Pumpkin Pie Milkshake

Happy Thanksgiving!  

I hope everyone enjoyed their time with their families and ate a lot of good food.  I know I sure did!  I was very grateful to be able to spend time with my boyfriend's family this year, since this year we'll be visiting my family for Christmas.  We had A LOT of food, and some amazing desserts.  Turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, traditional stuffing, rice stuffing, cranberry-blackberry sauce, and coleslaw were some of the dishes we enjoyed, along with plenty of pies--chocolate, pumpkin, and cherry pie!  We also had some amazing appetizers, such as warm brie with honey, nuts, and cranberries, bruschetta, and a variety of cheese and crackers.  Whatever you ended up eating for Thanksgiving, I hope you ended up full and satisfied, and remembered to give thanks to those things that we are very fortunate to have.  

If you are anything like me, you may have been doing a lot of pumpkin baking lately.  We've had a few different types of pumpkin recipes posted here during the last couple of months.  However, after baking so many pumpkin treats, I found myself stuck with a bit of leftover pumpkin.  I hate to waste perfectly good food, so if you have any leftover pumpkin sitting in your fridge, use it the same way I did and make a pumpkin pie milkshake!

I have to admit, I love pumpkin pie but I've always been skeptical of milkshake flavors that seem to stray from the norm.  Strawberry, vanilla and chocolate varieties are usually the only types of milkshakes I'm used to, but since I needed to use up my leftover pumpkin I decided to give this recipe a go.  I found this recipe on several blogs, but my first discovery of this recipe was from Our Best Bites.  

Ingredients:  milk, pumpkin, brown sugar, vanilla, ground cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla ice cream, and graham crackers.

Please believe me when I say this milkshake is amazing.  REALLY amazing!  I was never expecting to love it as much as I did, but I think this took my love of pumpkin pie to a whole new level.  The vanilla ice cream really adds to the pumpkin flavor, and I was pleased with the fact that this recipe calls for the individual spices, rather than "pumpkin pie spice," like I've seen in other pumpkin milkshake recipes (because who has pumpkin pie spice in their spice cabinet?  You use it only once or twice a year and then sits in your cabinet untouched.  I think its much better to just make your own, as needed).  

Most of the ingredients are things you should have on hand...just pick up a pint of vanilla ice cream and graham crackers if you don't have them, and you're set!  It's so simple and worthwhile to pull out the blender to make this milkshake.  It's a cold treat you won't want to pass up!

Pumpkin Pie Milkshake

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Recipe from Our Best Bites

Yield:  one LARGE milkshake (or two small ones)

Ingredients:

1/3 cup canned pumpkin

1/2 cup milk

1/4 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/16 tsp cloves (or about one pinch)

1/16 tsp nutmeg (one pinch)

2 Tbsp brown sugar

2 cups vanilla ice cream

1 graham cracker

Directions:

Pour everything but the graham cracker in a blender.  Blend until thoroughly mixed (you may have to stir it around a bit with a spoon as you blend like I did.  Some blenders may not blend well because of the thickness of the ice cream).  Pour into a large glass and sprinkle with crushed graham cracker.  Enjoy!