Pumpkin pie smoothie

Even though tomorrow is the first official day of fall, it already feels like fall to me. There are so many great things about fall; boots, cool nights, beautiful colors, cozy sweaters, and best of all, the food. This pumpkin smoothie really does taste like pie, and unlike a pumpkin spice latte, it actually has pumpkin in it. It is delicious.

Ingredients:

1/2 an apple, chopped - I left the skin on and it was fine
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1 1/4 cup almond milk - I used unsweetened vanilla
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1 tablespoon instant oatmeal
5-6 ice cubes

Directions:

Place everything but the ice into a blender and puree until smooth. Add the ice cubes and blend until they are completely crushed and it is nice and thick, add more ice if you'd like it a little thicker.

Lemonade by the glass

Lemonade is delicious and the powdered versions don't come close to the real thing. This recipe makes just one glass and uses just one lemon, which makes it really simple to throw together on a hot day. I typically make a huge batch of simple syrup and then store it in the fridge, which means that you can sweeten pretty much anything whenever you want.

Ingredients:

1 lemon, cut in eighths

3 tablespoons simple syrup*

1 1/2 cups cold water

ice

Directions:

Squeeze each section of the lemon into a glass, trying to get as much out of the lemon as possible. Add simple syrup to lemon juice and mix. Top with cold water and ice. Stir to combine. Add more syrup if necessary. 

*simple syrup is made by dissolving equal parts sugar and water together in a sauce pan. Simmer it for about 5 minutes, then allow to cool. 

Sangritzer

This is, by far, my favorite summer drink. I call it sangritzer because it is a cross between sangria and a white wine spritzer. I don't add any additional alcohol to the wine just because I want it to be easy to drink and relatively light, but feel free to booze it up a bit if you want. You can use pretty much any fruit you want for this but make sure you use a fruity, crisp wine.

Ingredients:

6-8 ounces of frozen fruit (I used a mango, pineapple, strawberry mix)
1 bottle of white wine (pinot grigio or sauvignon blanc)
2 liter bottle of sparkling water

Directions:

Cut frozen fruit into small pieces. Add to a large pitcher. Pour bottle of wine over frozen fruit and stir. I like to allow people to add as much or as little water as they'd like so I don't add it to the pitcher. Instead, I just encourage people to pour the fruity wine into a glass and then top each individual serving with sparkling water, this way it stays fizzy as well. I've found that a 50/50 split is a good starting point for most people, but adjust to your liking.

Almond milk

I really hate cow's milk. I just think it is nasty. Almond milk, however, is delicious! The few that I've tried from the store were all sort of thin and watery and some of them were pretty grainy, so I decided to try making my own. Turns out that it is way better. With this recipe you can decide how thick you want it. If you use 2 cups of water the result is something close to 2% milk, 2 1/2 cups is something like 1%, and 3 cups is more like skim milk. I like my almond milk to be more versatile so I don't flavor it, but you could easily add a splash of vanilla. 

Ingredients:

1 cup raw almonds (unsalted with skins on)

2-3 cups water (plus more for soaking)

2 dates, pitted

Directions:

Place almonds in a large bowl and cover with a large amount of water (so that there is an extra inch of water on top of almonds). Soak uncovered overnight. If you aren't making the almond milk right when you wake up in the morning then dump out the water and replace with fresh water. After they are done soaking, drain and rinse the almonds. They should be sorta plump and squishy at this point. Dump the almonds and the two dates into a blender and cover with between 2 and 3 cups of water, depending on your desired thickness of milk. Blend for 2-4 minutes, or until the almonds are completely broken down and the water has turned opaque and white. Strain the mixture through a good, fine strainer (coffee filters work well, a thin kitchen towel works well, cheese cloth was a nightmare though). Lightly press and prod the solids left in the strainer to get more milk out. Let it sit until the solids are pretty dry. Transfer the milk to a glass jar and refrigerate. The solids you have left can be dried in the oven and crumbled into yogurt/cereal/oatmeal/ice cream.

**There is a product called a "nut bag" (hahaha, jokes) that you can buy that apparently strains the solids out perfectly without getting any grit into the milk. That would be great, but why would you buy that when you can use a coffee filter?