Non-Alcoholic Drinks

But first, a quick aside – isn’t this new site so pretty?  B is amazing and worked super hard to get the way I wanted it.  And I’m really picky.  Um, hun, could you just left justify that word but leave the rest centered? Um, could you make that the same color as the rest?  Actually, no, can you change the color?  Um, can you pick another graphic?  No, I don’t like that, go back to the first.  Poor guy.  But he loved every second of it.  He talked to me endlessly about all the different coding and other things I did not even begin to grasp.  I imagine this is what he feels like when I talk about clothes or fabric and stuff.

So, welcome to my new site.  I hope you like it.  I love it!  It’s just so pretty 🙂

Ok, back to the drinks.  Since January of 2009 I have only been able to drink beer or other alcoholic beverages with no concern of its effects on my babies for 2 months.  If that.  I weaned Olivia and then got pregnant pretty soon after so it actually may have only been a few weeks.  Now, if you know me, you know I love beer.  Even more than margaritas or mojitos or wine.  So having to go without for so long, I decided to do something about it this summer.  I decided to find non-alcoholic drinks that I liked more than beer that don’t contain high fructose corn syrup.  Thing is these drinks are expensive and hard to find.  So I decided to make my own.  And they are amazingly deee-licious.

Here are the recipes if you want to try them.  Seriously when I’m drinking this stuff I don’t envy Kraft who is downing a Bud Light Lime one little bit.

Basil Lemonade: This is a Giada recipe.  Honestly I don’t have much luck with her recipes.  Every time I cook something of hers, it doesn’t come out well but I had so much basil from our CSA box that I had to find something that used a lot of it fastbefore it turned brown and gross.  I will warn you, though, for sure water this puppy down A LOT.  I only use about half the sugar that the recipe calls for and use about 2-3 cups more of water.  Oh, and if you want to feel fancy, which I usually do if I’m trying to not think of beer, use sparkling water.

Orange Mint Tea: This is from my Mennonite cookbook.  Again, I needed something that used a lot of mint quickly, although it does hold up better than basil.  Obviously, this recipe is not on the web so I’m going to give it to you from the book – Bring 3 cups of water to a boil.  Put in bunch of mint, turn off burner, and cover.  Let steep for 20+ minutes.  Stir in 1/3 cup of sugar.  Add 2 cups of orange juice (no pulp makes it better).  Add 1/2 cup lemon juice (I add more).  Stir, then add water until it’s no longer strong for you.

Knockoff Arizona Green Tea with Honey and Ginseng:  The last drink I found was really more for my dad.  My dad gets swept up in fad diets and fad exercising equipment all the time.  The latest diet he was reading about said that he should drink lots of green tea.  Now my dad does not take to structure at all so he ignored the rest of the diet but decided that he would stick to the green tea thing.  So what has he been guzzling down?  Arizona Green Tea.  Yuck.  Might as well be a Coke.  So I asked him if I could make a tea that tastes better, would he drink that instead of the Arizona stuff?  Sure.  Ok, so I embarked on a quest to find something he liked better.  Apparently a lot of people have set out on this quest.  So it was actually no quest at all, I just googled Arizona green tea with ginseng and there was the recipe.  Although I would suggest using 2-3 tea bags instead of just one.  I like my tea strong.  Oh, and I left out the ginseng.  We just didn’t have it.  Nor do I even  know what it is.

So if you are pregnant, nursing, or don’t have the same affinity for beer that I have, try these recipes out.