Most commercial root beers are made with artificial favoring.  This is a natural, DIY recipe for root beer.  Katie uses sassafras, wintergreen, molasses, and vanilla  in her recipe, along with other ingredients.  With homemade root beer you end up with a rich blend of wonderful flavors.  It’s so much better than commercial soda.

One note:  In order to make homemade root beer you need a homemade ginger bug or starter.  Katie includes a link to her ginger bug starter. Here is the link to Wellness Mama’s Ginger Bug Starter recipe.

Please visit the How to Make Homemade Root Beer link below for Katie’s recipe for homemade Root Beer.

How to Make Homemade Root Beer

Everyone has probably heard the recommendation of drinking 8 glasses of water a day. Many people assume they can substitute soda (or pop if that’s what you call it in your area) for the 8 glasses of water. This video explores the science behind what happens to your body when you drink a lot of soda daily.

It turns out that drinking a lot of soda van cause a lot of health issues including aging you in the same way that smoking cigarettes can age you.  Diet soda has its own set of problems.

The video is fast, informative and entertaining.  Click on the How Drinking Too Much Soda Can Affect Your Body link below to go to the LifeHacker site and learn more.  When you’re on the LifeHacker site, just click on the picture at the top to start the video. It’s really an eye opener.

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This is a short article and recipe that explains how to make coffee concentrate which is an easy way to make iced coffee. After making the concentrate, you can store it in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. When you’re ready for a glass of iced coffee just add enough to cold water or milk to suit your taste. Nice recipe.

Click on the How to Make Coffee Concentrate link below to see the recipe.

How to Make Coffee Concentrate

Nicole of Wonky Wonderful created this recipe.  It’s a  natural and healthy alternative to soda.  The spritzer is a  sweet and refreshing drink that is also good for kids.

The recipe uses blackberries, honey and several other ingredients.  It’s a fairly quick and easy drink to prepare.   Click the Homemade Blackberry Honey Spritzer Recipe link below for Nicole’s recipe.

Homemade Blackberry Honey Spritzer Recipe

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Longtime readers know that I love recipes that use lavender. Candi brings us a recipe by Joy the Baker for Lavender Lemonade. This would be such a refreshing springtime and summer drink.

The recipe uses culinary lavender, homey, fresh-squeezed lemon juice (of course!), and other ingredients. It’s an easy recipe to make and produces a lemonade that is delicious and refreshing.

Click on the How to Make Refreshing Lavender Lemonade link below to see the recipe.

How to Make Refreshing Lavender Lemonade

survivingthestores.com

I found this article on the Surviving the Stores website. It’s a collection of 20 different ways to use tea. Here are just a few of the uses:

• Relieving Foot Odor
• Improve the Roses in Your Garden
• Prevent Dizziness
• Treat Acne
• Cure Bad Breath
• And MORE!

Click on the 20 Unique Ways to Use Tea link below to read the complete article.

20 Unique Ways to Use Tea

I found this recipe on the Rethink Simple website. This is Kristen’s recipe for Natural Chocolate Milk Syrup. The 4 ingredients are in the photograph: Cocoa powder, Maple syrup, Filtered water and Vanilla extract. She explains how to make the all-natural syrup. Once the syrup is mixed, you add as much as you like to a glass of milk, stir and enjoy! It keeps in the fridge for up to 3 weeks.

Click on the Natural Chocolate Milk Syrup Recipe link below for the complete recipe.

Natural Chocolate Milk Syrup Recipe