Monday, August 11, 2008

Juicy Juice

Here's a little tip that I came up with a while back to help control the amount of sugar -- I mean juice -- that Lola drinks. I know all you other moms, like myself, probably dilute your little kid's juice with water. And, I also know there is a debate on how diluting the juice cuts the nutritional value. But, I recently learned that when reading food labels, every 4 grams of sugar equals a teaspoon of sugar. That's a lot for a toddler! So, being that we all have the choice to do what we want with our own kids, I still choose to dilute the juice. So here's something I started doing to simplify things.

(I only buy 100% juice. You have to watch this bc it seems like half of the juice on the market isn't really juice at all. They're juice "drinks," "fruit-flavored," or might only contain 10% fruit/vegetable juice! That drives me crazy! So, although pure juice it is a nutritious drink, I still try to limit Lola's intake bc there can be a nice amount of sugar in each serving.)

So, to keep it simple, what I do is pour the juice into ice cube trays and freeze them. Then, once they're frozen, all I have to do is drop a cube into a sippy cup and fill with water. Lola loves this! It keeps her water cold and also adds a little flavor -- all without too much sugar. Once the juice has frozen in the ice cube trays, I pop them out and just store them in a plastic container in the freezer. They're always ready for the next drink :)

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