Hot Summers Need an Easy Homemade Lemonade Recipe.

There is absolutely nothing like fresh squeezed lemonade. It is so distinct that you can immediately tell when someone has taken the extra time to make it. It's one of my favorite things to serve at parties and trust me--- it's always a hit. In my experience people really notice and respond to fresh ingredients especially fresh lemonade.

However, it can be a lot of work to squeeze lemons.

A lot of work.

That's why I bought the KitchenAid Juicer attachment. It fits right into my KitchenAid Stand Mixer (one of my favorite appliances of all time). It really is amazing. What used to take me nearly an hour to squeeze takes me 10 minutes. And it really gets EVERYTHING out of the fruit.

You can't see it so well in this picture, but there is a little basket that sits in the bottom of the juicer which catches all the pulp and seeds. So amazing! If you are juicing a lot, then you'll have to empty the basket a couple of times, but it is well worth it.

I would definitely recommend this to anyone who already has a KitchenAid Mixer because it's my favorite attachment!

I bought mine here: KitchenAid JE Citrus Juicer Stand Mixer Attachment It was a little cheaper and it has free shipping! Yay! I'd really recommend it!

Today I was having some of my cousins over for supper so we could meet my youngest's cousins boyfriend. I think it's best to throw a potential spouse right into the crazy so they know what they are in for! Right?! Right.

I decided to make a double batch which would probably be around eight to ten glasses, but for recipe purposes I'll tell you how to make a single batch (4-5 glasses).

What You Will Need:

3/4 c - 1c sugar (this will depend on how sweet or tart you want it)
1 1/2 c water
6 lemons juiced (approx 1 - 1.5 cup)
2-3 c water (this will depend on how lemony you want it)

On medium low heat put 1 1/2 cups of water in a pot and add 3/4 to 1 cup of sugar. I like mine more tart so I use less sugar. If you like it sweet then I'd suggest adding a full cup.

Stir until dissolved. Remove from heat.

Juice all the lemons hopefully using your super easy juicing attachment.

I took this picture after juicing 4 lemons with my juicer attachment! Impressive, right? You can see how much juice I got AND how clean the lemons are.  I know I'm beating a dead horse, but I seriously love it.

After you juice all your lemons, then place it into a serving container or pitcher. Add 2-3 cups of cold water and 1/2 to 3/4 of the water-syrup mixer, stir and then taste test. It's always better to add too little than too much because you can always add more!

Here are some other recipe variations that you can try that I LOVE....

DIY almond milk (sweetened vanilla)

About a year ago I found out that I was mildly allergic to milk products. It was a horrible day! No more cheese. No more milk. No more butter!

Quite frankly it was one of the biggest changes I've ever had to make, but it's been worth it. I feel so much better, I'm having less sinus infections, and I have more energy. It's been a good, but difficult change.

One of the big changes I made was switching from cows milk to almond milk. To be honest, I actually really enjoyed it.  At least the sweetened vanilla kind. :) But sadly, I looked at the back of the carton one day and realized that there is a lot more in almond milk than almonds, sugar and vanilla. There were things I couldn't pronounce and I had no idea what they were. I decided to do some research instead...

I found out that most commercial almond milk is bad! Here is a great post from one of my favorite bloggers about non-dairy milks and she explains why you should be careful picking a non-dairy milk.

I decided that maybe I could make my own to avoid some of the not so natural ingredients. Come to find out that making almond milk looks really easy and I already had everything I needed to get started.

All you need is:

1 cup of almonds (soaked for at least 8 hours)

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp to 1 tbsp vanilla extract

A large spoonful of honey

4 cups of water

I soaked the almonds for 8 hours. I was wondering if I could skip this step because basically I'm just going to crush the caca out of them in a blender, but during my research I found out that this is actually an important step. It softens the nuts, gets rid of impurities and helps to release all the good stuff inside the almonds so we can absorb them better.

Just blend the ingredients together in a mixer for a while--- the longer the better!      

Remember to strain the liquid at least twice! There is quite a bit of almond residue. And then Tada! You have your own almond milk! 

Review of Almond Milk

Also check out my friend's recipe for almond milk from Ribas with Love