Tuesday, August 30, 2005

Hydrate me big daddy, 8 to the bar

Our kids were sicker than sick dogs a few weeks ago. Really high fevers, in the 104 degree range. While this makes them really easy to care for since they just lay there in a heap, it's also pretty scary. We talked to the doctor about fluids and he recommended plain old Gatorade. "Not pedialyte?" we asked. Nope. Turns out pedialyte has done a fine marketing job, but Gatorade works just as well for a lot less money. So we bought some Gatorade and forced the kids to drink about half of the bottle.

One day after my commute I decided to finish off the rest. I don't usually drink energy drinks or anything other than water because after a long ride that stuff makes my stomach upset. But man if this didn't hit the spot. So then I had the dilemma: Should I buy more? While it's cheaper than pedialyte, it runs about a buck a quart minimum for the powdered stuff, even more for the liquid. That's more than a gallon of gas!

So, I did what any tight, web savvy biker would do. I checked out my friend, the interweb. There's plenty of recipes for homebrew Gatorade out there, but nothing that sounded really really easy. Sunday I made a trip to the store. Here's the concoction I ended up going with:
Country Time Pre-Sweetened Lemonade Mix
Morton Lite Salt
Net investment, about $6.

I mixed up two quarts of Country Time and added 3/4 a teaspoon of the lite salt. I got the lite because it's basically already pre-mixed with salt and potassium, both of which were in the recipes I found online. It tastes pretty much like gatorade and it couldn't be easier to whip up. The lemonade already has a built in measurer for it's mix, and then just one quick dash of the lite salt. Nice.

1 comment:

Yon Saucy Wench said...

I wondered why we had gatorade-type stuff in the 'frig...