Tag Archives: lemon

quench your thirst with homemade flavored water

Posted on July 3, 2014 | Leave a comment

Ditch boring water and satisfy your thirst with healthy all natural homemade quenchers.

Water is very essential to your good health, it makes up about 60% of your body weight. Every day you lose water through your breath, perspiration, urine and bowel movements, but since every system in your body depends on water to function properly, you must replenish its water supply. Studies determined that your water needs depend on many factors, including your health, how active you are and where you live but roughly we can say an adequate intake for men is 3 liters (about 13 cups) of total beverages a day and for women 2.2 liters (about 9 cups).

It’s a huge amount of water if you think about it and you are not a water lover! That’s why here is 3 homemade recipes for naturally flavored water with added health benefits, to encourage you meet your daily needs, and stay hydrated especially it’s getting really hot outside!

citrus kiss:

Slice up one lemon, one orange and one grapefruit, add them to one liter of water. The longer the ingredients steep, the stronger the flavor will be, so mix them up a few hours ahead depending on how strong you want the taste to be.

Apple cinnamon:

Wedge up one full apple and toss in one cinnamon stick. This one has a great kick, it helps boost your metabolism.

Cucumber, mint lemon:

Slice up one or two cucumbers and soak in handful mint leaves and one sliced lemon.

You can soak in any fruit you like. Would love to have your new flavors suggestions if you already tried one!

So refreshing that I am sure I will hear lots of ahhhhhh when you try these!

wholesome salade fermiere

Posted on June 23, 2014 | Leave a comment

There is always a salubrious option that you can take when trying to eat healthy. La salade fermiere is a full meal salad, not just health-giving but also delectable.

Very easy and suitable when you want your meal to be on your table in less than 20 minutes.

To make this salad you need: (4 persons)

400g grilled chicken
1 medium iceberg lettuce
1 big green apple cut in slices
60g dried raisin (washed and soaked in water for 10 minutes)
80g walnut (washed and soaked in water for 10 minutes)
150g shredded gruyere

Dressing:

juice of one big lemon
1 tbsp moutarde a l’ancienne
1 tsp dijon mustard
1 tsp brown sugar
2 tbsp olive oil

A salutary salad that you will be making at least once a week! Personally i love the different tastes that blends perfectly together, especially with the heavenly dressing! Healthy salad doesn’t mean boring salad! Enjoy.

a welcome drink – traditional batrouni lemonade (laymounada batrounye)

Posted on June 4, 2014 | 6 comments

Batroun is a touristic destination in North Lebanon. My home town, a major destination for the beautiful beaches and the vibrant nightlife.

Batroun is known for its fresh lemonade, which is sold by most of the cafés and restaurants in the town. This simple drink made from lemons, sugar and water has many variations in different parts of the world.

This version is the famous batrouni one:

juice of 4 big lemons (1 1/2 cup)
zest of one lemon
1 cup sugar
3 cups cold water

All i can say It’s about the technique:

Wash the lemons and cut in four.
Add the sugar and squeeze the lemon wedges with your hands until they release half of the juice.
Add the zest of one large lemon and let the mix stands in the fridge for 15 minutes
Take it out and totally squeeze the lemons, strain the juice, add the water and mix until the sugar is totally melted. Et voila!

The most refreshing and succulent lemonade.

Some like it more diluted, or more sweet or less sweet… It’s subject to taste. You can add orange blossom water too if you want to take it to another level. As you can add few mint leaves, but the traditional one is the simplest basic one.

If you have people visiting, a pitcher of fresh homemade lemonade is a traditional welcome drink especially on hot summer days!

Daily consumption of 120 ml of lemon juice per day, when mixed with two liters of water, has been shown to reduce the rate of stone formation in people susceptible to kidney stone.

Batroun has the largest cup of lemonade (more than 5000 liters) to break Guinness world record! Enjoy and regards from Lebanon 🙂

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Posted in dessert

Tagged batroun, batrouni lemonade, blog, how to do, jaymmy, laymounada, lemon, lemonade, marmite et ponpon, recipe, traditional

popeye was pretty smart after all! healthy spinach with rice (sbenigh w riz)

Posted on May 29, 2014 | Leave a comment

Among the World’s Healthiest vegetables, spinach comes out at the top of the ranking list for nutrient richness; vitamins and minerals. Eat spinach to protect yourself against inflammatory problems, oxidative stress-related problems, cardiovascular problems, bone problems, and cancer.

We all know that Popeye made himself super strong by eating spinach.

I remember when we were kids, we used to call it popeye food, we never even called it spinach! We loved this dish and we were convinced whenever we had it for lunch we get super powers!

So while spinach probably won’t make you super strong the minute you eat it, as it did for Popeye, it will promote your health and vitality in many other ways. It seems like Popeye was pretty smart after all.

Spinach with rice is one of the traditional lebanese food. To prepare this super dish you need: (serving 4 persons)

1 kg spinach chopped
250g minced beef
1 big onion chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp salt
juice of 2 lemons
handful pine nuts (about 30g)
1 cup of water

Bring olive oil to heat and cook the onions until tender and fragrant. Add the minced beef and cook until brown then add the pine nuts and cook until it’s all well done.

Stir in the chopped spinach, you can use them fresh or frozen, with one cup of water. When they start boiling, bring the heat to low, cover the pot and simmer for 20-25 minutes. Put the heat off and add the salt and lemon and serve it with rice.

There’s a compound in spinach called oxalic acid, which blocks the absorption of calcium and iron. An easy way to solve this problem is to pair spinach with a food high in vitamin C, that’s why lemon is a necessity to benefit from this recipe.

Cook it for your loved ones and enjoy its wondrous benefits.

homemade minted lemon popsicles (mojito on a stick) – popsicoholic part 5

Posted on May 23, 2014 | 4 comments

When life hands you lemons, you have another option now than just lemonade!

Popsicoholic part 5: minted lemon popsicles.

There is nothing more refreshing than lemon, not just to eat or drink, i also use lemon scented candles, detergents, shower gel… For me lemon aroma is the most relaxing and refreshing.

My 17 months boy loves lemon too, he eats lemon slices without even blinking his eyes… These lemon popsicles are specially done for him.

Give your lemon popsicles a cool herbal boost using fresh mint leaves. In a food processor mix juice of 2 lemons, juice of 1 lime, 1 cup of water, 1/2 cup of sugar and 1/2 cup fresh mint leaves.

Pour it in molds and put it in the freezer without inserting the sticks. You will notice that pieces of mint float on top. After one hour take it out and with a knife make up and down movement, to distribute the mint leaves properly. Insert the sticks and return to the fridge to freeze completely, for overnight.

It should make 4 popsicles, again depending on your mold size. To remove the popsicles from the molds, run under warm water until they are easily released.

If you would like to have a mojito on a stick, simply add rum to the mix before freezing and chill out!