With temperatures soaring in Gauteng this week, I will be making more and more of these yummy yet frugal summer refreshments to help us stay hydrated, healthy and happy, despite the oncoming heatwave!
These summer refreshments are easy to make and don’t cost much at all. I tend to experiment with fruits that I like but mostly I use whatever is on hand so no extra trips to the shops for me either. Of course, staying hydrated by drinking plain water is the cheapest and the healthiest way to go but there’s always room for a bit of fun and flavour along the way!
Fruity Ice Cubes
Fruity ice cubes are deliciously refreshing on a hot summer’s day, with no additives, no added sugar and no calories. They are very attractive to serve in a glass.
My favourites to use are lemons, oranges, cucumber, peaches, apricots and berries. I keep the flavours separate for best results but do sometimes experiment with a combination such as lemon and oranges.
Chop your choice of fruit into small pieces and add them to the ice tray.
Top with water and refrigerate.
Voila!
Serve 2-3 fruity ice cubes in a glass of water.
Fruit Flavoured Water
As simple
to make as the fruity ice cubes, fruit flavoured water is another refreshing option for a hot summer’s day. It also gives you greater freedom in experimenting with a combination of fruits, vegetables and herbs of choice while it contains no additives and no artificial sugars.
My absolute favourite is a combination of lemon and orange slices with 2-3 leaves of mint while my husband loves the subtle flavour of a red, juicy apple. We also enjoy berry flavoured water, which turns pretty pink as well.
Simply cut up a few pieces of a fruit or two of your choice, add to a bottle of water, chill for at least a few hours in the fridge to allow flavours to infuse and enjoy! Once you’ve had your fill, you can top up the water but the flavours will not be as strong as the first time round. For some great fruit flavoured water ideas see here and here.
Flavoured
Ice Tea
For all the tea lovers, this is another wonderful choice of a refreshment on a scorching hot day. I am a bit old-fashioned when it comes to making flavoured ice tea as I really enjoy only lemon or peach ice tea.
I make a litre of tea with 3 tea bags, sweeten it then add a few chopped pieces of either lemon or peach and chill in the fridge for a few hours to allow the flavours of the fruit to permeate the tea. I sometimes prepare the ice tea in smaller bottles to use when we’re on the go. It really is a much cheaper, and probably healthier, alternative to buying ice tea from the shops.
There are some really nice recipes for ice tea here and I plan to try out a few. I will post an update to this post with the results as soon as I do.
Lemonade
The summer’s favourite refreshment. One of my favourites, and my husband’s too. I don’t make lemonade as often as I would like to as the recipe calls for added sugar. Plus, lemons generally tend to be a bit pricey.
We were fortunate this year in that our lemon tree did bear us some fruit which I could use for the first time. We were really chuffed about that! We were also gifted a bag of ripe, juicy lemons by a friend whose lemon tree bears enormous amounts of fruit each year.
I tend to make the le
monade syrup first by mixing about a cup of freshly squeezed lemon juice with a cup of sugar, and boiling this mixture on the stove for a few minutes. I then dilute the syrup with 2 litres of water and chill in the fridge. I have used this recipe several times and we’ve always found the lemonade to be not too sweet and not too bitter but just – right. It cleanses the palate and refreshes the body
I hope you enjoy some of these ideas. Do you have any ideas for frugal refreshments? I’d love to hear from you. Stay frugally hydrated this week with these frugal summer refreshments!
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