Coconut limeade

I believe I have found my summer drink. Yes, I know summer isn't here yet, but I long for it. I can't believe we are still running a heater in March.

I stumbled upon two interesting recipes on Allrecipes.com for Brazilian limeade. One involved cream of coconut, so I had to try it! 

It was really easy and so refreshing! The other recipe involved sweetened condensed milk, and I can't wait to try that one some day... when I run out of cream of coconut! ;) 

For 3 servings, you will need:

2 limes

3 tbsp. cream of coconut

2 cups of water

1 cup of crushed ice

1/2 c. white sugar

First, slice of the ends of your limes and discard. Then slice the limes up thinly.

I heated 1 cup of the water to dissolve the sugar in. Then when it cooled a bit, I placed it in the blender with the rest of the water, the ice and the lime slices, and the cream of coconut. Give that baby a few whirls. Then, strain into a pitcher. Discard all the pulp (it's bitter, you don't want it!). Fill a glass with ice and pour in your new yummy limeade. :) 

Original recipes here:

Easy Brazilian Lemonade with sweetened condensed milk

or

Quick Brazilian Lemonade with cream of coconut

Sangria Tea

I think I'm going to try this. It looks interesting....

Update: I made it and it's pretty good. Only suggestion from me is to add sweetener... Yummy! I think using ginger ale instead of sparkling water would be okay.

Lipton’s Sangria Tea

3 c. boiling water

3 Family-Size tea bags

2 c. 100% grape juice

1 medium orange, sliced

1 medium lemon, sliced

1 lime, sliced

1 ½ c. Seltzer, Club Soda or Sparkling Water

Brew tea in boiling water for five minutes. Remove tea bags. Stir in sweetener, if desired (I added ½ c. sugar).  Stir ingredients except seltzer water and chill at least 2 hours. Right before serving, add soda. Serve over ice. Enjoy!

Cranberry Tea

I got this cranberry tea in a can on a road trip. Normally, I'm not a tea-in-a-can fan, but it will do in a pinch. After tasting this, I decided it was ok, but it could be great.  I read the ingredients on the can as a reference. So, off to the kitchen we go.....

For half a gallon (almost 2L) I used:

• 2 large tea bags
• 1 Splenda quick pack
• 1 small (10 oz.) bottle of 100% cran-grape juice
• about 1/2 c. apple juice (I didn't measure just poured)
• the juice from 1/2 a lemon, hand-squeezed. 
• Bottled water to fill to the top
• Crushed ice 

Start by brewing your tea. Heat the water, add tea bags let steep about 5 min. Pour all ingredients but the water into the pitcher, give it a stir. Add plenty of ice, and top off with the bottled water, and give another stir. Yes, you can use tap water, but I live in a place where it's unbearable/unthinkable to drink.

In retrospect, I would have left out the splenda or used about 1/2 the packet. This came out way to syrupy sweet for me.  So I guess I will try again later :)