Recipe: Watermelon Slushy

This is one of our favorite summertime treats. I serve it with the kids' lunch or when friends come over to play. It's a slushy, but much better because it has no added sugar and is made entirely out of fruit. And it couldn't be simpler to make. 

Ingredients: 

• watermelon
• apple juice
• a few frozen or fresh berries (optional)

Step 1: Cut your watermelon into cubes. Line a baking sheet with waxed paper and pile the watermelon on this. Set watermelon cubes into freezer and freeze. Once frozen, you can store your watermelon in a freezer bag until ready to use. It doesn't matter if the watermelon is a bit clumped together when frozen, just so long as the chunks are small enough for your blender to blend it up. When I buy watermelon we typically eat about half of it fresh then I throw the other half in the freezer for slushies. 

 Step 2: Load the frozen watermelon chunks and a few frozen or fresh berries into your blender. There is no measurement for this but this is what my blender looked like with the frozen fruit nearly filling the blender. The berries add a little more flavor to the slushy. 

Step 3: Add apple juice to cover about 2/3 or 3/4 of the berries. Start blender. Add more juice until blender just barely can handle blending it up. This will make for a thick slushy, add more juice if you want a less icy drink. 

Step 4: Pour into cups and enjoy!

Variations: 

• Use fresh watermelon and pour the blended drink into popsicle molds and freeze. 
• Try substituting other juices or lemonade for the apple juice.
• If you don't want to prep ahead of time, try using fresh watermelon, ice, and apple juice concentrate. Add a little water, as needed.