12 Days of Christmas Breakfast ~ Day 8 ~ Orange Julius Breakfast Drink

So I decided to play catch-up with this silly 12 Day thing, since it practically feels like it's been more than one day from this morning to now.  I hope all these words make sense.  My hands are literally shaking and buzzing from all the caffeine in the Excedrin I had to take to squish away this migraine trying to flare up.  But now I'm buzzing and able to multi task like I'm back in my 20s.  I've made 2 batches of cookies and this orange julius recipe and I'm about to start a batch of biscotti.  Of course, I may have a little trouble sleeping tonight, but at least the headache has faded.

For whatever reason, I have been craving an orange julius for the last few days.  I could practically taste it when I thought about it.  It freaked me out just a bit, because these drinks came alive to me when I was pregnant with Brenna.  I always thought pregnancy cravings were a bunch of hooey.  Until I became pregnant.  With Alex, I would fix myself a plate of plain, white rice.  Then I'd top it with sliced, cooked carrots.  That's it.  No butter, no salt, nothing.  Just white rice and cooked carrots.  And I'd inhale that like a contestant on Survivor.  And I remember raving to anyone who would listen to me about how good it was.  I honestly had never tasted anything so delicious in all my life.  I look back now and just shake my head.  Then came pregnancy number 2, and I was walking past the Orange Julius counter in the mall, and I had to have one.  Sometimes I drove to the mall for nothing but one of those drinks.  Crazy.  And I'm absolutely, positively sure that I am not pregnant, by the way.  And the funny thing is, when people would ask me if I had any unusual cravings, I told them I didn't.  I honestly didn't think anything was the slightest bit unusual about what I was eating.  I just thought I had finally come to my senses and found food that was my favorite new food.

I am so sorry for the tangent.  It's the caffeine, I swear.

Anyway, I searched a few different recipes for this, and I combined a couple and came up with this.  It is pretty much exactly how I remember it.  I probably will make this on Christmas morning to go with our breakfast if I can convince certain people that it's better than egg nog.

I think this recipe is a tad bit sweet, and I will probably decrease the granulated sugar just a wee bit when I make it next, but everyone else thought it was perfect, so I'll write it just as I made it:

Orange Julius Breakfast Drink

6 oz. frozen orange juice concentrate
1 1/4 cups milk (I used non-fat, because it's what we have, but if you think that non-fat milk is "of the devil" like the dear Pastor Tim, you can use as much fat as you like)
3/4 cup water
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups crushed ice

Place all of this in your blender and whip it up.  Serve with a straw to get the most authentic experience, and to not make you lips burn if they are chapped.  Just sayin'.

Now I'm going to go burn some energy in the kitchen so I can wear this caffeine out of my system.  If you need your house cleaned at this late hour, or some Christmas shopping done, or any other busy work, give me a call.  I'm sure I'll be up.