Healthy drink for kids : Hibiscus flower and Dates.(Zobo)

Greetings beautiful people, today is a great and sunny day in my area, the weather has been hot for few weeks now and the body will surely need a lot of fluid, water and drinks. In this light we need to be careful not to consume a lot of drinks with sugar because we know water is the best drink for us but sometimes water can be boring and we need other drinks to spice it up. So in my post today I decided to share my hibiscus flower and dates recipe, so parents and kids can benefit from it.

Hibiscus flower is popularly known as zobo drink in my country and I will refer to this drink as zobo all through the post. Zobo drink is make from cooking the hibiscus flower and take the juice from it. It's a very healthy drink that do the body a lot of good things and in this drink instead of using sugar as sweetener I used dates which makes the zobo drink all natural. The best way I love all my drinks.

List of ingredients

1. 4 cups of Hibiscus flower,
2. 8 cups of Dates,
3. 1 medium size Pineapple and it's peel,
4. Clove, (as desired)
5. Ginger. (as desired)

We all can see that these ingredients are amazing and nutritious to the body, so let's briefly look at the health benefits of these ingredients before we proceed with our drink procedures.

Health benefit of the ingredients

Hibiscus flower: It's contains vitamin c that helps to boost the immune system and it's also said this flower helps to reduce menstrual pain in women, reduce high blood pressure and very good for the liver. It's had also been find out from research that it can help cure depression in its early stage. What a drink to have in handy always.

Dates: These are dried fruit, that are high in calories because of its dried nature. It's however contains some vitamins and also an antioxidants that helps to fight diseases in the body. It's high in fiber as well which prevent constipation, it's helps to promote brain health which is a good thing for the kids. It's also a natural sweetener that can be used to sweetening drinks.

Pineapple: This is amazing fruit, I personally love it's sweet nature and it's can be used as a sweetner for this drink but it's has other amazing health benefits, it's rich in vitamin c and manganese which boost the immune system and also helps with growth and development. It's helps to aid digestion and research also says it helps to reduce the risk of cancer.

Clove and Ginger: This are two power combination that can help with weight loss, cleanse the body system and also helps to treat flu and cold.

Zobo drink Procedures

• To make the zobo drink, first of all wash the zobo leaves as its harbour lots of sand. To wash it you ensure to add it to water and remove almost immediately. This is for the sand to settle down and also for the zobo to not loose all its juice, after washing put the leaves inside a boiling water.

• Add grounded cloves and ginger to the mixture, I like to ground the clove and ginger so they will mix with the mixture well, also add the pineapple peel at this point so as to boil with the mixture. Allow to boil for 30 minutes.

• Leave the mixture on fire and go blend the pineapple and dates. First I removed the seeds from the dates and soak it for about two hours before blending.

• After thirty minutes, remove the zobo drink on fire and sieve, so as to remove the drink from the chaff.

• Add the blended dates and pineapple and mix together, then sieve once more. To get a smooth and perfect drink. The zobo drink was transfer to bottles and kept in the refrigerator. It can be preserve in the refrigerator for seven days while in the freezer for two to three months.

There you go my healthy zobo drink that taste amazing is ready and loved by my daughter so much, I don't have to worry about all the sugar filled drink, all I do is package her zobo for her in her lunch box, this brings so much joy to me.
That's all for the zobo drink. Thank you all for you time.