peppermint mocha and pumpkin smoothies

Those two things do NOT go together. They are separate.

First, last night I had a pumpkin "smoothie". I walked into the HPC meeting with it, pointed at it and asked fellow Commissioner Heather, "guess what's in it?" She guessed milk, which was one of the ingredients. It also had canned pumpkin, yogurt, peanut butter, cinnamon, nutmeg, a banana and ice cream!

I added the ice cream because our immersion blender doesn't do ice. It barely does anything since the first time I used it the glue holding the blade in the end broke free. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't. But it works for soups and smoothies.

Or milkshakes, whatever this was... smoothshake. Sure, that's what it was, a pumpkin smoothshake.

I found this recipe in a magazine last fall. Since I often make pumpkin bread and I can only find the 24oz. cans of pumpkin (the recipe only calls for a 14oz can), I thought this might be a healthy way to use up the canned pumpkin. Pioneer Woman posted a pumpkin smoothie on her blog just the other day. It's very similar, I plan on trying her version too.

I'm asking Santa for a new blender for Christmas. Preferably one that can blend ice.

The peppermint mocha flavored coffee creamer is now sold year round. I didn't buy any until just last week. I want to keep it special for Christmas. When I was at the store, I realized I would have been stocking up on it in years past by October, so maybe it was time to buy some.

I just cracked it open yesterday. When I had my first sip of coffee, that peppermint flavor made me smile.

My online radio station has it's "Christmas only" option available. That made me smile too. I'm far from ready, but the anticipation is definitely here!