Favorite Summer drinks: almond milk coffee slush

Coffee fix of the day <3 heading to the park for a lunch time picnic. So the smoke from the forrest fires have finally died down. Now we're trying to enjoy the out doors before it hits -50 here! I'm still nervous about how I will handle those temperatures. Apparently winter hits early here too. I thought it would be fun to take the kids to the playground and picnic during Sean's lunch hour. For our park date I made delicious iced coffee slush with almond milk for my husband and I. I lt was so good, low calorie, and pretty easy!

I started with a jug of my iced coffee concentrate. For this I mixed 1 cup of coffee grounds with 7 cups of water and left overnight. In the morning I strained it through my french press. The concentrate can last in the fridge for a couple weeks.

I filled an ice cube tray with the concentrate and froze to make coffee ice cubes. Fill them to the brim!

I Took 1 tray of frozen coffee cubes and mixed in a blender with 1 cup of unsweetened almond milk. Just blend until you have a slush consistency.

Pour into a cup...or in this case 2 travel cups for cold drinks.

Mix in 1 packet of stevia sweetener. This packet says it's equivalent to 2 tsp of sugar.

Stevia is a natural 0 calorie sweeter. I use it in everything even my baking.

P.S. It rained all lunch hour during our picnic haha!

Favorite Summer drinks: Mint lemonade

I love mint...I also love lemons. Together they make one refreshing drink! There are great health benefits to drinking fresh lemon (Sean and I drink a lemon a day each in room temperature water) 

* Lemons are rich in vitamin C. When someone is sick in our house we make fresh lemon, fresh ginger and honey in hot water. The tea works and tastes good.
* lemons are strong antibacterial, antiviral, and immune-boosting
* Vitamin C and other antioxidants in lemons clear skin and combat skin damage
* are use as a weight loss because lemon juice is a digestive aid and liver cleanser
* Lemons contain many vitamin/minerals like vitamin C, citric acid, calcium, magnesium, bioflavonoids, and pectin that promote immunity and fight infections
* Lemons help to balance to the body’s pH

* Citric acid in lemon juice helps to dissolve gallstones, calcium deposits, and kidney stones. 

* They detoxify the liver

* powerful antibacterial properties

* Lemons contain anti-cancer compounds

The list goes on! 

Health benefits of fresh mint:

* mouth and breath freshener

* Helps with weight loss by stimulating digestive enzymes that absorb nutrients from food and consume fat.

* promotes digestion and soothes indigestion or inflammation

* helps respiratory problems and Coughs

* Mint is a natural stimulant 

* It effects alertness and retention

Sean's gone for the weekend :( He's flying to the Yukon which is awesome for him. I'm mixing up lemonade and snacks for  the little ones. Maybe cartoon movie night tonight...

I roll my lemon to get the juices going and soften them up before I cut them in half. Then I pull the leaves off a washed stem (or 2 small stems) of fresh mint and put them in my glass pitcher. 

Then I take a spoon and jab them releasing their oils. The mint will smell so strong and yummy now. 

Squeeze the juice of 3 fresh lemons and add to the mint. I use a fork to scrape the pulp bits in too. I like the tangy bursts they add (I throw the lemon peels in after squeezing only if the lemonade batch will be drunk right away. Otherwise the lemon peel will make it taste bitter after awhile) HAHAHA! I noticed when I took the pic that I had a couple pairs of eyes watching and wanting to help <3

Mix in 1/2 cup of stevia sweetener.  Pour it in slower or you will make a stevia cloud like Zola did. We used the baking stevia that measured cup for cup. Its nice to not give the kids sugar. Sometimes I'll also do half cane sugar half stevia because my husband is the picky one haha He doesn't fully like the stevia taste yet.

Pour in 6 1/2 cups of water

Give it all a good mix then you can also pop in some frozen raspberries as 'ice cubes' to finish off. Sometimes we leave them out.

Delicious, refreshing, healthy, and looks cute in a nice glass!