Copycat Cheesecake Factory Raspberry Lemonade

A bunch of us got together a couple of weeks ago for Brea's birthday. I was put in charge of bringing a drink, and as I stopped drinking soda a month or so ago I really wanted to find a drink that was delicious and it at all possible did not include soda. My Mom had suggested that I could take juice or I thought that I would just take soda and then drink water. But at the last minute Saturday night I went searching through pinterest and blogs and found this drink that was supposed to be amazing...and it was! Everyone kept going back and forth to the kitchen to get more (finally to make it easier, especially for the pregnant ladies, we brought it into the living room). I didn't have the directions and threw the water in before the water was boiling, I'm not sure if that really changed anything but I added a little more sugar because it just needed a little more sweetness ;)

Copycat Cheesecake Factory 

Raspberry Lemonade

Recipe came from The Sexy Knitter

Copycat Cheesecake Factory Raspberry Lemonade

Makes 2 quarts

Ingredients:

1 cup water

1 cup sugar

1 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice

1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen raspberries

Extra sugar for sugaring the rim of your glass

Directions:
Bring the cup of water to a boil. Add the sugar and stir constantly for one minute until sugar is thoroughly dissolved; remove from heat and add to a blender with raspberries. Puree until smooth. Add puree to 2-quart container with lemon juice and enough water to make 2 quarts. Chill before serving. Serve over ice in sugared glasses. (Or, you know, glass, if you're going to hoard it.)

To sugar your glass, run one of your lemon rinds around the edge of the glass to moisten. Dip rim into dry sugar until coated to your liking.

Raspberry-Mango Smoothie

I am a huge fan of smoothies (yum, yum!). When I saw this recipe on Our Best Bites I knew that it was one that I had to try. This was super good and easy but I discovered that because I'm not the hugest fan or raspberries I could have gone with a little bit less or none at all. Be sure to have others to share this with when you make it...Mom and I were very cold by the end and were having difficultly finishing all it made.

Raspberry-Mango Smoothie
Recipe came from Our Best Bites

Raspberry-Mango Smoothie

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups Orange Mango Peach juice
1 cup cubed mangoes (or peaches)
1 cup raspberries
1 1/2 cups (about 3 large scoops) pineapple sherbet
2 cups ice (omit 1 cup ice per frozen fruit used)

Instructions:

Add all ingredients to your blender in the order listed and blend until smooth. Drink immediately. Makes 2 large smoothies or 4 smaller smoothies.