Nourishing Traditions reports that beet kvass is an “excellent blood tonic, promotes regularity, aids digestion, alkalizes the blood, cleanses the liver and is a good treatment for kidney stones and other ailments.” Good stuff! I am loving it! Each morning, my husband and I have a little shot of it. My children aren’t thrilled. Yet.

Yesterday began the beverages course of the Whole Foods for the Holidays Real Food Progressive Dinner, hosted by Michele at Frugal Granola. Michele’s contribution is a lovely Russian tea. In this post, I’m sharing three of our favorite holiday (or anytime) beverages. What are yours?

Iced teeccinos… something we’ve been having alot lately. I can’t figure out if the cold teeccino is the perfect vehicle for the raw milk or the other way around. We love them both, and they’re really great together. Teeccino is a coffee alternative made from roasted grains, roots, nuts and seeds. My favorite flavors are hazelnut and chocolate mint. There are two ways to make an iced teeccino — the foamy way (pictured) and the not-so-foamy way. Take your pick; they’re both delicious.

We love water kefir! I can see why people call it a natural soda. But it is better than soda! Not only does it give you all sorts of probiotic goodness, it is not as sweet and doesn’t leave you with a sickly sweet upset stomach. And with active cultures that can probably last longer than you (with proper care), this is definitely a frugal – not to mention healthy – way to break a soda habit! In this post, I share basic instructions for a first and second fermentation, along with some flavor ideas. And I’m looking for YOUR flavor ideas, so please share!

Using small treasures from thrift stores as containers, ribbons, whole spices, and loose tea, my children and I created Chai Tea gift mixes for our Christmas gifts. Last week my friend Cheryl inspired me to start making Chai tea, and that’s when I figured out what we’d give as gifts this year. Praise the Lord for friends and their ideas!

Homemade chai tea… friends served it to us once and ever since, I’ve wanted to make it myself. I looked around the internet last week and collected recipes that I thought looked traditional in their use of whole spices and quality black tea. What I did to make this recipe was take what I thought was best about each recipe and put it together. That translates as: using almost every spice I saw mentioned, besides the “usual” cinnamon, cloves and cardamom. In this recipe, you’ll also learn how to decaffeinate your own black tea leaves, making this a kid-friendly drink!