In 2017, I’m partnering with Pompeian to bring you the latest recipes that are currently #TrendingInTheKitchen with this year’s trendy ingredients and their olive oils and vinegars. Thank you for supporting the partnerships that allow Brewing Happiness to grow and exist. xoxo.

All over the internet people are drinking apple cider vinegar right when they wake up in order to “jump start” their digestion. This is because apple cider vinegar contains enzymes and probiotics that can help heal the gut. When your gut is healthy your hair, your skin, your nails, your digestion, your life is better.

I’ve said it before and I will say it a million more times, but one of my favorite scientific facts is that somewhere between 70-80% (depending on what study you read) of the serotonin in our body is produced in the lining of our stomach. Therefore it follows that when you have a happy gut, you have more serotonin, and are probably a happier human. So that’s cool.

Sadly, I am a person that has very sensitive teeth. So I can’t sip on a cup of hot lemon water with apple cider vinegar in the morning or my teeth will feel like they might fall out of my face. So I have to find inventive ways to sip on my apple cider vinegar. Since it is fall, and pears are hitting their stride, I decided to make a little morning tonic out of it.

I added lemon and mint, because they are also good for your digestion. So the combo of pears (for sweetness and flavor), lemon, mint, and Pompeian Organic Apple Cider Vinegar creates a drink you can sip on in the morning that will leave you feeling good all day long.

As a general recipe note, you can make this juice using a juicer, but I actually suggest making it with a blender and a nut milk bag. That way you don’t have to have fancy equipment. You could also use a cheesecloth to strain the juice, but I find that method to be a lot messier and more difficult.

Find more healthy drink recipes by clicking here. 

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Pear Mint Morning Tonic

Jump start your digestion with this Pear Mint Morning Tonic filled with lemon, honey, apple cider vinegar. Plus, you can make it in a blender!

Course Dranks & Others, Drinks

Cuisine American

Prep Time 15 minutes

Total Time 15 minutes

Servings 4 -6

Author Brewing Happiness

Ingredients

• 4 pears, your favorite variety
• 1 cup water
• 20 mint leaves
• 2 lemons, juiced
• 1/4 cup Pompeian Organic Apple Cider Vinegar
• 2 tablespoons honey

Instructions

1. Chop your pears and remove the seeds and stems. Add them to your blender. 

2. Juice your lemons and add the juice to your blender as well, along with all of the other ingredients. 

3. Blend on high until smooth. 

4. Strain through a nut milk bag or cheesecloth, into a large bowl. 

5. Pour your juice into a container or a cup.

6. DRINK UP. 

We spend years as humans creating routines, finding what feels good, learning our own bodies and rhythms. It’s a good feeling. I spent the last two years in Atlanta, setting a world up for myself that was filled with podcasts and kitchen dancing and early bedtimes and lots of work. I found out through my 30 screenless nights project that I function best when I go screenless and hour before I sleep and an hour after I wake up. I’m just a better human that way.

I’ve carved out the way in which I like to keep my home. I’ve figured out the time in which I like to exercise. I’ve found what kinds of food my body likes and when. I have a life system. It feels good. It feels comfortable.

The problem with these routines we create as individuals is that they often aren’t conducive to relationships or life. They are limiting, as much as they are supportive. So when we as humans build a world that feels safe, a routine that feels nourishing. It can be scary to bend those rules for something new. A new person or a new place.

I feel a little bit like I am in a new relationship with NYC. I just moved here. I am doing my best to meet new people, try new things, say yes to everything. I want to take in as much of this place and soak in every opportunity that I can. But with that comes sacrifice.

I go to bed later, and wake up at the same time. So now I’m retracting my one cup of coffee a day rule. I’m not making all of my meals, so I’m not eating as well as I might otherwise. I find myself on my phone later. I find myself on my phone more often – planning, chatting, building friendships. I don’t workout as consistently, because there are other more fun things to fill my day with. I drink more than I normally do, which isn’t helping with my acne.

So here I am tired, a little run down, and sacrificing. Compromising. That’s what happens with any important relationship. We compromise our way of doing things to make a new way. So I’m practicing letting go of my need for control in the midst of this. And I’m trying to savor the little moments I have that feel really restorative.

I’m still adamant about not touching my phone in the morning. I’m still adamant on drinking a Pear Mint Morning Tonic in the quiet of the morning. I still make myself two meals a day (at least) and I try to pack them with as many good things as I can. I try to remember that there is nothing wrong with drinking two cups of coffee a day for a while.

There is a line between self-care and restrictive, obsessive self-care. Part of the concept of celebrating health-ier is acknowledging that we won’t always be in the perfectly balanced, totally holistic part of our lives. Sometimes the world, our job, our relationships demand compromise. And that’s OKAY. It’s not that you are failing, or should feel guilty for not living up to every healthy routine you have set in place. This will ebb and flow. All we have to commit to is doing our best during those times.

If we aren’t taking risks, and sometimes breaking the rules then we aren’t truly *living.* There is a healthy balance. There is a way to celebrate the small ways you are nourishing yourself, even if they aren’t to the fullest capacity. There is beauty in new routine. There is beauty in letting go of control. There is beauty in rule breaking. Perhaps, it is even healthy to break the rules sometimes. xo.