Homemade Lemonade and Lemonade Syrup

Two posts in one day! What?!  Well, it's rainy and yucky outside.  I haven't even been able to open my pool yet.  It's criminal!  Already four days into June and I can't open my pool!  So, I'm on my computer pulling new recipes and watching L play with her toys.  The house is a wreck because she is bored.  She has pulled out toys from the deepest corners of her toy boxes.  This is a child who does not enjoy just sitting and playing video games like other kids.  She is always on the go go go...  She did mention wanting to try lemonade though.  L?  Wants to try something new?  No way!  So I went and bought some lemons.  She, of course, cannot just have the lemonade at the store.  I have to make it from scratch.  But I already learned how to do this long ago.  So, this morning we squeezed lemons.  She thought that was really cool.  She only wanted to juice one though.  She didn't want to touch the "dirty seeds."  My sensory child...  They were slimy from the juice and pulp.  But she did sit and watch.  It was a good experience for her.  So now I will share the experience with you.  :)

And guess what... I remembered pictures this time!!!

Lemonade Syrup

Ingredients:
1 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice (I squeezed about 6 medium lemons for this this morning)
1/2 cup water
1 cup raw organic sugar

Directions:
In a small/medium saucepan, bring lemon juice and water to a boil.  Whisk in sugar.  Make sure you are using non reactive cookware.  I used a silicon coated whisk. Pour into a jar and let cool.  Refrigerate syrup in jar for up to one month.

To make this into lemonade, stir 1 Tablespoon (per 8 oz.) of syrup into a cold glass of water.  Adjust to taste of course.  I find that two tablespoons of syrup in one of my larger glasses of ice water is perfect.

This is what my jar of syrup looks like:

Pumpkin Spice Creamer

It has been awhile since I have been very active on my blog.  Life has been hectic.  Every week I think I will have time to blog but something comes up.  I started a long term substitute position in a library in August.  It has been so much fun and I get to stay until Christmas Break.  Hopefully it will help me to get a full time position in my own classroom.  At the same time I have been busy at home spending time with my three year old.  Yes, I said THREE.  I can't believe she is growing so fast.  Also, the husband finally got to start working first shift, so he is actually home with us.  We've been soaking up the family time.  I have still been cooking and experimenting but it will take me awhile to catch up here.  I will work on it but it may be during breaks that I have a surge in blog posts.  For now, I have also discovered why people like coffee!  I stopped drinking pop a few months ago.  So I never get any caffeine unless I get a tea or coffee.  At home, our tea is decaf and I never drink more than one coffee at a time.  But, since I get up at 4 AM now in order to get to work (it's quite a commute for me at this point), I have a little trouble getting myself going.  Especially now that the weather has gotten colder.

Anyway, I love the pumpkin spice lattes from Starbucks, but I hate the ingredients and price.  I found several recipes online to make your own pumpkin spice creamer.  I wasn't completely satisfied with any of them.  I already make my own plain sweet creamer and I have already posted the recipe for that.  I easily turned that into a pumpkin spice creamer.  Here is how:

Ingredients:

1 can evaporated milk

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 cup pureed pumpkin (canned or fresh)

1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

Directions:

In a saucepan, heat 1/2 the can of evaporated milk, pumpkin and pumpkin pie spice to a low simmer.  Whisk together until this comes to a simmer, then take it off of the heat.  Let this cool completely.  When it is cool, whisk in the rest of the evaporated milk and the sweetened condensed milk.  Pour into two mason jars.  This will stay good in the refrigerator for a week.  I put one in the fridge to use and one in the freezer to save.  You could also give one away for gifts OR you could keep one at home and one at work if you drink both places.  It is very good.  I believe I outdid Starbucks with this one.

Watermelon Juice

This is how I used watermelon that needed to be eaten.  It is hard to get rid of watermelon when you are the only one in the house who will eat it.

Ingredients:
Watermelon chunks
1/2-3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup lime juice
Water

Directions:
Blend watermelon chunks and strain to remove seeds.  Add lime juice and sugar.  Stir in water to fill the pitcher.  Stir or shake up before pouring anytime because the watermelon will settle to the bottom.  It's pretty good.  Try it.

Smoothies

I have been missing from the blogger world for awhile now.  We've had some major issues with my daughter.  She has been very ill off and on.  As I've stated before, we believed she had a food allergy, mainly to corn.  Well, in recent months, she has started reacting to almost every food she eats.  We have had so much trouble getting any pediatricians to help us so we are now trying a naturopath.  Basically, we have started over completely.  She was at the point she wasn't eating or drinking anything.  It was getting very scary.  After two and a half months with this naturopath, she now eats a few things and always drinks water and tea.  And she is finally gaining a little weight.  But her diet is very strict.  We started out only offering the following foods:  sweet potatoes, avocado, chicken, salmon, peas, spinach, apple, pear, banana, white beans and a nitrate free bacon.  On these, we put salt, olive oil and coconut oil.  At first, she wouldn't eat any and even stopped drinking for two whole days.  She lost a few pounds.  Since that wasn't working we had to take a different approach.  We still used that list as our base but I went ahead and let her eat a few of her fruit squeezers.  You know the ones you can buy and they can suck out through the top while squeezing.  I finally found one she would eat.  Then she started drinking water and tea.  Then she started eating the bacon.  And now she eats baked or grilled chicken and sometimes a regular potato.  She has finally slept through the night for several nights in a row.  She has never slept through the night before and she is two and a half years old.

With all of that, I just haven't had the time, energy or heart to work on blogging, cooking, crafting or job searching.  I hope we are on our way to a healthy child so we can all get back to life.  I still have blogs started from Christmas time that I haven't finished and posted.  But I do have a few smoothie recipes for you today.

Spinach and Fruit Smoothie:
2 handfuls baby spinach
1 apple, cored (you can peel too if you prefer but I like the peel)
1 banana
1 cup almond milk (I use almond but you could just as easily use any kind of milk)
5 whole strawberries
1/2 orange
2 scoops protein powder (optional, I use whey protein powder)

Blend all together.  This can be frozen for use through the week.  This actually made 2-3 servings.

Breakfast Smoothie:
1 cup peaches
1/4 cup blueberries
1/2 cup almond milk
1 scoop protein powder

Blend all together.  This one is also good to freeze if needed.  This one is enough for 2 small smoothies or 1 large.  I doubled the recipe and made 3 smoothies.

Chai Tea Latte Mix

UPDATE:  I've received GREAT reviews on this.  Everyone who likes chai tea loves this stuff!

This is another great mix for gift jars.  This recipe made five pint jars.  When I am not making it for gifts, I will probably try to quarter the recipe.  It makes way more than I could ever drink by myself.  It's good though.   I don't think it is quite as good as Starbucks Chai Tea Latte but it is good.  Not to mention, it is MUCH cheaper.  I will definitely keep this recipe around.  One note though, this is the only recipe on this blog so far that is NOT corn-free.

Ingredients:
1 cup nonfat dry milk powder
1 cup powdered non dairy creamer
1 cup French vanilla powdered non dairy creamer
2½ cups white sugar
2 cups unsweetened instant tea
2 tsp. ground ginger
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground cloves
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. allspice
¼ tsp. white pepper

Directions:
Combine all ingredients.  Add three tablespoons of tea mix to one cup hot water or milk.

Note:  This recipe was modified from HERE.