I had my boy in the car, so we hit the drive-thru. It took forever. Seriously. I think I was in that line for almost 10 minutes and my coffee cost almost $4, which I think is crazy and the main reason that I do not visit Starbucks very often.

Did you know that you can look up the nutrition information for the products that Starbucks carries? 

I chose a Grande size drink and it was made with whipped cream, although I did not order it that way. The whipped cream adds 7 grams of fat, with 4.5 grams of these being saturated fat and a total of 330 calories. Skip the whipped cream, order with fat-free milk and the Grande size reads more like this:

Calories: 260
Fat:0
Saturated Fat: 0
Protein: 14 grams
Calcium: 50% RDA

If you prefer your Pumpkin Spice in a Frappuccino, then here’s a peek at the nutritional information for a 16 ounce Grande without whipped cream:

Calories: 290
Total fat: 3.5
Saturated fat: 2
Protein: 6 grams
Calcium: 20% RDA

Image credit: Michelle Smith

Post from: Blisstree

Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte & Nutrition

Naturally, my thoughts also turn to warmer fare, and what cooler evenings mean for dinners, and cooler mornings mean for caffeination!

One of my favorite ways to “celebrate” is to grab a Pumpkin Spice Latte. Starbucks usually rolls theirs out around September 1st, and many other more local coffee shops will follow suit. I actually don’t get many of these throughout the season — the flavoring is a bit heavy-handed for my taste — but they do help mark fall for me.

Oddly enough, though I do like to make as many things as I can on my own at home, I never thought to check into pumpkin spice flavoring syrup. The best part is, you don’t even have to buy it. Using what you’ve probably already got in the cupboard, the blog Think Inside the Icebox has a great recipe to make your own pumpkin spice mix at home.

Using a simple syrup (equal parts water and sugar) combined with typical pumpkin pie spices, the concoction is boiled together and then strained before adding vanilla extract. Keep it in the fridge and you’ve got an instant autumnal coffee flavoring.

If you don’t feel like making your own syrup, you can always pick up a bottle, such as Torani’s Pumpkin Spice Syrup.

[image: flickr]

Post from: Blisstree

Counting Down to Pumpkin Spice Lattes

I started down this path because I don’t really enjoy coffee but have noticed that I love espresso, especially in fine restaurants. I started to drink 2, 3 even 4 cups a day. It was yummy, and I could have sworn that it has cured a hangover. Until…I crashed.

I’d never known what people meant when they said “caffeine crash”–now I do. My recent slide into hell left me feeling as if I’d gone down with the Titanic, then washed up on the shore, lifeless…like a dead beach ball.

I needed to invent a substitute…so I created another concoction: “TeaChino”…I make a cup of tea and hit it with a little whipped cream. Yum!

I mean bleechhh! I’m going to keep trying to find a way to perk up and not kill myself.

Post from: Blisstree

Espresso Overload

I wouldn’t have continued my gaze had it not been for what they were wearing at 12:00pm in the afternoon: pajamas. Also, they were each holding a Starbucks cup and each had a purse slung over their shoulder.

It looked like a scene from the Nickelodeon version of Desperate Housewives or the New Jersey version of Laguna Beach — next on: Desperate Turnpike Stories.

I couldn’t not stare — all I kept thinking was what my mother would have said had I tried, not only to get to the front porch in my pajamas, but ALL the way up the street. What’s going on? And what’s with the Starbuck’s and purses?

It is days like this when, as a someone who doesn’t have children, I begin to think…I need to get out of suburbia…I need to live in Manhattan. I’ll open a small diner-slash-deli-slash-gourmet grocery store…and live among the fabulous city dwellers.

But wait. I have central air conditioning and a Chocolate Labrador. No reasonable apartments that are not in Brooklyn have central air…and the room this dog needs is along the lines of Marmaduke…not FiFi the Manhattan poodle.

What was I complaining about anyway? So, the girls went visiting in their pj’s at 12 noon…I was working in my pj’s (Giants shirt and sweats) too, and did so until 1:30pm…

Are pj’s the new power suit?

Photo: Flickr.com

Post from: Blisstree

More on how to dress for work in summer.