July 10, 2023
Every year I stock up on bags and bags of cranberries. When the grocery stores mark those red beauties down to $1 a bag because hardly anyone sees their worth beyond the sugary, sticky cranberry sauce, my heart skips a beat and I cannot help myself from buying a few mores bags! After a few grocery store trips, my freezer is stocked. In the middle of the summer I still have bags and bags of my little friends, so I came up with an easy way to use up these healthy berries and cool off in the heat.
Cranberries have amazing health benefits, and one main benefit that I love about them is their low sugar content. For those of you following the Trim Healthy Mama lifestyle, this means that you can use cranberries in any setting (I’m not a THM health coach, but I’m pretty sure this is an accurate statement). This healthy drink recipe can be considered a Fuel Pull (FP) because it is very low in carbs and fat. Win, win!
I have never been a huge fruit fan (gasp!) because it gives my body too much of a sugar dump without any protein benefit, so I do not eat enough healthy fruit. Yes, yes, my fellow fruit lovers, I know that is not very good for me. So this drink is a great way for me to get the benefits of fruit without actually having to eat a lot of fruit.
This drink is incredibly easy to make a requires only a few ingredients.
Frozen cranberries
A couple of frozen strawberries (or raspberries)
Lime juice (lemon juice is great, too)
Coconut extract
Water
Sweetener
Carbonated water
Ice
You will also need a powerful blender than can break down the ingredients into fine particles. Cranberries have lots of little seeds, and even though a powerful blender cannot break all of the seeds apart, I like this drink as blended as possible. I love my Vitamix blender for this purpose.
So let’s make this drink that my kids and I affectionately call, “Pink Drink!”
Ingredients
1 cup of frozen cranberries
3-4 frozen strawberries
1 cup cold water
2 tablespoons lime or lemon juice
2 tablespoons of Super Sweet blend (to make this blend mix 1 cup of erythritol with 1 teaspoon of stevia) or your personal choice of sweetener
Long squirt of liquid stevia
¼ teaspoon coconut extract
1 can of flavored (or unflavored) carbonated water
Ice
Directions
In a blender, blend all the ingredients except for the carbonated water and ice. Pour the mixture into a pitcher and then slowly pour the carbonated water into the mixture. Gently stir. Fill glasses with ice, and pour drink over. Enjoy!
Are you a cranberry stocker-upper? If so, what do you make with frozen cranberries? Thanks for joining me for a light-hearted post. May you have a sunny week!
-Ashley
#cranberries #summer #drink #cool #refreshing #delicious #food #water #carbonated #coconut #lime #sugarfree #sf #thm #healthy #ashleyqurollo
Yes, I am a cranberry stocker-upper. 😊 I’ll have to say, I will make the bad stuff. Lol , I make cranberry orange bread or cranberry lemon bread for my family. And I also make cranberry sauce through out the year. Now I plan on making your“Pink Drink”.