Food Science Sunday

Today is more of a recipe than about Food Science.  When I make a substitution in a recipe, I have to use some food science tricks to make sure that item will work.  This is about preserving that great watermelon.  There is a group of women who go to my church that get together once a month and make a recipe from the Sunset magazine- Sunset is based on the Northwest, so they are usually featuring foods that grow in our area.  When I went a couple months ago, I brought a bender drink to sip on as we waited to eat. HERE is the original recipe (turns out it was from Cooking Light!) and you can look HERE for all kinds of amazing recipes with watermelon.
First of all, cube your watermelon and freeze on a large cookie sheet for at least 4 hours- remove and put in a large container to be used when you want to whip up this cooler.  You need at least 5 cups of cubed watermelon.

Watermelon Cooler
5 cups frozen watermelon cubes
1/2 can frozen limeade concentrate
3/4 cup pineapple juice
1 tsp rum flavoring
1/2 cup chopped mint leaves
Sparkling water, club soda or ginger ale

Blend all ingredients except soda water in blender (may need to do batches).
The original recipe called for rum and too much limeade.  I wanted to try the flavor of the rum with mint, but I don't drink alcohol.  I knew the juice that lent itself to the rum taste the best was probably pineapple, so I swapped that in with rum flavoring.  I think blending the club soda or sparkling water takes the fizz out, so I would pour your watermelon slush into a pitcher and then add the soda water to taste, stir gently.  Ginger ale would make it more sweet, you play with what you like.  We all really enjoyed this cooler, the mint and rum flavor and lime and watermelon all go together really well.

~Here's to Healthy Eating