Want to Save This Recipe?
Enter your email & I’ll send it straight to your inbox. And you’ll get new recipes & tips each week.
Contributor post written by Renee from Raising Generation Nourished
Lemonade and warmer weather just go hand in hand, don’t they?
Sometimes I forget to put my weekly summer popsicles into the freezer, and when the girls want something cool on a warm day, lemonade is a little quicker to whip up than waiting for a popsicle to freeze.
Can I honestly admit that years ago, I had no clue that you could make lemonade “from scratch?” The little frozen cans that you stir into water was what I considered lemonade, but if you take a peek at ingredient labels it isn’t as innocent as you would think simple lemonade should be.
I’m not a big fan of serving high fructose corn syrup and fake lemon flavor to my kids if I can help it – and as it turns out…you really can make real lemonade with real ingredients without a lot of fuss! Because really, I am all about simple these days! Toddlers and kindergarteners are complicated enough!
Lemonade is a staple at our household birthday parties because I have 2 spring babies and a summer baby! It’s fun to have something special to drink at a party, and lemonade is so good with strawberry cake and chocolate cake.
Honey Sweetened Lemonade
Ingredients
- 11 cups water
- 6 lemon
- 1/2 cup honey (local, if possible)- a lighter tasting honey is best
Instructions
- Warm the water and lemon juice in a pot – no need to bring to a boil or even a simmer – just warm so the honey can melt/dissolve.
- Turn off the heat and stir in the raw honey until it dissolves.
- Put the lemonade in the fridge to cool (or pour it over ice) – I like the spoon off the pulp that settles to the top once it cools. You won’t need to shake or stir it if you do it this way. There will still be a little pulp in the lemonade so if you think your kids will fuss about that just use a strainer to grab all of it.
- Store in the fridge.
Notes
Nutrition
REFRESHING RECIPES TO MAKE ON A HOT DAY
Kids said it was TOO sour. I followed the directions other than adding a little more water than stated.
Hey Gwen, You can add more sweetener, if needed, until you find the right about sweetener for their taste.
Hi if I’m using lemon juice from a bottle how many cups of juice should I need in place of squeezing fresh? Thanks so much!!!
Hey Monique, I believe you’ll need about 1 cup of lemon juice. Enjoy!
My kiddos happily helped me squeeze the lemons to make this. It was so easy and a perfectly light and refreshing, real lemonade. Thank you for the recipe! Just wanted to share what I did to make it even easier. Just heat 1 c. of the water (without the lemon) and the honey mixes in just fine (this saves having to cool all 11 c. of water back down). Then when the honey is fully dissolved in the 1 c. of warm water, add the remaining water and fresh squeezed lemon juice (we use our citrus press over a strainer to get the pulp out before it goes in the lemonade), stir and serve over ice. It was ready immediately for our Father’s Day lunch today!
Awesome, Laura! I’m so glad you all enjoyed the lemonade–what a great Father’s Day treat. And thank you so much for sharing the time-saving/easier tip!
One of my favourite drinks whenever I want something simple yet refreshing. Perfect with a brownie or two! 🙂
Yum, Lizzie! Such a perfect summer drink. Now I need a brownie or two ;).