This drink was inspired by one on our recent trip to Bali. While it’s hard to know exactly how much of the ingredients to add, especially given there’s a difference between serving twenty people (as I was on the Fourth of July) versus just making it for Greg and I, use the information below as a guide.

The crux of the drink is these ingredients:

lime juice

sugar

pineapple juice

mint

water/ice

We grow mint in the backyard (along with several other herbs), partly for this reason– if it’s there, I need to figure out a way to use it. It’s forced experimentation that helps lead to fun new items to serve. I also have learned that when we each make drinks, we have favorite flavors. I like to add a lot of mint because the freshness of it brightens the drink. By starting with small amounts, you’re able to decide if you want it to have more of a lime slant (our house) or a pineapple slant.

I tend to go lean on the sugar, especially because pineapple is very sweet on its own. I also make my drinks thick, letting my guests water/ice them down and giving them the option of adding tequila if they choose.

I have been seeing a Chinese doctor for acupuncture since spring after my surgery where a golf-ball fibroid was removed from my uterus. She is always telling me what I need to do better: eat more room-temperature food, less stress, and the latest one was eat more red foods for my blood.

“Like steak?” I asked.

“Beets, goji berries,” she said.

But it was the week before Christmas and I was a little preoccupied. I forgot all about it. Even though I love beets.

After a wonderful holiday season, this week it’s back to consuming more fruits and vegetables. Beets, too.

As I’m writing this, I’m drinking my beet smoothie. Not quite the same as the recipe in Bon Appetit found here as I adjusted it for ingredients I have on hand (regular milk, agave nectar, blueberries, and I skipped the salt).

It’s a dark afternoon here in Albuquerque, making me feel like I’m back in the Midwest on a January day. My grandmother’s chicken soup (meaning her recipe, of course) is cooking on the stove and it’s sort of that middle of the afternoon blah time. I needed something to take me through to dinner.

For me, smoothies help me get more fruits and vegetables in my daily diet while keeping me full until dinner. And keep me from grabbing chips (oh wait, we ate them all, thank goodness).

It’s the new year, a chance to reset and find energy for the unknown but exciting road ahead.