Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Copycat Gatorade Recipe

I don't know about your family, but mine is ALWAYS thirsty.  We stopped buying soda sometime last Fall in an effort to 1.) encourage healthier beverage choices, and 2.) reign in our ridiculously high grocery budget.  

After the "soda strike", I found myself buying way too much Gatorade - a healthier option than soda, for sure, but not such a great choice for the budget.  My group could easily go through an 8-pack of Gatorade in one weekend and that stuff is EXPENSIVE!!  I knew there had to be a better way but I had no idea WHAT the better way would be until I stumbled upon this blog post by Jillee one day.  

It's been my experience with "One Good Thing by Jillee", that her advice is always spot-on.  Her blog is so much fun, if you've never stopped by, I'd highly encourage it.  Especially, if you LOVE a good D-I-Y alternative.

But, enough about the why's - I've made this "Gatorade" a few times now for my family and they LOVE it.  The ingredients list is short and sweet which makes it all the better in my book.  (0=

Jillee's recipe only made one quart of the stuff and if I only made one quart at a time, I'd never get out of the kitchen.  I did the math and a few little tweaks and came up with the following recipe which fills 5 - 20 oz. upcycled Gatorade bottles.  I don't even LIKE Gatorade and I give this drink two thumbs up ;)

Without further ado...........(insert drumroll here)

Copycat Gatorade Recipe (makes approx 3 quarts)




You'll need:

1 1/2 cups Orange Juice
3/4 cups granulated white sugar
3/4 tsp kosher salt (or sea salt)
3 Tbsp lemon juice*
Water

*I've found that 1/2 of a medium sized lemon usually yields about 1 Tbsp of juice

1.  Heat 1 cup water to almost boiling and stir in sugar and salt until completely dissolved.

2. Mix in Orange Juice and lemon juice.


3.  Add enough water to make 3 quarts (I added just a splash more than 9 1/4 cups).

4.  Stir, pour into upcycled Gatorade bottles, and refrigerate.


I can't really speak to how long this will stay good in the refrigerator because it goes FAST around here; but I can say that one bottle got "lost" in the fridge, was discovered a couple of weeks later, and it was still yummy!

So, thanks to Jillee, for a great idea and hooray for my grocery budget :D




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