Pumpkin Spice Post-Workout Recovery Smoothie

Here’s a fall recipe for a delicious and nutritious post-workout recovery smoothie!  It tastes like pumpkin, but is actually made with butternut squash and has an excellent protein-carbohydrate ratio to rebuild your muscles after strength training. Current research is showing that enough protein can also be VERY important for rebuilding bone. I’ll be blogging more about it soon, so be sure to sign up for my newsletter.——————->

It’s not only protein that you need to help your muscles recover after a hard workout, carbohydrates are needed, too. Read more about why you need a combination in the right proportion of both protein and carbs in my Nutrient Timing blog post.

Last week, with a hard frost forecasted for Friday night, I was the very lucky recipient of a bushel of winter squash from a friend’s bountiful garden. We’re eating it at least twice a day to keep up. It’s going into soups, side dishes, and now my smoothies. Vegetables with that gorgeous orange color are loaded with vitamins and beta-carotene, an important anti-oxidant which is also helpful in muscle recovery.

Any winter squash or baking pumpkin will work for this smoothie, steamed or baked. Canned pumpkin will work, too, but if it’s already spiced, you can eliminate the spices in my recipe.

You can use any brand of whey, but as you know, Tera’s Whey, Organic Bourbon Vanilla flavor, is my favorite, by far! (No bourbon included, btw!)

“Pumpkin” Smoothie Recipe

1 Cup 2% Milk

1/2 Cup Cooked Winter Squash or Baking Pumpkin

1  Large Banana, Very Ripe

1 Scoop Tera’s Whey, Organic Bourbon Vanilla Flavor

1/4 t. Cinnamon

1/4 t. Ginger

1/8 t. Nutmeg

1/8 t. Allspice

1/2 to 1+ Cup water, depending on how thirsty you are after your workout.

Makes 3-4 cups. 325 Calories, Protein: 21 g., Carbohydrates: 54 g., making a 1 to 2.5 ratio, which is within the suggested range of 1:2 to 1:4 protein:carb ratio.

This smoothie is for after a workout when you’re thirsty. If you’re not exercising, you might add less water.

Give this smoothie a try and let us know some of your favorite smoothie ingredients!

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Thanks! –Susie