You all were so adorable in your comments yesterday. It is a great/magical story! Thanks for sharing in the happiness of it with me. So sweet. (FYI, the awesome vintage pressed glass bowl below is also from my thrifitng adventure. Love.) And am I using the cabbage glasses? Everyday I tell you. They are key for my new nightly treat, my Clementine-Ginger Spritzer.
Truthfully I'm more of a red-wine-in-the-evening girl, but I've been having migraines like nobody's business lately. Every week or two I find myself curled up in a ball, wishing it would all just end. And for me nothing motivates a lifestyle change quite like debilitating pain. So I've decided to go with my instincts and give up the two beverage habits that I enjoy most: caffeine and alcohol. While I don't binge on either, I am suspecting that my body just can't handle the chemicals that they both contain, so I am cutting them out for a while to see what happens. (I considered throwing wheat and sugar in the do-not-eat mix as well, but goodness, it's almost Solstice and what would I do at our all-night-sugar-fest without those two vices? Wheat and sugar will just have to wait until January.)
Granted I'm only on day three, but I've almost replaced my tea habit with my old nettle chai recipe. I'm weaning myself off of the black tea one cup at a time, and I think that's working well. And the wine? The wine was replaced with a homemade Clementine-Ginger Spritzer. So yummy that I drank two bottles full last night. (And hey - no headache!)
I use homemade fizzy water in these, but you can just as easily use store-bought.
Since the holidays are upon us, I thought you might enjoy the recipe to rotate into your holiday mix. (With so many mamas and pregnant mamas posted in the giveaway I am hosting for LuSa goodies, I might be onto something with this caffeine and alcohol free/low sugar beverage theme. Kid friendly!) Here's how.
Gather your ingredients:
- Three organic clementines (or tangerines or satsumas - call them what you will)
- 1" nub of ginger
- 1 Liter carbonated water or mineral water
- A few drops of Stevia or honey
Make it:
If you have a masticating juicer, throw the unpeeled ginger in and catch the juice in one cup. Then juice the peeled clementines and catch juice in another cup.
If you don't have a fancy schmancy juicer, just finely grate the ginger and squeeze out all of the juiciness with your fingers into a cup. Then halve and juice the clementines by hand into a second cup.
The ginger can be unpredictable, so we'll add that slowly. (Thus the add-ins segregation.)
Add clementine juice to fizzy water, then add ginger a few drops at a time. Taste and add a few more if it isn't too zingy. Add a squirt or shake of stevia (I'm loving the liquid stevia as it seems far less bitter than the powder) or if you prefer add some honey diluted first in warm water so that it will mix in. You only need a little, as the clementines are sweet already.
Gently stir and taste. More ginger? Probably yes. Take it to the edge of spicy balanced with the sweet of the clementines and stevia. Serve over ice.
All I can say is yum. And wine? What wine? I don't remember any wine...
