Strawberry Lemonade.

This strawberry lemonade is delicious. My favorite part about it is that it's completely natural - no extra added gunk. I read recently that lemon-scented cleaner has more lemon juice than store bought lemonade. That's definitely not true of this lemonade - just ask my arms. They're sore from juicing all the lemons.

Ingredients:
8 cups cold water, divided
2 (16 oz.) containers of strawberries
12 lemons
1 cup sugar (you could use alternative sweetener for less calories, if you'd like)

Directions:
Juice the lemons. Pour the juice into a gallon-size pitcher, or use a rinsed out milk gallon. Slice the strawberries and puree them in a blender with 4 cups of cold water. Add the strawberry liquid to the pitcher. Heat the sugar with 4 cups of water on the stove until the sugar is dissolved. When the sugar water is cooled, add it to the pitcher. Fill the pitcher the rest of the way with water and mix it all together.

You might have to add a little more sugar to taste, but it depends on the natural sweetness of the strawberries you use.

This recipe yields a gallon of lemonade, but it's easily halved or doubled if you want less or more.

Brown Sugar and Cinnamon Muffins.

I was on the schedule to bake something for the coffee and refreshments table at church, and I wanted something that was sweet and delicious without being too much like a dessert.

Enter these muffins I found from The Happy Housewife. They're easy and delicious, and are perfect for breakfast or brunch. I tripled the recipe and it made about 36 muffins.

Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups flour (I used white, but the original recipe calls for whole wheat)
1/3 cup sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 egg
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
Brown sugar
Cinnamon

Directions:
Mix together dry ingredients, then add egg, milk and vegetable oil and mix thoroughly.
Fill muffin cups 1/4 of the way with batter, then add a pinch of brown sugar to each muffin cup. Cover the brown sugar with batter, and then sprinkle the tops with cinnamon and more brown sugar.
Bake for 15 minutes at 350 degrees.

Photo courtesy of The Happy Housewife, because I forgot to take a picture of the muffins before they were devoured.