Almost Fresh Lemonade

Lemonade is something we drink year round around our place!   In the winter it's not just good cold, but it's also good warmed up and served hot especially if your chilled to the bone and need to thaw out.  But in the summer it's wonderfully refreshing on a hot day!  

I call mine ALMOST fresh lemonade because I actually make my own concentrate from lemon juice.  Sometimes buy the name brand lemon juice and other times I buy the generic brand.   I usually do buy the generic because it's cheaper and it works equally as well in this recipe.  You know the stuff that comes in the green bottle.  But if you have access to lots of real actual lemons that are inexpensive you could squeeze lemons as well to acquire the needed lemon juice.  But here in North Dakota we don't exactly have lemon tree's around here.  

 It's super simple to make.

Almost Fresh Lemonade Concentrate
1 cup Water
1 1/2 cups Sugar
1 1/2 cups Lemon Juice

This can be made on the stove top or the microwave oven.  
Mix the water and the sugar together and heat until the sugar is fully dissolved stirring occasionally.
Remove from heat and stir in the lemon juice. 
When cooled pour into a container that has a lid and pours easily.  Label if desired.

To Use:
Mix 1 part lemonade concentrate and 3 parts water.  Stir.
But if that is not to your liking, mix to your own taste using more or less water.
Garnish with a lemon wedge if desired. 

I made a label for our bottle of lemonade concentrate and it looks like this.

When we travel since I can't drink bottled soda anymore because it has too much carbonation and makes me physically ill, I often buy FUZE or Pure Leaf Tea instead.   Well since these two drinks comes in nice hard plastic bottle instead of throwing them away we remove the labels, wash and refill them.  Then use them as a refillable drinking bottle.   I like to use them around the house instead of a glass, because you just never know if a dog will knock one over and vola` no mess.   Or I can just grab it and go as well.   I often fill these bottle with the lemonade concentrate but I often dilute it quite a bit so there is just a hint of the lemon and it's mostly water since I don't care for drinking plain water and don't want the empty calories of all that sugar.  But real sugar is better than high fructose corn syrup that is found in many store bought lemonades.  And this is super simple to make that even kids can mix their own up or you can make a whole pitcher of it.


Well my son Case (12) has a trip school Robotics meet tomorrow out of town, and their coach said they could eat their breakfast on the bus or at home but they should eat in the morning.  Well I told Case he had to have breakfast at home but he could take a snack for the road.  He wanted to take a couple of granola bars and a bottle of our almost fresh lemonade.   So I made him his very own label for his "recycled" reusable bottle!

~enjoy~