Strawberry Lemonade Punch

Not a great picture, but it was the only one I got before my camera battery died. :( I had a pretty glass set out with a beautiful lemon garnish, but oh well!  This is only a half batch in this little pitcher. I didn't think a whole batch would fit.

I made this punch for our school's closing service last week.  It was a huge hit!  I love how it only has three ingredients and one of them is fresh strawberries.  The absolutely perfect punch for this time of year.  It's adapted from The Frugal Girls.

Strawberry Lemonade Punch

Ingredients:

2 (16 oz.) pkgs frozen strawberries, thawed

2 (12 oz.) cans frozen lemonade concentrate, thawed

2 (2 liter) bottles Sprite

Directions:

Place strawberries and 1 can of the lemonade concentrate in a 2 quart pitcher.  Use an immersion blender to puree the mixture.  (This step can also be done in a regular blender.)  Once pureed as smoothly as possible, add the other can of lemonade concentrate and stir.  Cover pitcher and refrigerate until ready to serve.

When ready to serve, pour strawberry lemonade concentrate into a large punchbowl.  Very slowly pour in the Sprite.  It will get really foamy.  Scoop some of the foam off (I put it back into the pitcher) so you can fit all the Sprite in there.  Give it a gentle stir.  The foam will subside a bit after a few minutes, so pour in the Sprite about 10 minutes before you are ready to serve for best results.

Makes 1 large punchbowl.

This is by far the easiest and tastiest punch I've ever made.  Three ingredients and super simple prep.  Amazing.  The only problem I had with it was the Sprite foaming up.  I was not expecting that.  I wonder if it has something to do with the strawberries.  Because earlier this month I made a cherry limeade punch for the spring fine arts program at our school, and it didn't foam up like this when adding the Sprite.  But this punch is totally worth dealing with a little foaminess.  The foam calms down in a matter of minutes, so just pour in the Sprite about 10 minutes before you want to serve.  If you scoop the foam off and into the pitcher, you will see that after a few minutes, it fizzes out and turns back into punch and you can pour into the punchbowl.

This recipe is great for making ahead.  I made two pitchers of the "concentrate" the morning of the event and stored them (and the Sprite) in the fridge.  Then when it was time to serve, I simply poured one pitcher of the concentrate into the punchbowl, then the Sprite.  Then when the punchbowl was getting low, I poured in the other pitcher of concentrate and the rest of the Sprite. Easy peasy!

I wondered if the strawberry seeds would be weird in this, but they totally aren't.  They are so tiny that you don't really notice them, and I found lots of them on the bottom of the punchbowl, so most of them sink down there anyway.  Not a problem.

This will definitely be my go-to punch whenever strawberries are in season.