The kale is fantastic for digestion and the flax seed is amazing for taking care of your lower system after a rough weekend. (I'm trying to put this gently : ) You know what I mean. I didn't add any fruit besides the banana so the carbs are good and low. I only use 1/2 the serving suggestion on the protein powder package just because I think 1/2 is enough and the stuff is a little pricey, so I want to make it stretch. I saved a bit for my husband and he even liked it. Really, give it a shot, it's good! and really good for you!

New Favorite Site for Recipes

I'm always looking for new smoothie recipes. I stumbled onto this site that has an "app" built into the web (you can also download for your iPhone/iPad here: Visit the App Store

http://greensmoothiesblog.com/recipes/index.php?view_page=categories

You can categorize by recipe, ingredient, or type of recipe by the navigational tools at the bottom. Check out these great webshots:






If you find a great recipe source, please share in the comments below! I would certainly love it if I could find one site that had them all!

Yummy Treat

This is one of our favorite little summer treats right now.

Take 1/2 a banana and slide a popsickle stick into it and then thinly coat it with about 1 Tbs (maybe even a little less) of dark chocolate almond butter. Sprinkle sunflower seeds all over. Wrap lightly with plastic wrap and stick in the freezer for a few hours.




Happy campers!