The problem with juice

I've never liked juice. I was the strange kid who would ask for water or milk instead of sugary Kool-aid, juice or sodas. I VERY rarely drink anything other that water, tea, milk and coffee.

My husband is a different story. He drinks juice by the gallon- like a gallon every two days! He doesn't really care what kind of juice. The real 100% fruit juices from the refrigerated section can get spendy and the ones you buy in big jugs that don't need to be refrigerated before being opened are pretty much high fructose corn syrup with some fruit juice added.

(On a side note, our children will not drink juice because they will not be offered juice as an option. That may sound mean but it's empty calories and so much sugar!)

So, I mulled over this dilemma for a little while. I thought about getting a juicer but I think the cost of that along with the cost of all the fresh fruits and vegetables would be just as spendy and I doubt I could juice enough to keep up with my husband's drinking!

After we moved, I noticed that I had two LARGE bottles of lemon juice. I used to buy the cute little lemon shaped ones from the grocery store since I use it in cooking but realized that with how often I was buying it and the cost, it didn't make sense. So, I bought it from Costco for about the price of four little lemons and got about a gallon of it! Lo and behold, there was a recipe on the back for lemonade. Now, there was a workable idea.

When the juice fiend finished off a gallon plastic jug of his high fructose corn syrup, I rinsed out the container, added lemon juice, sugar and water, mixed well and tested. It was good! The husband likes it- it costs us nothing since it's all stuff I have in the pantry. When I need to replenish those supplies... OK, I just figured out, with overestimating the cost of the lemon juice and sugar, it is LESS THAN $1 for a gallon of lemonade! I figured out a formula so I only have to measure lemon juice and sugar into the container, then I just add the water to fill.

So, this is my new strategy for saving some money and for keeping the husband in his juice addiction. I'm going to experiment with some additions to it as well. I think if I get some frozen strawberries, I can blend them in the blender and add it in for some variation.