Infused Waters

Infused Waters.

These ideas come from two separate pins:

On my Exercise/In Shape Board:

Detox Water
http://pinterest.com/pin/141089400797584115/

And on the Recipees board:

Flavored Water
http://pinterest.com/pin/141089400798309636/



So I looked at these recipes and decided to do one straight:
Watermelon Rosemary

It's very refreshing. Simply line the bottom with cubes of watermelon (bought pre-cubed at publix) and springs of Rosemary, fill with ice, then with water, leave in fridge overnight and you have a super bright tasting water with hints of its components.


My second is based on a drink I had at PF Chang's. I always go there for my birthday dinner and I had a strawberry, cucumber, limeade. So between that, looking at these waters (and the detox water), I arrived at my

Sweet Tart Detox Water

It contains a handful of frozen strawberries, lime wedges, sprigs of mint, and slices of cucumber (about 3/4 of a large cucumber sliced). Then filled with ice then water and left overnight. You definitely get the sweet notes of the strawberry, the tart of the lime, the cooling of the cucumber and the herbal minty mint. It's really nice.

Both of these were so easy. Prep time was 5 minutes (after the shopping), and then you can drink them immediately, but if you let them sit overnight they taste better. This is a super awesome alternative to soda or sugary drinks. The natural sweetness of the fruit is presence in the water without adding calories!


Marlipaige grade: A
Ease of creation: Easy!
Total Time: 5 minutes (then however long you'd like to let them sit to soak up that flavor)

Halloween Fruit-O-Lantern

So I'm sure that everyone has all sorts of Halloween ideas circling. I threw a party two years ago where I made Halloween Fruit-O-Lanterns. It was super easy, cute, and I wish people had actually come to my party to enjoy them.


FRUIT O LANTERNS (supplies)
Clementines or Oranges
An X-acto knife
Green spoons or forks (plastic)
Whatever other fruit you'd like in a fruit cup


STEP ONE

Cut! Get clementines (or standard oranges), cut off the tops. By tops I mean just a tiny section at one of the ends of the fruit. It should look like you have a little hat on top of it. So like 3/4-7/8 of the fruit, and then cut off 1/4-1/8 to make a little hat.

STEP TWO

Scoop! Scoop all of the orangey goodness out of the orange / clementine. Put that in a bowl to the side. Mix it with whatever other fruit you'd like to be in your fruit cups.


STEP THREE

Carve! You want to take an x-acto knife and carve little adorable faces into your oranges. White you've got that knife out, remove the little pit end from the "hat" you cut off. So there's now a hole in the top.

STEP FOUR

Fill!  Take that orange goo and whatever other fruit you have on hand (chopped up tiny) and fill the orange rinds to make little fruit cups.


STEP FIVE

Push! Push a green spoon or fork through that hole you made so that the handle is now sticking out

STEP SIX

Finish! Just push the spoon or fork down into the little cup so that the "hat" now sits back where it originally came from. You have a cute mini jack-o-lantern made out of an orange, filled with a healthy snack, with a green plastic spoon for a stem.