Homemade Strawberry Lemonade Cocktails! (A Pin a Day #3)

Welcome to the third installment of my A Pin A Day project! Today's pin is actually a mash up of 3 different pins I've seen floating around, so I thought I'd test them out for you and see how well they actually work!

I bring to you...

Homemade Strawberry Lemonade (Cocktails)! Or for a kid friendly version, just omit the booze people. Family friendly recipes from me to you!

Strawberry Lemonade Caipirinha!

So here's a great thing to do with all those strawberries and lemons before they go bad. And on that note, here's the first tried and true pin of the day... How to keep Strawberries Fresh! and it really does work! It's just a simple rinse with 1 part white vinegar to 10 parts clean water, soak for a few minutes, drain and let dry! Simple and easy tip that I will actually use, and I did, and it worked like a charm. I bought these strawberries last week and here they are, still fresh and not even kinda moldy!

So! Back to the drink I know you're dying to try in this heat...

You will need;

• 2 lemons (plus one more for garnish)
• 10-15 strawberries (plus another handful for garnish)
• sweetener of your choice (I used agave nectar)
• water

That's it!

Quarter the lemons, and throw them into the blender, half the strawberries and put them in there too. Add your sweetener, and 2 cups water and blend until pretty smooth.

Next you need to strain out the pulp, trust me you're going to want to do this, unless you like drinking bitter bits of rind and zest. Every time I have to strain something I always curse myself for not having a fine mesh strainer. DAMN IT! SO I had to do it the old fashioned way and sit there with my wire skimmer and strain it slowly.

After you've removed the bulk of the pulp, you will want to add more water, taste and adjust the sweetness. We like things pretty sweet around here, so I added quite a bit more agave to it. Now comes the fancy part. If you plan on just sitting in your undies on the couch drinking this alone, I'm sure you could forgo the fancy part, unless you like feeling fancy, then by all means...

I wanted a bit of pulpiness to my lemonade, so I added some macerated strawberries to it. Easy peasy... check it out.

Take those extra strawberries you set aside for garnish, and roughly chop them. Add about a tablespoon of sugar - the granules help break down the fruit because of the abrasiveness of them - and mash with a fork until syrupy. Then add to the pitcher! And if you wanna get even MORE fancy...

You can make these adorable lemon slice flowers! Our next tried and true pin! Simply take the big part of your fruit zester, the scorer I think it's called, and peel away strips of the zest to create petals. I made 8 by first doing it into quarters, then eighths. Then simply thinly slice slices and you've got pretty little flowers to garnish your beverages!

Add ice, taste, adjust, stir, serve. We added cachaca, a Brazilian rum, but feel free to experiment with other boozes. I think this is a nice refreshing drink, with or without alcohol, Charlie was expecting a more "strawberry flavor" because I think he thinks artificial flavors are what fruit really taste like... I like it.

Fancy!

Lemon Grilled Chicken in Creamy Piccata Sauce

This recipe came right off the pages of Pinterest, and after reading the recipe, realized it's just a healthier, pasta version of Charlie's favorite chicken dish I make him, so I knew it would be a hit! I thought I blogged about his favorite Lemon Chicken, but now I can't seem to find it on the blog, so I guess I'll add it to the list of things to share.

This is a lemony, creamy pasta paired with marinated grilled chicken. It's light, flavorful, delicious and hard to mess up. The original recipe can be found here at Plain Chicken, and mine is below. Make sure you make this for dinner this summer! It's such a great dish that tastes much richer than it is!

Hungry Boys are Hungry

So Jim and I have been scheming.


The plan was to introduce Kristi, to his roommate Lee. Simple enough. So yesterday we went over to their apartment to cook dinner, have some drinks and just let the hilarity ensue. I'll refrain from posting any overly silly and embarrassing pictures, or at least I'll try.


A few nights ago, I went over and asked the boys what they wanted for dinner. The answer was an astonding STEAK! MASHED POTATOES! VEGGIES! So... We went to work on a menu.

Kristi was in charge of the veggies, and the garlic bread. I was in charge of steak and taters. Jim was in charge of booze.


Berta's Rosemary Garlic Red Rose Smashed Potatoes;

Red Rose Potatos, about 2-3 for each hungry participant
5-10 Garlic cloves, peeled
2-3 springs of fresh rosemary
Butter (I used 2 tbsp butter and about 4tbsp of spray butter, poured right in)
Milk
Salt
Pepper

Wash and quarter the potatoes, and place them into a pot of cold water with the garlic and rosemary. Bring this to a boil and let it cook for about 20-30 minutes, until the potatoes are fork tender.


Fish out the garlic and rosemary, and drain the potatoes into a colander to drain and steam. Letting the potatoes steam is VITAL. Steaming helps excess water drain out of the potatoes, so they aren't mushy.


In a bowl, mash the garlic and rosemary to a pulp.


