As the weather gets hotter and dryer, one needs to stay extra hydrated to scale through the season. But who says you cannot add healthy fruit and vegetable drinks, to your water intake to add zest and stay refreshed.
Beyond staying refreshed, healthy drinks are way better than carbonated ones that are filled with large quantities of complex sugar which offer little nutritional value, rather causes obesity and diabetes, and cannot be used as a substitute for water and healthy drinks.
Meantime, sugar-free beverages contain high intensity sweeteners as a replacement for regular sugar. There is no proof yet of how effective they are in the long-term to staying healthy and obesity-free.
Try these healthy drinks recipes to keep cool this harmattan season.
Watermelon Limeade:
Ingredients: one cup of lime fresh juice, a head of watermelon or ¼ of a head of watermelon, and crushed ice.
Directions: deseed your watermelon and ground in blender into puree. Add your squeezed lime juice into it and mix. Add crushed ice, and its ready to drink.
Mango Strawberry Lemonade with a Twist:
Ingredients: four cups of lemonade, four cups of lime, a cup of sliced mangoes, a cup of sliced strawberries.
Preparation: prepare your lemonade by combining a cup of squeezed lime juice, and three cups of chilled water. Pour in a pitcher/jug. Add sliced strawberries and your now blended mangoes, and serve in a glass with ice on the rocks.
Old School Sangria:
Ingredients: a cup of orange juice (freshly squeezed if possible), three cups of grape, ¼ and ¾ of blueberry/Ribena seeds, two chopped bananas, two chopped peaches, and two chopped oranges, I cup of lime juice (freshly squeezed).
Direction: blend the grape juice with the ¼ cup of blueberries, and pour into a jar. Add your orange and lime juice to the jar and mix. Add all your chopped fruits with the ¾ cup of blueberries in a pitcher. Add as much as required in the pitcher, then, top it up with your pre-blended grape and blueberry juice. Serve cool.
Frosty Pina Colada:
Ingredients: a cup of coconut water, a cup of frozen pineapple chunks, ½ cup of pineapple juice, four tablespoon of lime juice (freshly squeezed), and a can of coconut milk, ½ a cup of coconut cream, cherries and mint leaves for garnish.
Preparation: pour coconut water into an ice cube, mould and freeze the night before. Add frozen pineapple, coconut milk, coconut cream, coconut water and lime juice in a blender, and blend until smooth. Pour into jug and serve with glasses, then garnish each glass drink with cherries or mint leaves.
Coconut Water:
Ingredient: a head or two of coconut.
Preparation: crack open a head or two of coconuts, and drain the coconut water into a jug or drinking glass. Cool in refrigerator or add ice, and drink.
Aam Panna:
Ingredients: 500 grams of green mangoes (Jamaican mangoes), two tablespoons of salt, two tablespoon of black rock salt, two tablespoon of roasted, powdered cumin seeds, two tablespoons of finely chopped mint leaves and two cups of water.
Preparation: boil and slice the green mangoes until they are soft inside and the skin discoloured. When cool, remove the skin and squeeze the pulp out of the mangoes. Mix all the ingredients together and blend, then add two cups of water. Add ice to a drinking glass, then pour your Aam Panna over it.
Banana Lassi:
Ingredients: a cup of low-fat yoghurt, ½ of banana, three to four walnuts (you can also add Brazil nuts, hazelnuts, almonds and pine nuts), one tablespoon of sesame seeds, and one to two tablespoons of honey.
Preparation: Pour yoghurt, walnuts, honey, bananas and sesame seeds into a food processor. Blend till smooth and creamy. Pour into a glass and garnish with chopped walnuts before serving.
You can alternate the banana with, mint leaves, avocado, and mango.
