I can’t believe I am just now posting about my breakfast drink! When I started this blog, I initially thought it would be about wellness and what has helped me to feel better (after a prolonged illness).  HA! I found out that I enjoy baking, cooking and crafting WAY too much and this blog has really turned into more of showcasing my love of fancy and fun.

But I can’t ignore this Hot Pink Breakfast Drink because it is a big part of my life. This juicing every morning has been one of my routines for over a year and it has made a BIG difference in how I feel. In fact, I notice such a difference on the days that I DON’T make this juice for myself that I hate to miss even a day! I even took my juicer to California with me…(LOVE those Farmer’s Markets over there!)

Juicing is known to assist in detoxing the body and feeding your cells with all sorts of nutrients. It is SO good for getting maximum veggies into your diet. But I admit, when I first started I did NOT like the juice. It tasted like dirt. I was not happy.

But then I was introduced to this recipe…and I’ve been drinking it every morning since.

So I’m going to share this little recipe with you. I know, I know…you  may never try it and that’s ok. But if you decide to try it in the hope of helping you to feel better, let me just say this: you have to stick with it for a few weeks. Really. Did I mention that juicing is detoxifying? Well, the first little while your body will want to detox and you will not feel so great. But that means it’s working! So stick with it, and after a few weeks just see if it makes a difference in how you feel.

Don’t let the color fool you. This is mostly a VEGETABLE drink…it’s not a fruit smoothie! I took some of this over to some friends to taste one morning and because it’s such a beautiful color they may have thought it was going to taste like raspberries. It didn’t. And they hated it. (Hi Kristy, Shellie, & Kara! Shall we try this again…Can I bring it to our next meeting?!)

It starts with carrots, celery, kale, beet, apple, red cabbage, and oranges. Sometimes I add spinach or lettuce. But mostly it’s the veggies shown. The exciting part is that we now grow our very own cabbage and kale!! I think we shall try growing beets, too! And the oranges come from our trees! (In fact, if you’re not into juicing, maybe these orange blossom cookies will hit the mark?) When oranges aren’t in season, I will add a bit of lemon juice.

I start by cutting off the ends of the carrots and celery, cutting the apple if it’s too big to fit in my juicer, and removing the orange rinds. Be sure to first wash everything well. I buy nearly everything organic, but I haven’t been able to find organic apples so I wash those with GSE (Grapefruit Seed Extract) to remove as much pesticide residue as I can.

I have a Breville juicer with 2 speeds. And here’s a trick: put a produce bag in the container to catch all the “pulp,” it makes clean-up so much easier!

And, just that fast, you have delicious, beautiful, veggie-packed breakfast juice! Oh, it’s beautiful. I like mine cold, so I add a bit of ice. And oh, how delicious! (My husband still makes a sour face when he drinks his, though; he may never love it, but he stills drinks it!)

Take a look at that pulp. This juicer does a great job. I have been experimenting with a few recipes to use that pulp in, and if you are interested I may post a few of those!

We also use this as a compost for our garden. Oh yes, the veggie garden LOVES IT!!

So here’s the recipe! Try it and let me know what you think.

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Don’t forget to clean your juicer right away. It’s a lot trickier to clean once the pulp is dried on (don’t ask me how I know that.) Here’s to your health!

(P.S. Come back tomorrow: I’m going to show you how I prep for the week to make my mornings of juicing go so much smoother. The preparation makes juicing SO easy!)