When Life gives you Lemons (or Limes)...

We don't drink soda in our home. Well, if we have some sort of stomach bug we do get our Ginger Beer, so to say we never drink soda would be wrong. In addition, my kids rarely get juice unless it comes from the fresh fruit and vegetables we process through our juicer. The littles are actually addicted to that stuff.

But it wasn't always this way.

My older kids did get their watered down apple juice daily. I didn't know any better and they were thrilled with it. And as a mommy I wanted them to be thrilled. Then I began to look at ingredients - the chemicals and high fructose corn syrup. And guess what folks... the foods that target our babies and children with advertisements are the worst products on the supermarket shelves. Its as if companies believe that if their "food" products don't resemble toys with colors not found in nature, our kids won't want them. And we've bought into that.

So, in a family where all we drink is water (with the exception of rice milk for the baby and wine for mom and dad!) we had to find a healthy alternative for sweet refreshment. Our solution: lemonade.  It has absolutely no sugar, yet my kids love it!! We go through a couple of pitchers a day - there are eight of us - and the kids are trained to make a new pitcher if they pour the last glass. Of course, that means it can get pretty funny to see how little they will leave in the pitcher to save themselves from having to make a new batch.

If you are wanting to move soda and junk drinks out of the house, try this. It is really marvelous!

Lemonade-One gallon

Juice from 8 lemons (may vary depending on size of lemons)

Fill pitcher with water

5 droppers full of stevia (we use SweetLeaf SteviaClear)

Stir and serve over ice.

You can also make Limeade the same way, but I only use 5 limes. 

A little advice: If you or your kids aren't accustomed to the taste of stevia, it may take a bit to get used to. You can use your regular sweetener of choice and gradually replace with stevia so you can slowly fall in love with the taste of stevia. 

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