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| 3 Approve, 1 Says Yuck |
It has been said that if you are going to give up a habit, you need to fill that void left by the bad habit with something good. Otherwise you will most likely return to your bad habit. Well, I have an addiction to soda. Hard core addiction. I love Diet Pepsi, Pepsi Max, and will drink Diet Coke-ish products when Pepsi is not available.
For years I have been drinking this delicious poison. About two years ago my Hubby decided that he was going to quit using artificial sweeteners after reading about the bad things they can do to you. At that time, I decided I would join him. Thus was my first experience with aspartame withdrawal. We both felt like we'd been hit with the flu. Aches, pains, agony as our bodies went through detox.
Hubby was a good boy and didn't go back to drinking soda. I was not so good. I lasted about four months before I just could not go another day without drinking something other than water. Juice is gross, milk is worse, coffee tastes like death in a mug, tea like dirty water, pop is out, which leaves me with water. Boring old water. No wonder every time I've tried giving up pop I only last a few months before I can't take it anymore.
Today I was reading an article about ginger and how good it is for you. And then a little later I read a totally different article about curing super bad morning sickness by eating fermented foods (I wish I had read this article 11 years ago) and talked about the benefits of root beer and ginger ale when made the old fashioned way. Say what??? I could make my own ginger ale?
Of course I had to do some research on this. I like pop. I need to eat more ginger. I am going to make my own ginger ale. The first recipes I found involve sugar, yeast, and fermentation over a few days. I thought about that for about two seconds and decided that waiting was not for me. I kept looking. Which is how I found the quick method. Steep fresh ginger root in boiling water, add sweetener, vanilla, and pour over bubbly water. Hello instant gratification!
I dragged the kids to the store to buy bubbly water (I went with sparkling water because it was the cheapest) and ginger root.
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| Key ingredients |
I boiled water on the stove and threw in the ginger and some pure strevia extract. I let it simmer for 10 minutes and then steep, covered and with the burner off, for about a half hour. Then I strained it, added in some vanilla and lemon extract, and mixed 3 ozs ginger concentrate with 5 ozs sparkling water poured over ice.
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| Boiling the ginger |
David and Joy declared it delicious. Lizzy said it was gross. I thought it was pretty good, though next time I am going to omit the lemon extract. But I am really happy with the results of my first foray into pop making. This is definitely something I will try again.
If you want to do it often, have you looked at soda stream before? You don't have to use their expensive flavorings. You could easily just use your ginger concoction.
ReplyDeleteIf you want to do it often, have you looked at soda stream before? You don't have to use their expensive flavorings. You could easily just use your ginger concoction.
ReplyDelete