If you opened our fridge you would find plenty of foods to make large tossed salads. There's a drawer full of fruits. Some containers of leftovers grace the second shelf. Probably more condiments than we need or use fill the door. Natural eggs from our chickens and organic yogurt are stacked on the left side. What's missing is obvious only to visitors and company that comes to our home. They're thirsty and would like a beverage, open the fridge and....huh?
Pop? Never. Juice? Half of a half gallon of OJ left. Milk? Coconut. Anything else? Tea or coffee, yes, but you will have to wait for that to heat up. No Lipton lemonades or Juicy Juice or Hi-C or Sunny D. No Pepsi, Coke, Sprite or Barq's. The milk, it's for cereal, smoothies or baking. We don't drink glasses of it. Juice is a couple ounces with breakfast and mainly OJ, pulp free of course. You may sometimes find a few organic orange juice boxes, but that's only because I was tired of Kevin pouring OJ from the big container and taking an open cup of it in his truck every morning.
What DO we drink? Water. Water? Yep. From the tap, or if you prefer in the fridge. With a wedge or slice of lemon, or if you're Kian-sometimes a slice of lime. That's all? That's mostly it. Well, smoothies are drinks too I suppose. They're more of a drink/snack combination in this house.
Why? Well, because our bodies don't really need anything else. I've done enough research to know that getting calcium from foods is better than drinking cow's milk fortified with it. From the beginning, I always gave the boys water in sippy cups with meals or in between nursing, as infants. They like it, they're used to it. I love water, has to have lemon in it though, which is a cleansing agent as well, a bonus for me. Sure if we are at a party or picnic or somewhere, we will have other drinks. I'm not a drink Nazi...much. Okay, a little. Only 100% juice and usually we all prefer it to be watered down, we're not used to concentrated sweetness of bottled and boxed drinks. Eating an apple or pear or grapes is better for you than drinking just the juice of that fruit. And when the boys and I choose drinks at restaurants that is not water, it's usually lemonade, sometimes chocolate milk-their choices, just no caffeine or pop.
Sure, lots of people think we are deprived, or I deprive my kids. Or most people are shocked my kids eat as healthy as they do and how much they love water and ask for it. Sometimes Kian tells me that when he grows up he will go to Burger King every week. I told him that if he decides to do that, it's his choice and he'll have to deal with the consequences of what it does to his body but that my job is to teach good, healthy choices and while he was in our house we have the job of making sure he grows well, etc. That satisfied him.
A bonus of drinking lots of water is that it helps flush the body of extra salts and such. I noticed when I upped my water intake, the bloating also was going down. It seems counter intuitive that if you're body is holding on to water weight, to drink MORE, but that's exactly what it needs. I also found that hydrating my body first thing in the morning, before even eating (I have a cup of tea as soon as I wake up) has helped me wake up, not eat as much and get a start on the day.
As for the smoothies: Green. Aka spinach. Yep. You wouldn't know it , if it wasn't for the color. Typically what I do is: (approximate, I don't really measure)
Toss 1 banana, 1 cup frozen leaf spinach, 2 handfuls--about 2 cups of frozen fruit and 3/4-1 cup coconut milk in the blender and puree until smooth. I like my smoothies a bit thicker though, adding more liquid obviously thins them out.
I alternate with the frozen fruit being only strawberries, then the next day being mango/pineapple/peach, etc.
Some days, when Kevin wants one, I use organic yogurt (1 container) and decrease the milk.
Substitute herbal tea or any juice for the coconut milk.
Adding an avocado instead of yogurt gives you the "good fats" and lots of other health benefits. It also makes it very creamy.
Blueberry, banana and avocado, with spinach, was one of the best ones I've ever made.
Trick is that the banana hides all the spinach taste, if you notice it or prefer to not notice it. I usually add more spinach because I don't mind, even like, the taste.
Other ones to try: cantaloupe, cucumber, pear, basically whatever you think sounds good, throw it in and blend it up. This tends to be my breakfast about an hour after I drink my cup of tea.
So, if you stop over, be forewarned, I will offer you a smoothie, and a drink, but be prepared for lots of H2O!
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