Homemade Lemonade

I know I can’t expect my kids to drink water 24/7 (for those of you whose kids do, I applaud you!!!…really, this is not sarcasm…I wish my kids would!). However, as much as I’d love for my own children to do so, they do not and will not. They will drink lemonade and apple juice. Lots of it. So on my journey to do the best I can to rid our bodies of impurities and not introduce more garbage into them (Ok I’m trying. As best as I can. We may have had White Castle for lunch today. Shhhhhhh!), I have started to religiously make my daughter’s lemonade from scratch. I can honestly say I’ve been doing so for at least 3 months now and it’s one of the best decisions I’ve made on our wellness journey.

I started making my own homemade lemonade because every time I bought it pre-made, I realized it had more sugar than my kids on Halloween—and honestly, if I’m going to deal with the chaos, at least I want the lemonade to taste like a tiny slice of sanity! Plus, making it myself means I get to pretend I’m a fancy chef instead of just a caffeine-fueled mom trying to stay awake. Ha.

I started with simple homemade lemonade which was great. I then started adding different fruits to my batches. My lemonade drinker loves plain lemonade though. Strawberry is her next fave. She IS NOT a fan of watermelon lemonade, even tho she loves watermelon. Go figure. I plan to try more fruits as time goes on, but for now she prefers simple lemonade. And by simple I mean simple. My lemonade has 3 ingredients: lemons, filtered water, and sugar.

What I Use to Make My Lemonade

While it may seem obvious, lemons are the main ingredient in lemonade. However, over the last 3 months I have come to learn that lemons are different. Very different. From seeds, to skin, to pith (the edible white layer between the skin and inside lemon)…different lemons all have different characteristics that greatly impact the taste of the final product. While it’s not super easy to tell what a lemon will taste like from looking at it, I’ve learned that certain marketed/brand lemons are better than others.

In my opinion, Meyer lemons make for the sweetest lemonade. Not only are they sweeter, but they are also less acidic and very aromatic. I love the smell of my hands after squeezing Meyer lemons. My next favorite lemons are seedless. The Wonderful brand is sold in my area, but I’m sure they are all very similar. Seedless lemons are simply more convenient. Because no matter how often you think you got all the seeds out of the lemons, there are always a few that sneak through. And finally, if you can’t find either of these, good ol’ Sunkist work too. And yes, I say Sunkist because I have purchased non-branded lemons a bunch of times and they are undoubtedly filled with seeds and thick pith. This translates to more tart lemons and less juice. I also do not purposely buy organic lemons as the thick peel protects the lemons from the harsh chemicals used as pesticides.

To squeeze the lemons, I use this simple lemon squeezer from Amazon and squeeze the lemons into a 1 gallon pitcher. Besides lemons, I use simple white sugar and filtered water. I asked my daughter’s nutritionist whether I should convert to another type of sugar like cane sugar, but she said there really is no need. I read that cane sugar alters the taste, and by the nutritionist saying that white sugar is okay, I took that as my go-ahead to keep it simple and stick with what my daughter already loves.

Ingredients

• 7 lemons of your choice (8 if any are on the smaller side)

• 1 cup of white sugar

• water

Directions

1. Bring two cups of water to a boil and add one cup of sugar until dissolved. Remove from heat and cool.

2. While sugar water cools, cut all lemons in half so that they fit in your lemon squeezer NOTE: I soak my lemons for about 10-15 minutes in a dishpan with 1 tablespoon of baking soda then wash the skin to get any chemicals used off. As you squeeze the juice out of the lemons, the juice will touch the skin. Last thing you want is dirty, chemical filled lemon juice in your homemade lemonade!

3. Squeeze the juice of the lemons into a one gallon pitcher.

4. Once the sugar water is cooled, add it to the pitcher. If any seeds have gotten into the pitcher, remove them now. It is easier to remove them after the sugar water is added, as now the liquid is denser and the seeds will float to the top.

5. Add water to the one gallon line of the pitcher and stir.

While you can definitely store the lemonade in the pitcher, I like to store it in these Glass Bottles with Lids and Straws. This way, we take out one bottle at a time. If we don’t finish the entire bottle, we just put the lid back on and put it back in the fridge. I know this seems a little extra but it works for us. As my kids drink the lemonade, it’s sooo much easier to ask, “How many bottles of lemonade are left?” vs “Do we need more lemonade?” which would undoubtedly be answered with a blank stare.