I’ll be the first to admit, I don’t always make the healthiest choices when it comes to my diet, but having a Rise Garden has been such a game changer for me.
There’s quite a lot of pride that goes into maintaining a healthy veggie garden. Each day I get up and I’m excited to see just how much my little veggies grew! Currently, I’m challenging myself to re-create some of my favorite foods in a healthier way with my Rise Garden.
My most recent challenge: Lemonade! What makes this lemonade so delicious and healthy is to use Stevia from your Rise Garden instead of sugar. Stevia is a naturally sweet plant that originated in South America. It’s much sweeter than sugar but has zero calories so it’s a great alternative if you’re looking for a new natural sweetener. It really is the best lemonade recipe!
Rise Gardens Lemonade Recipe
What You’ll Need:
- 8 Lemons
- Filtered Water
- Stevia (grown from your Rise Garden)
- Cayenne powder
- Mint leaves (grown from your Rise Garden)
Turning your Stevia Plant into Sweet Stevia Extract:
First, harvest your stevia plant at the base and rinse it with water. Remove all of the leaves and discard the stems. Dry the leaves for about 10-12 hours in the sun. You could do this outside or leave them on a sunny window sill to dry. Once the leaves are fully dried, you need to turn them into a fine powder. Using a coffee grinder works great, but a food processor can work as well. Next, dissolve the stevia into hot filtered water using these ratios: ¼ cup stevia powder for every 1 cup of hot filtered water. Give the concoction a good stir and let it sit at room temperature for 24hrs. Then using a fine strainer, strain out the stevia bits from the liquid, and store the remaining liquid in a tight jar to keep in the fridge.
Making the Lemonade:
Juice 8 lemons into a pitcher and add 8 cups of filtered water. Add 10 drops of your stevia extract, give it a stir and a taste. Add more stevia little by little until you’ve reached your desired sweetness. For some added kick, I also like to add a pinch or two of cayenne powder to the lemonade as well. If you’re not a fan of cayenne, another great way to add more flavor is to stir in some mint leaves from your Rise Garden. There’s really no such thing as too minty so feel free to add as many as you’d like!
