Flavored Water and my Herb Garden

Eight glasses a day, is what we often hear, but how many of us actually succeed?  As much as I love a nice large glass full of ice water, let’s face it, it gets boring.  Not just for adults but kids as well.  Especially when everywhere you go kids are being offered juice, I don’t blame them for not turning it down!  With warmer months here, and kids spending more time outdoors, it’s even more important to make sure they are hydrated.

One of the first blogs I wrote was about water.  It is essential to our health, and brain function, for anyone trying to loose weight, but too many of us not getting enough.  Keep track of how much water you are drinking, even if it’s just for today.  I think most of you will see you are not having enough.

A couple weeks ago I was at Target.  Just like every other time I go to Target, I walk in for a list of about 5 things, and walk out with a full basket.  I don’t know how it happens, but it does, too often.  While I was in the kitchen area, I saw this stackable glass drink dispensers.  I already had some drink dispensers but I love that these are much smaller than my others, and stackable.  They are great for everyday use, and for entertaining!  I bought two, and I’m glad I did.  We can’t get enough flavored water now!

My girls love having fresh lemon squeezed in their water so for one container I put lemons.  For my water, cucumber, lime, strawberry, and mint picked from my new herb garden.  It was like being in fancy spa drinking it.  Now, if I could only tune out the wild one’s in the background, and mess around my house.  :)  But it did it’s trick, we all upped our water intake!

You can add sliced fruit, or quarter the fruit, squeeze the juice into the water and then add the rinds.  Cucumber is great in the water and so are herbs.  I would recommend using organic produce since they will be mixed into the water.  The water taste best the first few hours, I wouldn’t recommend letting it sit overnight.  Let your kids create their own combination and leave it out during the day for them to refill their cups.  They’ll love being able to come up with their own combination and help themselves throughout the day!

I’ve wanted to start a garden for a couple years now.  Every year I say, “maybe next year”, but this year I finally took the first steps to starting one.  I planted herbs in containers and placed them on our back patio.  Not much of a garden yet, but baby steps, I’ve got a lot of learning to do to turn this thumb green.  We use herbs several times a week in salads, wraps, smoothies, juices, and also in water, so it made sense to start there.  From what I read they are pretty much fool proof and will grow quickly.

In one container I have mint and parsley…

And the other basil chives and basil…

I started a gardening board on Pinterest a while back to keep up with any tips I find.  One thing I found is a companion planting chart.  It said basil and chives are companions so they are paired up and happy in together, but I’m not so sure about the others.  I might have to separate them if one starts to grow wild…assuming I can keep them growing.  Fingers crossed!

Have a great day.

Victoria