Tuesday, October 6, 2015

DIY Pumpkin Spice Frappacino for Fall

I'm sure everyone has heard of Starbuck's delicious Pumpkin Spice Frappacino they debut every year come Fall. It's deliciously sweet and comforting flavor tantalizes the senses and makes you crave it every October. (As if we didn't have enough pumpkin-flavored things to choose from). As I sipped my long-awaited pumpkin spice frappacino and let the icy concoction send my tastebuds into a frenzy, I unfortunately decided to google the caloric info on my drink.

Holy crap. 

The Pumpkin Spice Frappacino from Starbucks comes in at a whopping 540 calories (144 of those from fat) and a painful 79 grams of sugar (the daily MAX amount of sugar for females is 29g). Now, I'm not the most food-conscious person in the world and certainly know that my morning coffee has sugar in it, but that made me feel like I was getting a little bit too much sugar for my liking.

So I decided to create my own Pumpkin Spice Frappacino for 
less than $1.50 a serving AND with only about 200 calories per serving. 

Here's how I did it:

--1 can of Organic Pumpkin. (NOT pie filler used for baking)
--Milk. (I prefer natural flaxseed milk but you can use any type you like)
--COLD coffee. I make about half a cup of instant coffee the night before and put it in the fridge. The key is the coffee must be cold in the morning or your consistency will be off.
--Pumpkin Spice. You can buy this seasoning in the Spice section. OR if they do not have this specific kind you can combine ground cloves, cinnamon & nutmeg to the same effect.
--Whipped Cream. I prefer the organic kind Sprouts sells but you can use any kind. 


So where do we begin? It's pretty simple really. Start with 1/4 can of pumpkin and put it into a bowl with 1.5 cups of milk and a few dashes of spices. Mix this until it is a nice smooth consistency and then put it in an ice tray and freeze overnight. Make sure to brew your coffee or do instant coffee the night before and put the coffee in the fridge to make sure it is cold in the morning. 

In the morning combine a few of your pumpkin ice cubes with a little coffee (start slow and don't add too much coffee! Remember the drink is supposed to be a nice orange color) and you can add some more seasoning to the blender. Adjust to your tastebuds, top with whipped cream & dash a little bit more pumpkin spice seasoning on top!

Voila! The perfect, cheap and calorie friendly Pumpkin Spice Frappacino!