Transfer the garlic pulp back into the pot on the stove, over medium heat. Add the milk, butter, salt and pepper, and bring to a slow boil, stirring so the milk doesnt burn.


Once the taters have steamed out, and the liquid is boiling, transfer the liquid into a heat proof bowl. Alternate adding potatoes and liquid into the pot, mashing between each addition. Set on low to keep warm until you are ready to serve.

This is the time to make the boys clean the table and get it ready for dinner, thanks Lee!



Kristi's Deliciously Famous Roasted Veggies;

Vegetables of your choice (we used asparagus, broccoli, carrots, zuchinni, squash, onions and lemon)
Olive Oil
Rosemary
Thyme
Steak Seasoning
Salt
Pepper
Chives
Fennel
(Dried spices work best)


Chop veggies into bite size pieces, and drizzle with oil, and coat with seasons. Place into a preheated oven, at 400* for 25-40 minutes, tossing every 10-15 minutes, until roasted.


Berta's Garlic Herbed Ribeye Steaks;

Ribeye steaks, boneless or bone-in
Olive Oil
Rosemary
Parsley
Garlic

Finely chop the rosemary, parsley and garlic and add oil to make a paste. Rub all over room temperature steaks and let rest 15 minutes.


Grill on a HOT grill for 5-10 minutes each side depending on how well done you like your steaks. I have a great way of testing the doneness using the finger test and it can be found near the bottom of this post.



Kristi's Nummers Garlic Bread;

Butter
Garlic, minced
Parsley
French Bread of Sourdough loaf

Heat oven to 400*. Combine butter, parsley and garlic in a pan on low heat until melted.


Brush butter mixture onto sliced bread and place into the oven on the bottom rack for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown.


Enjoy this meal with a Robert Mondavi Pinot Noir, served in only the classiest of plastic goblets from Medieval Times.


Serve up a big helping for each plate...


... and chow down...


...with laughs...


... and good friends.


Finish off the nightcap with some Coronas.


I mentioned he was spoiled yes?



Drunk Elvis also made an appearance toward the end of the night, but that's on another blog entirely.

The GM Diet Plan : DAY SIX

Yes! Maintaining a 5lb weight loss. Time to up the water intake!

Today is Meat and Veggies day!

Day Six

Eat unlimited amounts of lean meat (fish / chicken) or cottage cheese and vegetables.

We were running around a lot today, so we had some cucumbers with lemon to snack on and the we got another bare bones In-n-Out Burger. Plus TONS of water. I think so far today I've had at least 12 glasses of water. TMI; I've been running to the bathroom all day!

We came back home to make dinner and were sooooo happy that we got to eat chicken!!!

So we made......

Veggie Stir Fry...

...cucumbers with lemon...


...and Greek Chicken!!


OMG it felt soooooooooo good to eat chicken again! I missed it EVER so much! :D

Yesterday, and most of last night, all that beef kinda made my tummy all topsy turvy, since I'm not really used to eating that much red meat in one day. But today I felt really energized from all the iron and protein, so I suppose that is the plus side.

Tomorrow for the most part, things get to go back to mostly normal, and we've already started talking about implementing a very healthy diet plan to stick to involving lots of whole foods and grains.

Trader Joe's really got it going on.

The other day, I braved the Southern California rain and drove to Trader Joe's in La Mesa. I wish there was one a bit closer to my house, but oh well.

If you've never been to Trader Joe's, it's really a treat. I personally LOVE the grocery store. I love going up and down all the aisles and checking out all the cool stuff they have. I even make a very OCD list when I go. It's super therapeutic for me.

If you aren't sure whether or not you have a Trader Joe's near you, you can check their locations here.

Honestly when I moved to Georgia, knowing that they had both Whole Foods AND Trader Joe's in Atlanta was a HUGE selling point for me.

Yesterday consisted of at least one Trader Joe's item per meal.

I started off by having their Chicken Apple sausage; cut length wise and grilled.



I also had one egg; scrambled, and half a bagel, toasted with Better'n Peanut Butter for breakfast. You know how much I love me some Better'n Peanut Butter.



Breakfast; roughly 400 calories.

For lunch I took the Trader Joe's reduced fat Greek Salad, removed half of the feta cheese, diced up the cucumbers and tomatoes and doctored up the dressing. I dumped out about half of the dressing and to the remainder, added lemon juice, red wine vinegar, and some olive oil and oregano. It was much lighter and tasted a lot better.

On the side I had 1 tbsp each of the Garlic and Spicy Hummus from the Trader Joe's Hummus Quad. To dip I had 3 of their Corn crackers, and 1/2 of their flat bread, broken into pieces.



Lunch; roughly 330 calories.

For dinner, I tried the Trader Joe's Asparagus Risotto.  1 cup is 200 calories, and it comes frozen in the bag, ready to heat and serve. I just cooked one cup, seeing as I was the only one eating and put the rest back in the freezer.

