Paleo Pumpkin Smoothie

One of my favorite smoothies, either for breakfast or recovery, is a pumpkin smoothie.

I don't throw spinach in this one because I think it would turn an ungodly color that I might not be able to get around, but that's OK.

What I did throw into it this weekend was freshly grated ginger!  And I have a secret: if you freeze your ginger, it grates beautifully!  I had a whole "hand" of ginger in the freezer, and it was difficult to cut when frozen, so you might want to cut it into 1-2" manageable chunks before you throw it in there.  I had Bruce cut off a chunk for me, which I peeled with the vegetable peeler, then grated over the blender.  If you've ever grated fresh ginger before, you know it kind of gets stringy and mushes up.  The frozen ginger grates just like sawdust - dry and clean.

Here's my recipe:

• 1 cup water
• 3/4-1 cup pumpkin (I like Libby's organic 100% pure pumpkin - it's inexpensive - stock up at holiday time! - and I can have it around the house year around)
• 1 scoop egg white protein powder
• 1 banana
• 1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
• 1/2-1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• Ice

You want this smoothie to be COLD, so I usually use frozen banana chunks.  I also like it on the spicy side, so you can adjust the ginger/cinnamon amounts to your liking.

And now that I think about it, I may just add spinach to my next one just to see what happens!