Saving My Drink!

We all know it... we should drink more water!  I have a couple of requirements for my water.  First it must be as cold as possible (thank goodness for my ice maker) and second it must taste like anything BUT water!  I try to stay away from bottled flavor water because just as soon as I found one I liked... yep stories start to surface that they aren't good for you.  Most have added sugar, preservatives, etc.  So I turned to flavoring my water with fruit, herbs and veggies.  Sounds like a good alternative, right?  Well for me I found that time was an issue.  I have tried the Flat Belly Diet and I knew I liked, what they call "Sassy Water", I just call it yummy!  Which involves water, cucumber, lemon, mint and fresh ginger root.  My issue was that I would forget to make it or didn't have time to make it or I'd make it and then not drink the whole thing.  OR the other would happen and I would have the ingredients and before I would get to making it, my mint would go bad or my cucumbers would get soft... just not appetizing things to put in your water to drink... NOPE!

Then I remembered a post at Organic Gardening about saving fresh herbs from the farmers market!  I spend a small fortune on them and I get really frustrated when they go bad due to my lack of use or timeliness!  Now I had an idea... why can't I freeze my flavored water ingredients?

I knew I needed some ice cube trays so I headed to the stores to find some that would work.  I knew I wanted something that was big enough to fit the ingredients in but small enough so that it would melt quickly and give my water that flavoring that I love!  I went to Big Lots and found these trays for $2 a piece.  The bottoms are a rubber material and my thought was that it would be easier so pop them out once they were frozen.  Now $4 may seem like a lot for ice cube trays but I figured that I would earn my money back by simply not purchasing 4 drinks from the gas station.  Have I mentioned that I stop at one every morning?

I grabbed my ingredients lemon, cucumber, and mint. I cut each one small enough to fit into he trays and I started to fill them up. Once they were full I added water and slid them into the freezer.  The anticipation was almost too much to handle but thankfully I made it through!

While I was waiting I stressed about the ingredients being too delicate to handle the freezing process and what if it didn't turn out the way I had envisioned.  UGH the agony of it all, to keep my mind off of it I started cleaning.  Which if you know me... you know it isn't something I like to do, do often enough or find any sort of satisfaction from doing.  Nope that is why I have a husband and kids!

Finally these little babies where frozen and ready to be used.  I was pretty pleased that the ingredients appear to have made it through the freezing process but I still didn't know if the drink would taste the same.  The only way to figure that out was to actually make myself a drink! I popped those beauties out of the ice cube tray and into a bowl.  Then I added them to my water bottle (which I got a home goods for $4), filled it with water and waited a few minutes. Sip 1... mmmm I could taste every single ingredient... FABULOUS!

When I first did this little experiment I just plopped the ice cubes in the bottom which is fine for the cucumbers and lemon but the mint ended up coming up the straw periodically.  UHM not my intention.  I found filling the bottom with a little ice then the flavor cubes and more ice keeps the ingredients in the middle of the bottle.  I've also found that my husband likes to use some of my flavor ice cubes in his water... so I make extra lemon ice for him and that way we all end up drinking more water!