H2O

As the resident wicked step-mother, I don't regularly buy soda for us to drink at home. Don't think I'm all about health food (we have plenty of cold cereal for meals at our house), but it's easy to not buy soda and it's a baby step in the right direction to helping kids create healthy habits.

In an effort to encourage drinking more water, we bought a large Britta and have started creating a water-flavor-of-the-week.

We started with a citrus blend: orange, lime, lemon. This was a huge hit and we all increased our water intake last week. Water for dinner is boring, but this made it seem like we were having something fancy with our meal. I had to add water to the Britta quite often during the week, so I know it was being consumed quickly between meals as well.

This week we went with watermelon and mint. Another hit in my book, but not everyone is a fan of watermelon in my house. (I know- how do you not like watermelon?!)  This doesn't look appetizing, but it is delicious.

The only dilemma is in order to give the water flavor, I slightly crush whatever I'm adding. When we dispense the water, it pulls the food toward the dispenser and clogs it a bit. It wasn't an issue with the citrus, but has been with the watermelon. Next week I want to try raspberry/lemon and I know those raspberry seeds are going to be a problem. I'm wondering if I can find some kind of mesh to put fruit in and just float that in the water. Any ideas?

Also- I'm anxious to hear any good recipe suggestions.

Cheers!