When life gives you lemons you can do one of two things:

#1. When life gives you lemons: Cut them up and turn them into ice cubes.

If we have spoken, in say the last 2 months, then you are painfully aware that my ice maker is not doing its job. I ask that machine to do one thing, ONE THING! and it’s letting me down. Ok, in all fairness, I’m asking it to do two things: Freeze the water and drop it into the bucket. Apparently, that is too much to ask.

After doing as much troubleshooting as I possibly could, I went out in search of ice cube trays. I will warn you, if you don’t own ice cube trays, they are not the easiest things to find. Bed Bath & Beyond, my final stop, has them (and in more shapes than are really necessary).

As I was thinking about new ways to give water a twist of flavor, without adding many calories, I found an article in the August issue of Body+Soul Magazine. The article featured ice cubes infused with herbs, fruits, and vegetables. I couldn’t decide which flavor I wanted so I went with a variety of ingredients so I could test them all. Now, I did not use the recipes in the magazine, I simplified the already simple recipes and just did the following:

• Washed and cut up fresh mint, basil, seedless cucumbers, limes, and of course lemons
• Washed fresh blueberries and raspberries (frozen would do just fine, too)
  
• Divided the herbs, fruits, and vegetables into my brand new ice cube trays
• Topped some of the fruit cubes with 2-3 drops of liquid stevia (I used NuNaturals Pure Liquid Clear Stevia)
• Covered the fruit with water and popped them into the freezer

You know when you have something baking in the oven and you open and shut the door to check on the progress even when you know you shouldn’t? Well that’s what I did with the freezer to check on these ice cubes. Now that I think about it, this might explain why my ice maker doesn’t work.

Anyway, these ice cubes are ahhh-mazing!

They are refreshing, delicious, and quite pretty if I do say so myself. I will make them again and again. Next time, I’m going to make some with Strawberry Italian Sparkling Mineral Water, because I’m fancy like that.

Now that I’ve put my water on these rocks, I almost wish my ice maker would have stopped working long ago. Almost.

Moving on to the second thing to do when life gives you lemons…

#2. When life gives you lemons: JUST KEEP SWIMMING!

Now you know what to do when life gives you lemons: Put some water on the rocks and just keep swimming.