The Best Uses of Lemon

Would you like to know some of the best uses of lemon? If so this is a fun article for you to enjoy! Read on and find out how you can use lemons in the home, in your baking and with the kids. We have a great homemade lemonade smoothie recipe to share and some interesting and fun facts about lemons. 

Enjoy!

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How to Squeeze a Lemon

Do you remember squeezing lemons as a child? I certainly do. I loved to squeeze lemons over the lemon squeezer and help my mum while she baked her famous lemon meringue pie.

It was fun super collecting the juice and making sure the pips stayed out of the bowl. The best part was eating the pie with the tangy lemon taste and crisp meringue peaks. I loved it. In fact, I can't wait for my mum to visit New Zealand. I'll be asking her to bake her famous Lemon Meringue Pie for the family.

There are a few ways to squeeze a lemon. You need to chop the lemon in half and then you can either squeeze over a bowl and scoop out any pips that may fall in with the lemon juice. Alternatively, you may want to buy a lemon squeezer. We owned a lemon squeezer when I was a child and have one at home. 

A Lemon Squeezer allows you to drain the lemon juice whilst catching the pips at the same time. I prefer to use a lemon squeezer. Some like to buy ready squeezed Lemon juice from the store but then you miss out on the fun of squeezing lemons! 

Fun Facts About Lemons

I thought it would be fun to share some useful facts about Lemons.

Lemon is a cross between a citron and a sour orange. Lemons are tangy but packed with vitamin C which is really important for keeping the immune system strong and helping the body to heal. 

These interesting facts about Lemons are perfect to use with your kids, when cooking or otherwise. Here are five more fun facts about lemons.

• Lemons originally come from Asia.
• Lemon trees can produce up to 600 lbs of lemons every year.
• Lemon trees produce fruit all year round.
• Lemon zest and grated rinds is often used in baking.

I love the smell of lemons and have Lemon essential oil in my home. It's great for making the house smell lovely and is really good for cleaning the home naturally. did you know lemons are a great natural cleaner? They do a fantastic job!

So here we are ready to read about fun ways to use Lemons. There are honestly so many fun ideas out there but today we will focus on my top five. I hope you find this useful and enjoy testing these out.

Make a Lemonade Stand

It can be super fun to make a lemonade stand and it's as simple as finding a folding table and chair. The setup doesn't have to be elaborate for your kids to have fun selling lemonade to the neighbours. 

Other supplies you may need to include a large sign, disposable cups and a large container (or two) of your favourite homemade lemonade, strawberry lemonade recipe or homemade lemonade smoothie recipe. 

Create a Lemon Juice Rocket Experiment

You can use lemons to launch rockets.

When your kids are feeling a little like astronauts or scientists, there is no better time to make these super-simple lemon juice rockets. For this outside experiment you would need:

• a plastic bottle with a cork (for each child)
• a small funnel
• lemon juice
• water
• safety glasses
• toilet paper
• tape
• baking soda

Tape strips of torn toilet paper onto each cork, to look like streamers. Using the funnel, pour a half-inch of lemon juice into each bottle.

Add water, until containers are half full. Next, make little packets of baking soda, by folding small squares of toilet paper around 1 teaspoon of baking soda.

Put on the safety goggles. Insert a baking soda packet into each bottle, closing them with the corks. Shake bottles for a few seconds and place on the ground. Ready for lift-off!

Bake Lemon Bars With Kids

There are lots of recipes to make Lemon Cake Bars or Lemon Cake. But, this one only requires three simple ingredients!

All you need is a lemon, one can of lemon pie filling and one "just add water" packaged cake mix.

If you live in the UK like me, you can use half a jar of lemon curd from the Supermarket Isle instead of pie filling

All you need to do is add lemon juice to the water and combine the ingredients. You might even want to pop some Lemon rind into the cake too. 

Pour into a buttered 13 x 9 baking dish and bake for 30 minutes in a 350° oven.

Allow to cool completely, before cutting and you have lemon cake! Quick simple and easy. 

What a fabulous way to use lemons.

How to Make Invisible Ink Using Lemons

There are a few ways to make invisible ink and one fun way is to use lemons.

Dip a small paintbrush or cotton swab into fresh lemon juice.

Use the brush, to draw a picture on a plain piece of white paper.

Once the juice is completely dry, hold the picture near a light bulb.

The "invisible ink" will magically appear!

Please note, if you have small children supervision will be required.

Homemade Lemonade Smoothie Recipe

You can use lemons to make a tasty homemade lemonade smoothie.

Pour one cup of milk into the blender. Add three tablespoons of lemon juice, ½ cup vanilla yogurt (Greek is best), 2 tablespoons of honey and 1-¾ cups ice cubes.

Blend until smooth. Enjoy! Makes four 8-ounce servings.

You might also want to try different smoothie recipes and mix Lemons with different fruits and vegetable.

Do You Have a Lemon Tree?

If you're lucky enough to have a mature lemon tree in your backyard, depending on size, it's capable of producing 600 pounds of fruit every year. That translates into a LOT of lemons and a lot of fun activities.

If you don't have convenient access to a lemon tree, no worries! Lemons are readily available at your local grocery store or market. You could go on a Lemon hunt with the kids at the local market or visit a farm. There are lemons in so many places. 

So, why not get your kids using the tangy fruit? Their taste buds and imaginations will love you for it!

Angela x

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