Watermelon Martinis!

I LOVE watermelon ! It has to be one of my favorite summer fruits, nothing quenches a thirst and beats the summer heat quite like it! So what better drink to have while you’re enjoying a great day by the pool than Watermelon Martinis!

Ingredients (2 servings)

1 cup watermelon juice (fresh watermelon reduced to juice in a blender)

1/2 cup (4 oz) Vodka

2 tablespoons of melon liqueur (optional)

1/4 cup simple syrup (sugar + water boiled and reduced) or cranberry juice (the easier option!)

3 tablespoons salt (optional)

3 tablespoons sugar (optional

ice

Watermelon slices, for garnish (optional)

Preparation

Mix together the sugar and salt. With a piece of watermelon, wet the rim of the chilled Martini glasses. Dip the rims into the sugar and salt mixture.

Place the watermelon juice, vodka, melon liqueur and syrup into a cocktail shaker. Top with ice and shake well. Here’s a tip: you’ll know that the drink is well shaken when condensation begins to form outside of the shaker.

Pour the contents through the strainer and into the Martini glasses. Garnish with a wedge of watermelon. Et voilà!

Note: This is a Martini, if the drink is too strong for you just add more cranberry and watermelon juice!

*Obvioulsy you would want your watermelon garnish to be in a better shape than the one that I had…the poor thing!

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Baby snacks for the road!

As any parent knows, when baby is hungry he wants food NOW! And sometimes, the best way to calm your little one when your out and about is to distract him with some healthy snacks. Here are some of my favorites!

I really enjoy many of the organic products that the brand President’s Choice has to offer. The baby cereal are low in sugar and they offer many choices (raspberry & yogourt, apple&pear, sweet corn & potato). I also love the fruit puree blends (banana-apple-prunes are my favorite) and the fruit puffs can be a real life saver during a long car ride. Your ears will be grateful!

In regards to cookies, I can’t say that the’re my first choice in regards to snacks as I try to limit baby from as much sugar intake as possible, but I must admit that he’s enjoyed these cookies a great deal. He likes the Farley’s cookies that tend to be on the messy side but they at least contain good amounts of fiber. And he goes completely gaga for the Baby Mum-Mum’s, rice cookies that are offered in 3 flavours: original, banana and vegetable. A great thing about the Baby Mum-Mum’s is that they’re individually wrapped (2 per pack) which makes it easy and convenient to carry around!

Some other great snacks that are easy to carry around in a purse or diaper bag: dried prunes and apricots. A litle stash of Cheerios or Nutrios cereal also hits the spot!

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Mango shrimp salad!

For some reason in the summertime the only thing that I want to eat is hamburgers, salads and ice cream! This is definitely one of my favorite recipes in regards to salads. I always love to have a bag of shrimp in my freezer, and this is a great recipe to do when nothing else in the fridge is appealing and you feel like eating something light!

You can cook your shrimp in a pan but the flavour that you’ll get from the BBQ is well worth it! I usually thaw my shrimp in some cold water (the frozen shrimp being in a plastic bag) but my hubby takes the lazy route and directly puts them on the BBQ, and honestly, it tastes great!

ingredients

10/15 Tiger shrimp (fresh or frozen)

1 green onion

1 ripe mango (diced)

1/2 red Bell pepper (diced)

1/3 cup of fresh coriander

Dressing

2 tablespoons of rice vinegar

1/3 cup olive oil

1 tablespoon of lime juice (or lemon)

1 tablespoon of Cayenne pepper (optional)

salt and pepper

Preparation

1.Cook the peeled shrimp on the BBQ until they are pink (about two minutes) Reserve.

2. Mix all the dressing ingredients together.

3.Wash thoroughly the coriander and chop it up. Dice the mango, the green onion and the Bell pepper.

4. Mix all the ingredients together.

*For the dressing, you can play with the ingredients, add more oil, less lemon etc…

I like to serve my mango shrimp salad in Martini glasses, for some reason, it always taste better! 🙂

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Raspberry lemonade!

I can’t believe that my last post was in April. Geez! Truth be told, I came out of my maternity leave and started working in April… Like many, I’m slowly finding out how difficult it can be to juggle work and family. How do people do it? I only have a 14 month old and I’m exhausted, I can’t imagine having two! Since I’ve become a mom, I know the true meaning of the word MULTI tasking. Nonetheless, I’ll try my best to keep giving you guys recipes that are easy and tasty!

This homemade lemonade is simply delicious, even my hubby knows the recipe!

Ingredients

-2 lemons

-7 cups of water

-1/4 cup of sugar

-1/2 cup of frozen raspberries

-4 tablespoons of raspberry syrup (you could also use grenadine syrup)

Mix it all together and there you have it! You can replace the raspberries with any frozen berries. Because they’re frozen, it keeps the lemonade cool, and trust me, it won’t last long!

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