Ice cubes, anti-inflammatory

We know, can it sound any weirder? Anti-Inflammatory ice cubes with lemon and ginger, but they’re SO refreshing and good and practical.

All you need to do is blend a few anti-inflammatory foods (like lemon and ginger) with water, put them in ice cube trays, freeze and wait for it.

Then BAM in a few hours you’ve got some refreshing lemon ginger ice cubes that will reduce inflammation and add some flavor to your water.

We actually came up with the idea as we were responding to a comment on our anti-inflammatory lemon ginger water recipe.

“How do you meal prep” she asked.

“Make ice cubes” we answered.

We know, it’s like you’re in the scene as well.

But Why?

Now the real question is: Why bother? Why make these at all? Here are a few reasons for us:

• We wasn’t drinking enough water, even though it’s hot out and adding these actually helps us stay hydrated, because they add flavor and coolness and we basically just like our water now.
• The cubes help to add some essential and non-essential vitamins and antioxidants to your diet like vitamin C and the rich and powerful gingerols which are shown to have anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, anti-rheumatic and antioxidant talents at almost no extra cost calorie- and money-wise.
• It’s just a simple thing to do to improve your health. Instead of drinking your 2nd or third cup of coffee, have some water with these ice cubes in it. Small changes do add up and compound, don’t underestimate them. Try it for a week, see how you feel and what other changes you want to make!

Now, let’s get into the next scene and actually make our favorite new creation – these anti-inflammatory ginger lemon ice cubes that you can modify any way you want, we'll share some options at the end!

Anti-Inflammatory Water Ice Cubes Ingredients

It’s these:

• Lemon – we used the whole lemon, peeled it and did not bother juicing before blending.
• Ginger – peeled it as well.
• Drinking water.

And in some of the cubes we actually added some basil leaves and mint leaves! Loved them. Next time, we're thinking about blending them in as well!

How it comes together

Well, here’s the to do list:

• Peel two lemons and some ginger
• Add these to a blender
• Add some clean water that you’d usually drink
• Blend until smooth
• Grab an ice cube tray and portion out the lemon ginger water to fill as many spots as you can. We used 2 trays, but it will depend on the size of yours.

• Freeze for at least 2-3 hours.
• Then release by letting the bottom of the ice cube tray sit in water for 10-20 seconds and pushing on the bottom to let each cube out. You could probably hear them screaming: “Free us, free us”. Do it.
• Either use right away or fill in freezer bags or containers, close and freeze again.
• Whenever you need a refreshment – grab a few, put in a glass with some water and enjoy! They will start melting and infusing the water.
• Also, you can refill the water until the cubes have melted all the way! As many times as you want. We usually do around 3-4 cubes per 2 cups of water (so we'd refill once).

Please keep in mind that your stomach might need some time to adjust to the cubes, so start with small amounts. You can also add more water to the blender to make them less intense or more water to the your drinking bottle.

How To Get The Ice Cubes Out Of The Tray

Just leave the bottom of the ice cube tray in some water for 10-20 seconds. Then push on the bottom and the cubes should come out.

If they don’t use force! But not a lot. For the lack of a better word – gently bang the ice cube tray against a firm surface like your kitchen counter. Flip the ice cube tray and hit again against the container you’ll want to put them in, push on the bottom, they should pop out easily now.

Basically, the water on the bottom is key here!

Customizing

Yes, you can customize the ice cubes with whatever anti-inflammatory foods you like! Just add a handful of those foods to the blender along with the other ingredients. Here are some things we'll try next:

• fresh mint
• parsley
• purslane – we've got a lot of this weed in our garden and it’s apparently healthy, we've been adding it to smoothies, but these ice cubes will be next.
• tart cherries
• strawberries or other berries
• basil
• flax oil for some extra omega-3’s (don’t know how this would turn out)

Maybe some watermelon too? Although we don’t like mixing watermelon with other things, it’s solid just the way it is. We’ll see!