Strawberry Honey Soda

I swear I’m not trying to slack off with recipes here. Real life is simply taking over.

Call it busy summer days with longer lasting daylight. Call it the-garden-is-taking-over-our-lives-again. Call it traveling too much. Call it, more often than not, laziness once I finally sit down at night. Mostly, it’s dreading turning the computer on after a long day at work spent – you guessed it – on the computer.

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There are some days, weeks even, when making the simplest thing is hard for me. And this really doesn’t do well for the blog, if you couldn’t tell. I feel weird about sharing this, like I’m the only one that feels this way or goes through this and that’s always the worst feeling. That no one else feels the same or understands, but I don’t think that’s true.

Like most of you (or so I hope), I lose steam…motivation…creativity. Every few months, I find myself in a rut and sometimes, it’s hard to dig myself out of it. I get comfortable where I am and have no desire to change things, to make new things, to do anything that requires thought again. This is when I fall back into books, reading for hours, and not wanting to do anything else. Between work, commuting, making meals, pulling lettuce and chard, making jam, freezing berries, doing laundry, cleaning house, taking care of pets and reading, I just don’t want to do anything else.

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So it’s been easy things here lately.

Quick meals, lots of leftovers, nothing that requires too much work. I know I’ll get back to the point where I want to spend an entire day making croissants or roasting a chicken while making bread and braising something else. But that day is not today.

I started to feel bad about this, about not making lots of things lately or not having much in the way of motivation to cook. But we all go through this, right? It can’t just be me.

Sometimes, you just need a break.

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Even though our big batches of strawberries are done for the year, I’m holding onto one bowlful in the fridge, willing them to last until our raspberries are ripe.

We’ve made pie and jam and frozen them for pancake sauce this winter. The rest that we have will be eaten on their own or used in simple recipes like this, leaving us with good memories until next spring when we have fresh strawberries again.

The best part about this homemade soda is it’s only 3 ingredients and most of the time you need to make it is hands-off. You know exactly what’s in your soda and can make it how you like it.

If you want just a touch of strawberry flavor, go light on the base and heavy on the soda. Throw some of the base into smoothies or stir in yogurt or ice cream – it’s a good thing to have in the fridge, whether you’re going to use it for soda or not.

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Strawberry Honey Soda

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups strawberries, hulled and halved
  • 1 Tbsp honey
  • club soda, for serving

Directions:

  1. Place the strawberries in a medium bowl and toss with the honey. Cover the bowl with a lid or foil and let them sit at room temperature for a couple of hours until the berries have started soften and given up some juice.
  2. Pour the berries and the syrup that has released in the bottom of the bowl into your blender or food processor. Blend the berries until the mixture is smooth. (At this point, you can strain the mixture to remove any seeds that didn’t get pureed or you can leave them in; I’m lazy and didn’t feel like straining it, but I don’t mind some seeds in my drinks.)
  3. To make 1 soda, put 1 tablespoon of the strawberry honey base in the bottom of a glass. Slowly add at least a cup of club soda (or more), stirring to combine. Add ice and serve.

19 comments

  1. Love this! Will be bookmarking this recipe :)

  2. Oh I feel you! These long summer days are are even longer working days! Which is why I need this fruity soda! It sounds so good!

  3. Here are these amazing strawberries I heard about in Austin!

    So just imagine this…everything crazy you are doing now and then add 2 or 3 kids on top of that. OMG that’s when it really gets insane and you have calendars upon calendars to keep it all straight. It seems impossible doesn’t it? It’s what I call living in survival mode.

    But this soda would keep me in check, it looks amazing!

  4. I totally understand where you’re coming from. It’s so easy to get caught up and stressed about what to make for the blog or forcing yourself to sit in front of a computer when you really don’t want to but that’s not much of a life really is it? I say take it as easy as you want and all the breaks that you need. We’ll still be here.

  5. I’m in a blogging funk too. You’re not alone.

  6. Oh, hon, I feel you! I think we both have too much on our plate right now. Just rely on leftovers, beg your husband to do dishes and a few loads of laundry, and this will pass. I’m hoping to get through it soon, too.

    This soda looks great!

  7. Sounds delightful! And yes, it’s not just you. I think a lot of people would be surprised to hear that I have a food blog but that I absolutely despise cooking sometimes. Sometimes I’ll push through it just so I can have fresh content for the blog… other times I remind myself that hey, this is supposed to be fun so why am I doing it if I’m not having fun? My life is busy(much like yours), so when something has to give I turn to leftovers / lazy meals and skip the blogging. This too shall pass :)

  8. totally have to make this with my girls!

  9. I am with you sister!

    Sounds like you need to post a Maggie picture!

  10. Hey, it’s ok to need a break! We all do sometimes. And if this is the kind of thing you’re drinking on your break, I’m pretty jealous! I may have to go get some strawberries soon… :)

  11. definitely need to give ourselves a break sometimes! this sounds wonderful, great way to spice up water :)

  12. I totally understand where you’re coming from. I hardly write on the blog now a days (sad times) but really I just have been doing the same thing day in and out! Don’t worry, I’ll always come back to check and see if you’ve posted any wonderful recipes!

  13. I go through the same thing. Sometimes it’s hard to just slow down, shut everything and out and remember the food you fell in love with and the food you WANT to cook. But you are doing a fabulous job, if you’re lacking motivation, it doesn’t show at all.

  14. I’m so glad I have all of the ingredients on hand. I will definitely be making this over the weekend.

  15. Its my first time to hear about strawberry honey from your post. I didn’t know that.

  16. First of all, this soda looks awesome! Second of all, yes this happens to me, too! Especially in the summer when weekends are packed with doing things and work is especially busy. I just want to go home and collapse and sometimes I can’t even get up the motivation to cook some vegetables. Takeout becomes all too common. Definitely not just you!!

  17. This is the absolute perfect summer beverage!

  18. This soda is so pretty and so perfect for summer :) loving it!

  19. Pingback: Full Moon, Strawberry Moon | Moon and Shadow

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