Like the blueberry milk and strawberry milk recipe this recipe for cherry cola is also from The Sneaky Chef . Cherry cola is made at home by combining equal parts cherry juice and sparkling water. Unlike the store bought sodas which are flavored and colored artificially, this cherry cola is made from homemade cherry juice. Too much consumption of any soda is definitely not good, but this homemade cherry cola is an excellent alternative for sugary sodas. At least we can consume it without the risk of caffeine overdose and sugar rush.

The basic cherry juice can be mixed with chocolate milk and kids won’t even recognize it. The cherry juice gives a very nice color and flavor to the chocolate milk. My son absolutely loves it and he can’t differentiate the taste at all.

A couple of months back I googled flavored milk and the results I got was stirring Kool Aid (similar to Rasna in India) in milk or making a syrup out of the Kool Aid and lot of sugar and adding the syrup to the milk. I wanted something with natural ingredients, something made of fresh fruits. Fortunately months later I have found the book The Sneaky Chef. I think I have written enough about this book in my previous post about Blueberry flavored milk.

I have been trying out recipes from the book and I’m so glad that my son is eating at least some fruits without any fuss. I tried the blueberry juice and cherry juice earlier, which was a huge success. At first my son did not like the blueberry milk, but now he keeps asking for it. He doesn’t even know that his chocolate milk has cherry juice in it. He is happily drinking it. So I got some strawberries (two 16 oz packs) last weekend and tried the same technique. Will you believe me if I tell that he drank it completely in the last 3 days? I could have never made him eat so much strawberries just like that. I can’t wait to try other recipes from that book. Not only that, it also makes it interesting for me because, now I’m thinking what else can I sneak in his food, it’s sort of challenging your creativity.

The Strawberry Milk is surely very tasty enough to entice any picky eater.

My son is 3 years and 3 months old and like many kids of his age he is also a picky/fussy eater. Meal time is definitely a battle time. The problem with him is, he doesn’t have a favorite food. If he had a favorite food, I would simply prepare it for him everyday until he is bored. Earlier broccoli, cauliflower and pasta were his favorite. But not anymore. I think I’m never going to understand his mind in this matter.

I have a very good desi neighbor, whose daughter R is also my son’s age. She also stocks up a lot of fruits and when my son goes there she offers him a fruit and he eats it very quickly without hesitating. So what I do, the very same evening I ask my husband to pick up that fruit on his way home and I give it to my son for breakfast the next day, and he disappoints me by not even taking it to his mouth. Last week I bought cherries for the first time, to try a cake recipe. I was sure that he is not even going to taste it. I was removing the pit in the cherries and I gave him one and he ate it and asked for some more to my surprise. This continued for sometime, I was pitting and he was asking for more. So what do I do, I don’t proceed with the cake. I simply put it back in the fridge and offer it again the next day and you know what, he didn’t even eat one piece. Kids, definitely have their own thought process and they want to show us that they are in control.

Now here comes the rescue in form of a book called “The Sneaky Chef” by Missy Chase Lapine. She discusses about various simple strategies for hiding healthy foods in kids’ favorite meals. She masks spinach and blueberries in brownies, cauliflower in Mac and Cheese, cherry juice in chocolate milk, white bean puree in chocolate chip cookies, etc just to mention a few. This book has definitely made me think outside the box.

I started with the cherry chocolate milk recipe first because he drinks chocolate milk daily in the afternoon after his nap and we had cherries at home. I’ll post this one shortly. Just as it was mentioned in the book, neither of us were able to taste the cherry juice in the chocolate milk. Both the flavors blended so well. So I decided to try the blueberry flavored milk next.

The blueberry juice when mixed with the milk gave a nice violet color. But it was not sweet enough, so I mixed in some maple syrup. I liked it very much. Of course, you will get a mild blueberry smell. I was really excited to see a purple colored milk, more than he was and I asked him if he wanted to drink purple color milk. He too agreed without fussing, but once he tasted he said that it’s not nice. So I had to get him all excited about the color, but no, he wouldn’t drink. Then I got this idea, I told him that his friend R’s mother brought it while he was sleeping and she told that R loves this milk and she drinks it very quickly. And that did the trick, he gulped it down very fast, telling that it was very good. Can you believe this? I’m not sure if this is right or wrong, or how long this trick will work, but I think we have to take baby steps when it comes to kids and their nutrition. We have to pick our battles and should also let them win sometimes. Now coming to the recipe:

This is my entry for Sunshinemom’s FIC – Purple and Black.

