A classic and refreshing summer drink downsized to make a single serving!

Yield: 1 4 to 6 ounce glass
Prep time: 5 min

American Style Single Serve Lemonade

Ah, lemonade. That classic American drink; synonymous with summertime and enterprise. I personally never got the chance to run a lemonade stand growing up, but I did have my fair share of homemade lemonade. You can't beat a glass of refreshing lemonade. With just three ingredients, it's economical and quick to prepare. And if you moderate the sugar, you could even call it healthy!

Growing up, my mother would always make lemonade--big glass jugs of lemonade with floating wedges of ice were perpetually at home in our fridge, next to an equally-large jug of sweet iced tea. Go in any southern kitchen between the months of May and September and you're certain to find at least one of these drinks. By the gallon. When my mother wasn't whipping up pitchers of the tart and sweet nectar, she'd make single servings of it in restaurants. She'd simply order glasses of ice water and a bowl of lemon slices and with the complimentary sugar packets on restaurant tables, she'd produce glass after glass of the sweetest lemonade.

In the UK, this type of lemonade, American style is called "Cloudy Lemonade" because, well, it's a bit cloudy, isn't it. Bizarrely, Brits call Sprite and 7Up "Fizzy Lemonade" or just "Lemonade" for short. On my first trip to London, I ordered a glass of lemonade, my first in the UK. When the waitress brought the drinks to the table, I stared at all of the carbonated bubbles floating in the glass. "I asked for lemonade," I said. She stared at me as if I'd had six heads. "That is lemonade," she said flatly. We (myself and a group of American friends) were puzzled. I tentatively took a sip and a few seconds later realized that it was just Sprite. So, that's why this is American style. Because it contains no carbonation. It's not fizzy; it's dead cloudy and completely delicious.

Today is Day 2 of a personal initiative I've set: no sodas for the month of June. It's easy to just grab a Coke and knock it back, especially when it's ice cold and especially on a hot day. I was realizing, that I was getting to the point where I was becoming a slave to soft drinks! I struggled to go a day without it, often getting those stupid caffeine headaches when I hadn't had any.

Usually, that's always been my cue to ease up on the soft drinks and swap in more fruit juices and water. Over the last few months, though, while learning to deal with and adjusting to life without gluten, I've been over-indulging on the Cokes. Probably as comfort and in an attempt to keep the number of big life changes I was making at bay. But I noticed  that I was starting to become desensitized to caffeine. Where a can of Coke would wake me up, I was finding this wasn't the case. I've been wanting to eliminate sodas for a while and there's no time like the present, right? Right.

My personal challenge guidelines:

• No dark sodas of any kind; caffeine free "fizzy lemonades" okay every now & then (I'm thinking no more than twice a week)
• All teas, smoothies and juices welcome
• Experiment with making my own fruit and vegetable juices at home
• My challenge runs from June 1 to June 30 2014

If you're feeling up to it, why not join me on the challenge? It's never too late to make some changes! Feel free to save my challenge image to your computer and use it on your blog, too.Use my guidelines or personalize them to reflect your lifestyle. I'll be using the #juiceme hashtag for motivation and to hopefully find other people who are on the challenge, too! Use the hashtag on G+, Twitter and Pinterest to connect with me. To help get you started, here's my recipe for American Style Single Serve Lemonade.

Ingredients:

For the lemonade
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup water
1 whole lemon, juiced
**Notes**

• The measurements for this drink, aren't necessarily cups in the usual sense. I just used the glass pictured to get crude measurements and relied mostly on tasting and stirring to make adjustments.

Instructions:

American Style Single Serve Lemonade

1. Fill a cup with water, leaving just a bit of space.
2. Juice a whole lemon into the water.
3. Stir in the sugar.
4. Taste and adjust the flavor: too tart? Add more sugar. Too sweet? Add a bit more lemon juice or more water.
5. Serve ice cold