Wanna-Be Pumpkin Pie Smoothie that is bland as hell

Tried another new recipe last night. A few days ago I had looked at Arbonne's "30 days feeling fit" guide and they had some smoothie recipes in there. I was trying to remember one of them last night when I made a 2nd smoothie for the day, but I was lacking some ingredients. The recipe calls for vanilla yogurt, which I didn't have. But then I remembered the guide saying to avoid dairy, and isn't yogurt dairy? So I figured maybe it was best I didn't have the yogurt anyway? I don't know.

Wanna-Be Pumpkin Pie Smoothie that is bland as hell

Ingredients:
1/2 cup water
Arbonne vanilla protein powder packet
1/2 cup Coconut milk
1 teaspoon bee pollen
1 1/2-2 tablespoons honey
2 handfuls of spinach
dash of vanilla
1/3 can of pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling, just pumpkin)
like a teaspoon or more of cinnamon
generous sprinkling of nutmeg

I blended all of this together in hopes it would taste like pumpkin pie.... but not quite. It wasn't terrible, just... bland. Oh, and kind of warm, since the only cold items were the liquids and spinach.

I was sipping it and kept adding more cinnamon and nutmeg, then tried to imagine I was actually eating pumpkin pie, or maybe just a pumpkin spice drink from any number of coffee places. I tried to think what would make my drink taste more like those, and it hit me: Sugar. Lots of it. It seemed counter productive to add sugar to something that is supposed to be healthy though. I was sort of generous with the honey, but that wasn't enough. If I had had the yummy vanilla greek yogurt that I usually keep around OR some vanilla ice cream, I think this drink would have been AMAZING.

But what do vanilla yogurt and ice cream have in them that my smoothie didn't have? ...Sweeteners. I'm not sure why I was so against putting some sweetener into my smoothie, yet if I had put the yogurt in there that would already contain some sort of sweetener, I would have been okay with it.

Maybe part of it is just avoiding the habit of adding sugar to things.

Creamy Pumpkin Soup

I took 3 or 4 different recipes for Pumpkin Soup and added/adjusted things from each until it tasted how we wanted. We've made several batches of pumpkin soup with small changes here and there, and the following is how we've gotten it to taste best.

The first time I made this soup, I actually bought a pumpkin from the store, cut it in half, scooped out the insides (and of course roasted the seeds with some salt as a snack, RIDICULOUSLY YUMMY), cooked the pumpkin in the oven for a couple of hours, then peeled the skin off and pureed it.... Um, www.sonotworththetrouble.org . Seriously, you may think doing every. little. thing. from scratch like that will make you some kind of domestic goddess....
Man, just buy the pureed pumpkin in a can!!!

Creamy Pumpkin Soup
This recipe serves 4 people.

Ingredients:
29 Ounces Canned Pumpkin (unspiced*)
14.5 Ounches Vegetable Broth (or Chicken Broth)
1/2 Cup Water
1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
1 Teaspoon Nutmeg
Dash Cinnamon
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
1/8 Teaspoon White Pepper
1 Pint Half & Half
Pine Nuts, if desired

*seriously. UNSPICED.
I accidentally got the spiced kind one time, and thought I could get away with omitting the cinnamon/nutmeg etc. from the recipe and it would be fine... it was GROSS.

Cook:
In a large saucepan, combine all the ingredients except half & half. Mix well.
Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring frequently.

Reduce the heat to low and stir in half of the half & half until well blended.

Cover and simmer until heated through.

Serve immediately with the remaining half & half on the table, for people to add to the soup as they wish. Pine nuts (toasted in the oven if you like) can be sprinkled in a small pile on top of the soup as a garnish.

Prep time: 5 minutes. Cook time: 20-25 minutes. Ready in about 30 minutes.