Date Night: Reading in Bed + Homemade Pumpkin Spice Lattes

Date Nights, Life in Love  //  

For weeks we had it marked on our calendar.  It read “Pool Day!”  With summer quickly coming to an end we wanted to spend one more day enjoying summer while sitting at the pool, catching up on some of our favorite magazines, and holding each other tight. It was supposed to be a lazy date day before heading into a few of our busiest weeks yet this year. Well, apparently mother nature doesn’t follow our calendar and instead of sunshine and warm weather, it decided to rain. In protest, Liz put on her Sperry rain boots and went outside anyway.

So instead of our planned date night, we decided to embrace fall and the rainy weather, enjoy Pumpkin Spice Lattes, and cuddle up close while reading in bed.  Normally, we would walk down to Starbucks to get 2 grande Pumpkin Spice Lattes (we are pretty much BFFs with the staff now), but this time we decided to skip the walk and make our own.  The $10 we saved we donated to Thirst Relief International as part of our Liz and Ryan Mission Fundraiser.  Check out our post from earlier this morning to learn more!

So you may be thinking making your own Pumpkin Spice Latte is CRAZY!!! But in fact, it is really quite simple.  Because it is almost the fall and we love anything pumpkin we actually had a left over can of pumpkin in our cabinet.  Everything else needed were simple ingredients you probably already have at home too.  So enjoy the instructions below on how to create your very own Pumpkin Spice Lattes to drink while cuddling in bed with a good read!

INGREDIENTS:

    • 2 C Milk (We used whole, but 2%, skim, soy or almond should also work)
    • 1 C extra strong coffee (or espresso if you have it)
    • 3 or 4 tbsp canned or fresh pumpkin
    • 2 tbsp sugar
    • 1 tbsp vanilla
    • 1 tsp cinnamon plus extra to sprinkle on top
    • 1/2 tsp nutmeg plus extra to sprinkle on top
    • Whip Cream

If you happen to have Pumpkin Spice seasoning, you may substitute it for the cinnamon and nutmeg.

INSTRUCTIONS:
Step 1: Measure out two cups of milk and pour into a small sauce pan.  

Step 2: Add pumpkin, and sugar to milk and heat over medium high heat.  Whisk thoroughly  to combine ingredients.

Step 3: Prepare your coffee/espresso.

Step 4: Once the pumpkin milk mixture begins to steam, reduce heat to low, add vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg.  Stir with whisk over low heat for 15 – 30 seconds.

Step 5: Pour pumpkin milk mixture into two coffee cups.  We transferred the mixture to a glass measuring cup with spout for easy pouring first.

Step 6: Add coffee/espresso, approximately 1/2 C each.

Step 7: Top with whip cream and sprinkle on cinnamon and nutmeg

That’s it!  Super simple!  We just so happened to have some left over pumpkin bread from our AMAZING friends Lauren and John to pair with our lattes. It definitely made for a super tasty treat.

Liz grabbed one of her favorite magazines, Real Simple, and I grabbed our iPad.  We spent the rest of the evening relaxing in bed, reading, listening to the rain outside, and pausing to soak in this AMAZING life!  Happy Date Night!!