Mint is my favorite herb and until recently I didn’t know that I can grow it myself. I usually buy mint from the grocery store. When my mother in law visited us last winter she took few thick mint stems (after using the leaves for cooking) and potted it. Both my husband and myself couldn’t believe our eyes when it started growing small leaves. Initially it took sometime to grow but later it started leafing rapidly. One week I completely forgot about watering it. Because it was winter we had the pot indoors and we got the bulb which is available for indoor plants and we forgot to switch it on also. When one of our friends were visiting my husband was boasting about our mint plant and then only I really remembered about it and when we checked, the plant had dried out completely. I was so upset, but without losing heart I started watering it again and to our surprise it started growing.

Ingredients
Water – 2 cups
Tea powder - 2 teaspoons
Ginger, grated – 1 small piece
Sugar – 3 teaspoons or as per your taste
Lemon juice – 2 tablespoons
Mint, finely chopped – 10 leaves

Step-by-Step Procedure with Images

(Click on the thumbnails for a bigger view)

1. Boil water in a saucepan.
2. Add the tea powder.
3. Grate the ginger root and let it boil for another 5 minutes.

4. Add the sugar for your taste.
5. Let it simmer for another 2 minutes.
6. Filter the tea.

7. Let it cool at room temperature. Add the lemon juice.
8, Then add the mint leaves and chill it in the refrigerator.
9. Serve it cold.

My Notes
1. Above I have reproduced the recipe as it is in the magazine. I followed the recipe and found that the tea was little bitter to my taste. So I added a couple more teaspoons of sugar.
2. The tea tastes good even when it is hot, but is excellent when it’s cold.
3. Check out the health benefits of mint here

My friend Dee made the announcement for the event she is hosting for AFAM (A Fruit A Month), started by Maheshwari on 1st of May and I can’t believe it’s the 24th already.  She has chosen Raspberries as this month’s fruit.  I did spend a lot of time searching the net for interesting recipes and bookmarked a lot of them, but somehow it got delayed.  Finally here I am, with a recipe for a simple lemonade with raspberries.  Hope I will able to send another one too.

Before going to the recipe, a small trivia I found about Raspberry.  According to legend, raspberries were originally white. The nymph Ida pricked her finger while picking berries for the crying infant Jupiter, and raspberries have since been tinged red with her blood. (The botanical name of the raspberry is Rubus idaeus. Rubus means “red”, and idaeus means “belonging to Ida”).

Ingredients:
Frozen or Fresh Raspberries – 2 cups
Juice of 1 big Lemon
Water – 5 cups
Sugar – ½ cup

Procedure:
1.  If using frozen raspberries, thaw them as per the instructions in the package.
2.  Blend it using approximately 2 cups of water.
3.  Strain the raspberry juice using a fine sieve repeatedly to get rid of the seeds. (that’s what it’s called right?)
4.  In order to dissolve the sugar, I added the sugar, lemon juice and a little bit of the raspberry juice in a blender and blended it thoroughly.  To this add the remaining 3 cups of water, raspberry puree and mix it well.  That’s it, Raspberry Lemonade is ready now.  Serve it in a glass with ice cubes and garnish it with mint leaves.

Alternatively you can also pour the lemonade in ice pop moulds and freeze it, for a cool popsicle.  My son loved this version.

And this will be a lovely treat for summer.  Enjoy!

Sangeeth has passed me the “You Make My Day Award”.  Thank you very much Sangeeth.  You also make my day with your lovely comments in my blog.

I came across a recipe for mixed fruit juice in my grocery store’s magazine.  The original recipe called for fresh/frozen mangoes, fresh/canned pineapples and freshly squeezed orange juice.  Since I had mango pulp which I got from the Indian store and orange juice in hand I thought I could use them instead and get canned pineapples alone.

Ingredients:
Mango pulp – 1 cup
Canned pineapple chunks in juice – 1 can (20 ounce)
Orange Juice – 1 cup

The measurements really don’t matter, you can change the ratio as you wish.  

Procedure:
Empty the canned pineapple with its juice in a blender and blend it smooth.  Then add the mango pulp and orange juice and blend it once again.  That’s it.  The fruit cocktail is ready!  The juice tasted very good but the flavor of mango was dominant.  I personally like mango juice very much, but if you don’t like it you can decrease the quantity of mango pulp.

This is my entry for Barbara’s A Taste of Yellow Event.