Munchie Monday: Fruit Water for Valentine's Day

 It is so important to drink a lot of water.  Sometimes one needs to try something different.  One of the easiest and tastiest things to do is  to make fruit water.

Being Valentine's Day, with pink and red themes, I decided to make some strawberry-lemon fruit water.

How I did it:

In the bottom of a two-quart glass pitcher I sliced up half a dozen strawberries that I bought fresh from the store. Since it is not strawberry season I was unsure of how this would go, but did it anyway.  Next I sliced in half a lemon in fairly thin slices. After filling the pitcher full of water I placed it in the refrigerator.  When I made this early this week, there was only three hours in the refrigerator before it was time to serve,  It tasted pretty good even then.

Next on the docket was to make more so I got out a 2-quart canning jar and repeated with the other half  of the lemon, sliced thin, and another half dozen strawberries.  After filling the jar to the brim with water, I put a cover on and put it in the refrigerator.

This picture shows all the lemon slices and strawberries since we drank all the water in the pitcher and refilled it.  Two days later we had consumed it again and I poured the fruit water from the canning jar into the pitcher and the strawberries and lemon slices slid into the pitcher along with the water.  

We have now consumed both containers refilled twice.  The water gets fruit-y-er the longer you let it sit in the refrigerator until after about four or five days it begins to lose flavor which is when you pitch it out and start again.

Nice stuff, fruit water. Worth the effort.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Munchie Monday: New (Old) First Thing In The Morning Beverage Quick and Easy

Years ago my sister and I were drinking a crazy beverage to assist us in cleaning out our inwards and potentially leading to weight loss.  I don't remember how it went.  Obviously it was not a gigantic success in my case.  My sister looks pretty darn good, so maybe it did work for her though we have not discussed it since them.

This morning I was up early.  For some reason I was looking at a couple of the notifications on my phone from YouTube about health.  One was about a morning "detox".  Usually I delete anything that says detox but this time I watched it.  It was a pretty quick and easy "cure".

This is what I did:

Started the hot water running from the tap while I got out a mug from the cupboard.  I poured in about 1 1/2 Tablespoons lemon juice, a scant Tablespoon of apple cider vinegar, shook in three small shakes of cayenne then filled the cup with hot tap water.  I stirred well then glugged it down.

Amazingly, it was not bad.  I will make it again tomorrow.

The best news is that the "detox" did not entail an hour in the little girl's room!!

Munchie Monday: Lemon Ginger Water

All of a sudden I wanted a refreshing non-caloric drink.  I had just gone to the Grocery Outlet and found a bag of fresh ginger for a good price. I brought it home along with a fresh lemon.  I still have the jars I plan to use to make sauerkraut sitting on the counter waiting for the kraut...so I took one of them.

To make this I thinly sliced about an inch and a half of fresh ginger and an inch and a half of fresh lemon and put it in the bottom of a glass quart jar. I filled the jar with water and put it in the refrigerator overnight.  In the morning I had a tall glass.  So refreshing!

Even Dear One had a full glass of this for breakfast, then asked for the dregs that were in the bottom of the jar!  I refilled it with water for the third time.  I will see tomorrow if it works that long or if I need to add fresh fruit after three refills.

Munchie Monday: Vacation Food--The Perfect Simple Salad

On vacation it can be difficult to eat the way you normally do.  Especially when there are different views as to what makes good vacation food.  In my case, I eat salad every day.  At every meal, if possible.  It is a little harder on vacation depending on the accommodation's facilities.  It turns out this time that rather than the mini-refrigerator/coffee pot we were told to expect in our unit, we have a mini-refrigerator, coffee pot for herb tea, a microwave, some base cabinets and a sink in a nice counter. Things are looking up!  I had brought our Instant Pot, because I assumed somewhere in the room there would a surface with an electrical outlet so we could at least heat up soup or something.

So, today I am hoping to go to a grocery store to find:
Lacinato (i.e. dinosaur) kale
Broccoli
Sweet onion
Canned red beans
Something for Dear One to eat, either in the Instant Pot or the microwave if he wants hot food.

Another thing I am thinking is to get:
Canned chick peas
Garlic Paste
Ripe avocado
Tahini
Lemon or lime juice
Roasted red peppers
A large bowl at Dollar Tree or some such place

The idea for this last list is to  see if I can make some Avocado Roasted Pepper Hummus.  Maybe.

If anyone has had any luck with different "vacation foods" in a unit without full cooking equipment, I would love to know what you made and how it turned out.  Oh, and if the family liked it, too!

Health Kick: Lemon Water

There has been a lot of talk about lemon water being so good for your body. I decided to try it.  Well, I had tried it before but fell off the wagon for some reason.  As I am writing this, I have fallen off the wagon again...or at least it has been three days since I last made some.

My version is made with hot water.

Into an 8-ounce glass I put 1 Tablespoon of lemon juice then fill with water as hot as I can drink...which is basically as hot as the faucet sends out.  Drink it down.

Many years ago an elderly gentleman was visiting in our home....like more than 90 years old elderly.  Being a foolish girl I asked him how he lived to be so old.  He said (in his somewhat heavy Dutch accent), "Every morning you need to drink a glass of water, hot what you can drink."  That is why I make lemon water with HOT water.

So the most recent time I made this lemon water I asked Dear One if he wanted some.  He thought a moment and said, "Yes.  Put in a little sugar."  Not what I had in mind for a healthy kick to start the day...but, of course, I did it.

Can you tell which one has the sugar in it? 

New Health Find...infused water

Last Sunday Debbie asked me if I had ever tried infused water.  Since I had never heard of it, I said so.  She said to take a nice 2 quart glass bottle and put a very thinly sliced apple of any kind (I used a Pink Lady since that is what I had) in the bottom of the jar.  Toss in one stick of cinnamon, fill the jar with water, cover and refrigerate. In an hour, pour yourself a glass of lovely lightly flavored infused water.  I loved it!

You can refill the jar three or four times.  By the time the apple slices begin to brown you might want to remove them and start with a new apple and cinnamon stick...

Since I love lemon, I tried putting a sliced lemon in the bottom of a jar along with about an inch of finely sliced fresh ginger and let it refrigerate.  That one was really good, too.

If any readers have suggestions of other good flavors of infused water, send comments!

Thanks.  And thanks, Debbie, for a treat that will most likely be a rest of my life sort of thing!