A classic drink that from now until school starts again in the fall, is loved by thousands. But also in America, I know that there is an obesity epidemic, with over a third of Americans being obese (35.7%) and over two-thirds being overweight (68.7%). On average American’s consume over 3000 calories a day. And here’s another fact to scare you into switching your habits, a pound consists of 3500 calories. So a person, who eats 3000 calories a day, will have consumed 21,000 calories in a week. Since many live a sedentary lifestyle, that amount of calories will result in gaining a minimum of 2 pounds per week. And it’s estimated that on average, American’s consume around 450 calories a day on soda, alcohol or just sugary drinks in general. So while that orange juice in the morning has some vitamin C that is beneficial, it has a boatload of sugar that’ll cause you to crash around mid-morning.
Have no fear; I’m here (with a bit of rhyming) to bring to you one of my favourite drink recipes for this time of year. This is ain’t your momma’s lemonade recipe, this is my start fresh lemonade. Oh so clever. Now I will warn you I do love lemons, I have at least lemon a day in my drinks, so I love lemons. But if it’s just a little too tart for you either up the stevia or lower the lemon juice by around 25-50 grams.
As I mentioned, stevia is the hero of this recipe. Stevia rebaudiana is where the stevia we use is from. It is a South African plant that is grown mostly in China and Brazil. It contains no calories, no carbs, and has no glycemic index. It contains potassium, zinc, magnesium and vitamin B3. It comes in both liquid form and solid, with different flavors.
Here are the things you will need:
- 175 grams lemon juice (around 2 lemons)
- 2 packets SweetLeaf stevia (or a stevia of your choosing, this amount of stevia is around 4 tsp. of sugar)
- 515 grams water
- Food scale, set to grams
- Mason jar (optional)
- Lemon Reamer (optional but suggested)
- Britta Pitcher (optional)
The steps are fairly simple. Use the reamer to get the most juice from the lemons, if you have too much juice you can just put that in another airtight container and save it for another recipe. I like to add the stevia after the lemon juice because pouring the water does a little bit of the mixing for you. Finally, you add the water. Then just close your mason jar and shake.
It’s as simple as that. It is also great because it’s easy to customize. I’ll add frozen strawberries sometimes instead of ice so it’s crisp strawberry lemonade. And if you want it more or less tart, you just change the amount of stevia you add.
And there you have it! The only calories in this drink come from the lemon juice which is around 25 calories. Which compared to the 200 in your Tropicana, that doesn’t sound so bad.
With much love,
PbandJaney