Is this homemade drink as mind-altering as the latte from the professional coffee shops? No. But this easy pumpkin spice coffee will save you time, and an hour on the treadmill trying to burn off the cream.

I love all things Pumpkin Spice and look forward to autumn every year because of it.  Well, because of that, and football.  I had Pumpkin Spice Cheerios for breakfast today.

I like the lattes at the coffee shops, but I don't love feeling full afterward and I don't love the sugar content that's usually part of the enjoyment process.  So I've been buying everything I can that cuts out fat and sugar, and yet, is still pumpkiny.

Nestle's Pumpkin Spice Coffeemate creamer has zero grams of sugar, and fifteen calories for two tablespoons.  I make my coffee pretty strong so I may put in a quarter cup of creamer, but at least it starts out low-cal.

Torani's Pumpkin Pie syrup has zero everything.  It has no sugar, no calories, no sodium, and it makes a person wonder how it can exist at all.  But we won't question these things.  It tastes good and it doesn't add empty calories.  Just make sure you get the sugar-free version.

Every morning for the past week, I've poured a cup of black flavored coffee (either pumpkin or caramel) and added the seasonal syrup and seasonal creamer.  It's a drink that's not worthy of opening my own chain, but it does taste like fall and it makes me want to draw a pumpkin spice bubble bath and light a pumpkin cheesecake candle while I'm at it.  It's good enough to embrace the season, and it doesn't make me full and want to skip lunch.

My grandma got me hooked on coffee in my teens.  I would go to her farmhouse in Nebraska most days after school, and we would sip coffee and talk, and those are still some of the best memories of my growing-up years.  So coffee is an emotional thing in addition to being just plain delicious.

And it's better when it's skinny.  Cheers!

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