This month’s flavor of the month is Peach. Check back each Wednesday for a new recipe highlighting this fantastic fruit!

Green smoothies are a thing. In fact, they are a thing that happens to be part of my morning nearly every day. (I have to counteract the cupcakes somehow…)

I add everything from spinach and kale to mint and parsley into my morning concoctions. Some days they have chia seeds or protein powder. Some days they have juice and other days almond milk.

The one thing they always have? Some sort of healthy vegetable, some fruit for sweetness and some liquid to make it drinkable.

I’m making orange smoothies a thing.

I was lamenting the weird, brown color that my smoothies sometimes take on (it is the very color that kept me from trying green smoothies in the first place- if you want me to eat something healthy, it at least has to look delicious), when a cousin suggested that I try carrots in my morning power-up. I was a little skeptical at first, and even more so when every recipe that had carrot in it called for carrot juice rather than actual carrots. (I don’t have a juicer, and while I can get carrot juice at the local grocery store, it isn’t something I am likely to have on hand).

To make it work in my real-world, I can’t function properly in the morning routine, I tried carrot ribbons. By using the peeler to create long, thin strips, I was able to make the vegetable easy on my blender while keeping all the fiber that is left behind in the juicing process. Carrots help underscore the sweetness of the fruit without overpowering the flavor – which makes them an easier smoothie addition than kale. They also mix well color-wise with most fruits and berries (so we aren’t left with some weird, green-brown drink that might taste good but draw strange looks from bystanders on the bus…)