To doctor it up, I added some more asparagus, picked fresh from the garden earlier in the day, cut it up and tossed it in.

Keeping asparagus stalks trimmed, and resting in a glass of water in the fridge helps keep them fresher longer. As they go unused, trim the stalks down and replace the water.



For my protein I grilled 2 chicken breasts with lemon and cracked pepper, drizzled lemon juice on top, added a bit of water, before putting a lid on it to cook. One for dinner, and one breast for lunch the next day. (I spread some hummus on a flat bread, and added half the second breast, shredded and folded it in half and made a mini sammie and it was so yummers.)

I also treated myself to 4oz (about 1/2 a cup) of red wine with dinner. "They" say that 4 oz's a day is a good heart healthy amount of wine and antioxidants, plus it makes you feel warm inside, and when it's raining and cold, anything warm is welcomed in with open arms.

Here's what dinner looked like.

Dinner; roughly 450 calories

The "sauce" on the chicken, is the lemon juice, water and yummy stuck to the pan bits, simmered and reduced. It had a nice tang to it, which went very well with the creme fraiche and onion in the asparagus risotto.

Hummus

I got this recipe from Carrots'n'Cake, off of a recommendation of a friend and figured it went well with my theme.

It's pretty easy to make.



* 2 - 15 ounce cans of chick peas (garbanzos), one drained, one undrained
* 1/4 cup raw sesame seeds
* 1 tbsp olive oil
* 1/4 cup lemon juice
* 1 garlic glove, minced
* 1 tsp cumin

I added more cumin, and garlic. I also added salt and pepper for more flavor. I have yet to really get in and tweak this one. I think if the Chick Peas had been fresh and not canned I would have liked it a bit more, but all in all it was a good recipe.

I used the food processor once again, (LOVE ITTTT!!) and dumped the chick peas in first.

I didn't have raw sesame seeds, so I used toasted ones and they worked just fine. I added the juice from 2 small lemons from our tree, and used 3 cloves of garlic instead of one, plus a little garlic salt.

I let it all blend in the food processor until it was smooth, adding a bit more olive oil to help with the consistency.



For quick homemade hummus, it was decent, not my favorite, but pretty good. I will have to try sun-dried tomato or roasted red bell pepper next and see if those are better. I'm going to keep tweaking recipes until I find the perfect combination of everything. But until then enjoy this on some pita or with veggies!

Tzatziki!

I've been asked by a few what exactly tzatiki is. It's basically a sauce made from yogurt, lemons, garlic and cucumber and, albeit time consuming, it's surprisingly easy to make at home!

This recipe is my tweaked version of the one from the blog Fields of Cake, and Other Good Stuff. I'll take you through it step by step with pictures. Don't worry.

First you need the basics.

32 ounce tub of plain yogurt, I used low fat,but whole or fat free would also work.
1 English cucumber; shredded
1/2 tsp lemon zest
juice from one lemon
5 garlic cloves
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. dill weed
1 tsp. fresh cracked black pepper

Start with the yogurt. I knew I wasn't going to be in the need of 32 oz of tzatiki, so I halved it. It was enough for dinner, plus leftover, plus extra. It's great to dip pita chips into.

In a strainer lined with cheesecloth or a coffee filter, propped over a clean bowl, strain yogurt. This way you can get rid of any excess liquids. I strained mine for 2 hours, but you can do it overnight in the fridge.



Instantly it should start to drain. I lost about a 3/4 of a cup of liquid over the course of 2 hours.



Next you are going to want to prepare your cucumber. English cucumbers work best because they don't really have seeds. You can usually find them in your market. If you can't grab a regular one and de-seed it. Peel the skin off.



Next you want to shred your cucumber. I used a food processor becuase its much easier and it helped me get rid of any extra juice. If you don't have a food processor, you can grate it with a cheese grater and then squeeze off the liquids in a paper towel.



Once you've removed the liquids, you are going to just quickly run a sharp knife thru it to make sure its thoroughly chopped.



Transfer the drained yogurt into a bowl and add the cucumbers to it.



Next comes the lemon zest and juice. If you don't have a lemon zester, you can once again use the rough side of a cheese grater or even the edge of a knife. Zest about 1/4 a tsp off the rind and mix it in. Juice the lemon. I recommend using a separate bowl so you don't get any seeds into the sauce.



Press 5 cloves of garlic and add that into the mix as well. I like to press the garlic because it really releases the oils and flavor, but not everyone owns a presser, so if you are one of those people, buy one!! To hold you off until then, smash garlic under a knives blade with the palm of your hand (like below) and mince.



Add the rest of the spices into the yogurt and mix well. Allow the flavor to develop for at least 20 minutes. It should look something like this when done.



It keeps for a few days in the fridge and is wonderful on pita, lamb, burgers, and the shwarma recipe as well.