This is an exciting one for me to write "I don't buy" on. Though the kids or I have never drank much pop (that is what we call it here in MN), less than a year ago Ken was drinking at least 2 cans a day.Not only is pop not good for you but it is also fairly expensive. I would keep an eye out for deals but the cost did add up.
Several months ago Ken decided to switch to coffee (even though neither of us had ever like coffee) to get his dose of caffeine and he hasn't looked back. He didn't even finish the case of pop that we had on hand.
I know there are many households like ours where you don't drink pop but if you are used to having it on a regular basis you might wonder what we have instead.
We drink.....
- Water. We try to drink a lot of it. It is a very necessary part of living, it's free and I love it! This is basically all that we ever drink (at least the kids and I) in between meals.
- Milk - we generally have that for breakfast and supper and we enjoy it. In the summer we enjoy goat's milk from my parents and in the winter I try to get raw cows milk.
- Herbal tea- hot or iced. We do like them sweet (though not southern sweet/syrup) so we generally use honey or steevia. Our favorite is mint which we are able to grow very easily so it is a very inexpensive beverage and good for us too! Other herbs that I sometimes use are: Raspberry leaf, echinnacia, cloves, catnip, hyssop, wild bergamot and more.
- Juice - Rarely.
- Coffee - for Ken. He drinks it hot with creamer but no sugar. He did also discover he does like frappacino so I am trying out recipes to make that homemade. He thought my first try was okay, just a little too much vanilla.
- Hot chocolate for a treat when it is cold outside (homemade).
As I mentioned before breakfast and supper are pretty much our only time of having beverages other than water. I have even come to the point that for parties I don't generally offer anything besides water. The idea of serving pop or koolaid doesn't really fit my idea of a healthy lifestyle and I really don't think you need something fancy to drink in order to have a good time. When there are a lot of kids (or just any sort of people) it is much easier to have water all over the house when if it spills is really no big deal.
What do you drink at your house?
I am new to your blog and am enjoying it! We also do not buy soda....we also drink water....which I am trying to get my girls to drink mire of. I dilute the juice they drink and milk is a big favorite. We either drink raw milk or organic.
ReplyDeleteWe drink water. I also make homemade tea with tea bags and / or mint. I also drink homemade sage tea. Ocassionally we add lemon or other fruit to our water.
ReplyDeleteI also make green smoothies, but I consider those more of a snack / meal.
My kids eat cereal with almond milk, but they don't like to drink it so it is mostly just used in cereal and baking.
In NJ raw milk is illegal, so until it isn't then we don't drink or use milk.
We don't buy or drink soda, or juice, or anything else really.
On a rare occasion I may buy Snapple as it is free of the stuff my kids can not have (dye, corn syrup, soy, and gluten.) But that is maybe 3-4 times a year.
Water and the occasional juice are our go-tos around here! (But only if the juice doesn't have high fructose corn syrup in it.) When I stopped drinking soda, I immediately dropped 10 pounds. It was amazing.
ReplyDeleteWe once visited a lovely Morrocan family in town whose daughter is a friend of my eldest. It was 90ยบ F or more in the street and they served us up this wonderful hot, sweet, mint tea. Phew! Surprisingly, we felt very refreshed after having it. They just take a bunch of fresh mint and throw boiling water on top,add a spoonful or two of sugar and there you have it. In the summer here there is also another very refreshing drink called "horchata de chufa". The "chufa" is a little nut, you squash it and make a kind of milk, add sugar and drink it very cold.
ReplyDeleteWater and iced tea! Healthier and saves at
ReplyDeleteleast $5/week on groceries!
I have been trying to convert to black tea over coffee. It still has caffine, but less than coffee. I wondered if you had tried this. It is different, though, and I love coffee in the morning. I only have 1 or 2 cups in the morning, brewed pretty weak so as to save since it's so expensive. I have to admit we will still splurge on soda from time to time. But only single serving drinks, which cost more than buying a 2-liter, but then we drink less too. It's kind of our last "vice" after we quit so many other unhealthy addictions. Other than that it is water and milk the majority of the time. When I cook fruit, I save the water and drippings from it and mix with water sometimes for a different taste. My son loves it!
ReplyDelete