This is one of the healthiest recipes I've ever created. And it's the best tasting pumpkin smoothie I've ever tried. Seriously... if you're a pumpkin lover, you will definitely adore this smoothie. And you'll feel great serving it to your kiddos, too!

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup Silk Coconut Milk (in the dairy/milk section~ carton, not canned)
1/2 cup unsweetened pumpkin puree (canned is fine)
1/2 medium banana, peeled
1 teaspoon pure raw honey
1 teaspoon pumpkin spice blend (I use Shilling)
1/4 cup ice

DIRECTIONS:

1) Pour milk into a blender or Ninja-type blender device/cup. Add pumpkin, banana, honey, and pumpkin spice blend.

2) Pulse for 30 seconds. Remove from blender, shake slightly (to make sure honey is blended), and pulse for 30 seconds more. Add ice, and pulse for 1 minute, or until ice is blended in with pumpkin mix.

3) Serve in a chilled glass with a straw. Enjoy!

*ALTERNATIVES:

1) Replace Coconut Milk with any of the following: Almond milk, rice milk, cows milk, goats milk, soy milk, water.

2) Add additional protein by throwing in 1/4 cup chopped almonds, walnuts, or pecans to the blender in the first step. Pulse for an additional 30 seconds. You can also add 1 tablespoon organic/natural nut butter or Greek yogurt.

3) Try adding additional fruits for sweetness instead of utilizing honey: try 1/2 banana, -or- 1/8 cup pineapple, -or- one 4-ounce container all natural (no sugar added) applesauce, -or- half of a shredded honey crisp apple.

4) If you have any leftover Healthy Pumpkin Smoothie recipe, freeze it in ice cube trays... utilize it in place of the ice the next time you make this recipe!

5) Try adding a little good quality vanilla extract to the recipe for additional flavor.

6) Cranberry is a great flavor booster for pumpkin. For every 1/4 cup fresh or frozen cranberries you add into your pumpkin smoothie, add 1 tablespoon of raw honey. This will eliminate the sourness from the cranberries.

7) Utilizing pure raw honey in recipes is a great way to stabilize blood sugar, and keep away the harmful effects of white/processed/refined sugar, because raw honey is not a "processed" sugar. This is what makes a recipe "clean" or "healthy" by clean eating standards.