Homemade Lemonade

I've been ready for spring the first time it hit -32819302 degrees over here. The cold temperatures was too much even for my little car battery! It's okay now but that was the first time I've had that happen to me and it was a little stressful. Nothing like a sudden car service to break the bank. Even though it's cold outside, I'm drinking homemade ice cold lemonade. It's putting me in spring mode because I am so ready for it!



I even was a little adventurous and made myself pink lemonade! I googled the other day how it was even made and apparently it's either cranberry juice or food coloring. I'm not a fan of cranberry juice and I have an excess supply of food coloring for some reason so I just squeezed a tiny bit in my glass and mixed it around. It really looks like store bought and tastes better!

Hey over-21's, try putting gin in your lemonade with some mint leaves. So good.

Homemade Lemonade
From Real Simple

1/2 cup sugar
Water
1 cup fresh lemon juice (from about 5 lemons)

In a small saucepan, combine the sugar and 1/2 cup water. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally, until the sugar is dissolved. Let cool.

In a pitcher, combine the syrup with the lemon juice and 2 1/2 to 3 cups water. Serve over ice.

Banana Smoothie

When my family and I take a vacation, it never involves flying. We drive everywhere. We stick to the east coast of the States, but we have driven to as far as Niagara Falls, Maine, North Carolina, and more. My dad is always the one to drive the nine or seven hours it takes to get to our destination. As a kid, I tried to stay awake as much as I could so that my dad wouldn't feel lonely. Not that he's much of a talker when he drives, but I thought that at least the idea of someone else awake would comfort him. It amazed me how he could drive such long hours and not show a sign of tiredness. I even felt bad that we had to go to such far away places when he was the only one driving. But now that I've started driving myself to and from school, I think I understand why my dad didn't mind it. After a few trips, six hours seem like nothing to me so I'm sure my dad thought the same way. We haven't taken a vacation in a while, but next time, I will definitely have to help him out with the driving.

Driving around town is a hassle, but something about driving on the highway is a lot of fun for me. I actually look forward to it. I'm on the road to Virginia today. Originally, I would have left on Saturday or even on Sunday, but there are cats that need to be taken care of back South, so I'm cutting my Spring Break short. Keeping up my energy is super important when I'm driving, so I prepared some snacks that I could easily munch on. I also decided to make myself a smoothie. Not a fancy schmancy smoothie with lots of different ingredients, but a simple two-ingredient smoothie. Easy to make just before I leave.



I tried making these with frozen blueberries, but I got slush. What is it about frozen bananas that still results in a creamy smoothie?



Banana Smoothie
From Coffee Beans and Curry Leaves

- 2 bananas, frozen
- 1 1/2 cups milk

Cut up frozen bananas and place in blender. Add the milk and blend.

Homemade Soymilk

Coffee-mate. My mom puts it in her coffee every day. Quite a bit, actually. I don't think it's too good for you so I would nag at her at times and she would buy a bottle of milk for her coffee. But old habits die hard, right? She goes back to the Coffee-mate and the cycle continues. I think it's because her stomach is a bit sensitive when it comes to milk. (Fortunately, when it's baked or cooked into foods, it's fine.) I bought her lactaid-free milk once and she didn't like it. On my daily browse of Foodgawker, I came across this recipe for homemade soymilk the other day and decided to give it a try. Maybe she'll like soymilk in her coffee instead, especially when it's homemade and not containing any weird ingredients that the store-bought ones could have. My mom just bought a bag of dried yellow soybeans since she had planned on making cold soybean noodle soup but never got around to it so I opened it last night and took out just half a cup of soybeans to soak overnight. The recipe is so simple and the result very tasty! I don't think I'll ever buy again.





Homemade Soymilk [Makes 5 cups]

- 1/2 cup dried yellow soybeans
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 1/8 cup sugar (more to taste, I added 1 more tablespoon)

1. Rinse dried soy beans thoroughly and drain. Soak in cold water overnight in a large bowl. Drain again.
2. Put soybeans and 2 1/2 cups of water in a blender. Cover lid tightly and puree until smooth and milky. Transfer the puree to a large stockpot and add 3 additional cups of water.
3. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring constantly and skimming off foam, as necessary. Turn heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally for 25 minutes.
4. Strain milk through a fine-mesh sieve lined with cheesecloth into a bowl, pressing on soybeans to squeeze as much liquid out as possible. Stir in salt and sugar, adding more sugar to taste. Serve piping hot or ice cold.