Mama's NINJA and Pumpkin Pie Smoothies

Woot.com is a very visited website in our house. My dear husband checks it every morning and we've scored some really awesome stuff! Well, luckily for this mama the other day they featured a Ninja blender and I knew we just HAD to get it. Our blender recently died and we had to send it to it's grave a little earlier than we intended, so we'd been searching for our next little gadget to take it's place. As soon as the order button was pushed I had visions of smoothies, soups, dips, and shakes dancing in my head and the timer was ticking until these visions became a reality. Everyday I bugged Micah "Babe, where's my Ninja?" or "So, has the Ninja shipped?" and "Goodmorningbabewhere'sNinja?". So after a week I'd say he was also ready for the damn Ninja to be here as well. And looky what came on Saturday!!!!!

Ninja...I love you...

After I ripped the box open like a kid on Christmas morning I plugged it in and was ready to press that beautiful pulse button. When I did, nothing happened. Nothing. The red power button blinked at me, taunting me with it's devious little red glow as if to say "Haha little Ninja no likey you!" I ran to my phone to text Micah that the stupid thing didn't work and now I would be doomed to live off of water and applesauce for the next week(Mama was being a bit dramatic about her wisdom teeth surgery coming up Thursday..yikes!). Micah came home from school that evening and sure enough he made it work. Silly me didn't have the arrows on the lid lined up..face in palm moment right there. My knight in shining armor saved me from my nightmares of no delicious frozen treats and Mama was happy again!

I posted a recipe on my Facebook a couple of weeks ago from peasandthankyou.com, and I announced that as soon as my beloved blender arrived that would be the first thing I made. Well, I lied. Calm down, it's not like  I meant to people I just didn't have the necessary pumpkin puree, so instead we whipped up a random smoothie with what we had sitting around the house. Let me just say, that little Ninja kicks ass!!!! But don't worry I didn't forget the pumpkin pie smoothies! We went out that night to get all we needed to blend up a delicious fall treat! Here it is!!

Pumpkin Pie Smoothie (makes 1 smoothie)

• 1 c. canned pumpkin, frozen into cubes
• 1 c. non-dairy or organic milk
• 2-4 ice cubes
• 1/2 t. vanilla extract
• 3/4 t. cinnamon
• 1/4 t. nutmeg
• 1/2 t. pumpkin pie spice
• 1/4 t. garam masala (optional)
• 1/4 t. salt
• 1/2 t. xanthan gum (optional, for thickening)
• stevia or sweetener of choice to taste
• 1 graham cracker, crumbled
• 2-3 T. non-dairy or organic whipped topping (i.e. TruWhip, Soyatoo or Rice Whip)

I'm not one to strictly follow a recipe so I just add a little more of this and that, so please feel free to do what you feel!! 

First you want to freeze your pumpkin in ice cube trays for a couple hours prior to creating this delicious delicacy.

In your blender, combine the pumpkin cubes, milk, ice, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, pumpkin pie spice, garam masala, salt and xanthan gum. Now I omitted the pumpkin pie spice, garam masala, and xanthan gum simply because I didn't have them on hand. I also didn't add the salt because I simply forgot, and we didn't notice so no sweat if you don't add those ingredients either! In our vegan house we like our super foods, so I added about 3 tablespoons of chia seeds and 2 tablespoons of nutritional yeast!!! The picture shows both soy and almond milk, because I only had a tad of soy so I used almond milk to make up for that! 

DUN DUN DA DUH...SUPER FOODS!!!

Blend until you get a nice creamy and thick smoothie, and then pour your refreshment into a nice glass! Or a crappy glass I don't care. I also skipped the step of adding the whipped topping and grahams crackers, to be honest, because I was too lazy and impatient to go to the Raisin Rack that night to find vegan whipped cream. But, when I do get my lazy behind over there trust me I will be getting some vegan whipped cream because these smoothies NEED to be made more than just once! If you decide to add the whipped cream, crumble some crackers on top, add a dash of pumpkin pie spice and ENJOY!!!

Admit it, you love the Tabasco cups:)