Ginger Lime Chia Water

Water sweetened with ginger simple syrup, brightened with a touch of lime juice, and extra nutrition added with chia seeds.

Chia seeds have been a popular health food fad for a while now.  It's no wonder why.  They are a great source of fiber, protein, omega-3s, and other nutrients and antioxidants while being low in calories.  These seeds are tiny and a great way to add health benefits to many recipes.  This is one of my favorite ways to add some extra fiber to my diet.

Chia seeds are a great source of fiber, protein, and omega-3s.  [Tweet this]

Usually, I add a scoop of chia to about 6-8 ounces of water or coconut water and quickly chug it down after a workout.  Other than that, I mostly just drink plain water and try to get my 8 glasses a day (64 ounces or about 2 liters) but, occasionally, I like to have something different.  Flavored simple syrups are a great way to flavor water and they are also great in cocktails. You can control the sweetness and the strength of flavor.  If I'm going to add sugar to my water, I might as well add some nutrients from chia seeds too. It's so much better than buying and drinking sodas (I don't like carbonation but if you do add flavored simple syrup to soda water).

I try to get my 8 glasses (of water) a day.  [Tweet this]

I often have fresh ginger laying around.  It's easy and inexpensive to buy here and I often use if for cooking.  I had some leftover so I decided to use it for Ginger Simple Syrup.  I had about 1/2 a cup of peeled ginger slices that I added to 1 cup of water and 2 cups of sugar.  Then heated the mixture until the sugar dissolved, covered it and let the ginger steep in the water until it cooled.  This made a very sweet simple syrup with the spicy bite of ginger.  Just a little bit of this simple syrup will go a long way.  If you want even more ginger flavor with less sweetness use a 1:1 sugar to water ratio (with the same amount of ginger--then you can use more syrup imparting more flavor).

A little bit of Ginger Simple Syrup goes a long way.  [Tweet this]

Ginger Lime Chia Water

Ingredients:

12 oz water
*Ginger Simple Syrup to taste
1 Tbsp chia seeds
Lime wedge

Fill a glass with about 12 ounces of cold water.  Stir in some ginger simple syrup to your taste.  Then pour in up to 1 tablespoon of chia seeds and stir thoroughly.  Refrigerate or just let set for about 5-15 minutes to allow the chia seeds to soften.  Squeeze in some fresh lime juice before drinking or serving.  Stir as you drink to keep the chia seeds afloat.  You can add ice if you like I just prefer the temperature of beverages right out of the fridge.

Stir, drink, and enjoy.

For more drinks check out:

How to Make Cold Brewed Tea

Homemade Bloody Mary Mix

Dillinger Cocktail with St. Germain

Linked to:  2 cup Lou Lou, Wake up, Wonderful, Full Plate, Freedom, Foodie Friends, Pretty Pintastic, best of the weekend

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Great Ideas for Summer Drinks

A Great Idea Thursdays roundup of great summer beverages.  Just in time for your 4th of July celebration (at least for those of us in the U.S.A.).

Summer is here and it's hot.  I've always been a summer girl and loved the heat but having MS makes me heat sensitive.  That means if I get too hot my disabilities get worse.  It's no big deal, I'm used to it now I just have to take advantage of the shade and keep a cold beverage on hand.  So instead of doing a patriotic roundup for the 4th I thought it would be better to share refreshing summer beverages.

All of these drinks have been shared on Great Idea Thursdays link party (starting Wednesdays @ 6:00pm EST and ending Sunday @ 11:59pm EST).  If you would like to join us just link up anything you've made yourself...family friendly please.  Everything gets pinned and I share my favorites on social media and do the occasional roundup.  Follow our Pinterest board for more great ideas.


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Now for those refreshing summer drinks.  I separated them into alcoholic and non-alcoholic...just remember alcohol dehydrates so it's always good to sip on water too. If you want to pin any of these images please pin directly from the source

Alcoholic:

Sea Breeze Punch from Keep it Simple Sweetie

Easy Frozen Strawberry Margaritas from Yesterfood

Gator-itas from Florassippi Girl

Perfect Summertime Sangria from Keep it Simple Sweetie

Jalapeno & Citrus Margarita from Keep it Simple Sweetie

Cherry Limeade Cocktails from This Silly Girl's Life

Blackberry Apricot Sangria from This Silly Girl's Life

Cherry Mom-osas from Keep it Simple Sweetie

Red Wine Cooler from Keep it Simple Sweetie

Non-Alcoholic:

Berry Lemonade from A Mom's Take

Coconut Lavender Lemonade from Confectionalism

Kids Cranberry Mocktail from Madame Deals, Inc.

Homemade Cola from Little House Living

Dragonfruit Mock Mojito from Frugal Mon Eh!

Raspberry Mint Lemonade from A Dash of Sanity

Watermelon Lemonade from Almost Supermom

Blue Raspberry Lemonade Jello Slush from This Silly Girls Life

Dollar Tree Fruit Cube Cocktail from Robyn's View

Pink Lemonade from Little House Living

Enjoy and try to keep cool this summer.

Linked to:  The Wednesday Rondup, Two Cup, Teach Me, Lou Lou Girls, Brag About it, Whimsy Wednesday, Cook Craft Share, Eat Create Party, Freedom Friday, Pretty Pintastic, Best of the Weekend, Show Stopper, Saturday Night Fever, See Ya in the Gumbo, Much Ado, Merry Monday

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Dillinger Cocktail with St. Germain

A refreshing cocktail with cucumber, lemon, vodka and St. Germain.

I saw this drink recently on Barefeet In The Kitchen blog.  The cucumber and lemon flavoring a vodka soda sounded great and a new liquor, to me, was used as more flavor, St. Germain.  I've never tried St. Germain, but after reading the comments I had to try it.  I'm glad I did.  The St. Germain adds a sweetness and a floral taste to anything it is added to making any drink taste fancier.  It tastes great.  I had tonic in the fridge instead of soda water, so I used that instead.

Ingredients:

2 lemon slices
3 cucumber slices
Ice
1 shot of vodka
Tonic Water
dash of St. Germain

In the bottom of a glass muddle the lemon and cucumber.  Fill with ice and then pour in a shot of vodka.  Top up the glass with tonic water and add a splash of St. Germain.  Stir, relax and enjoy.

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