Honeydew Agua Fresca

Some of you may not know what agua fresca is, so I am going to share.  Agua means water and fresca means fresh....but agua frescas are something totally different.  In Mexico, they sell these on the street corners from large glass or plastic containers and they come in a wide variety of flavors including melon, honeydew, strawberry, mango, pineapple, jamaica (hibiscus flower) and more.

Yesterday, my hubby wanted a melon agua fresca so we stopped by Pro's Ranch Market (local Mexican grocery store) where they make and sell them fresh.  He enjoyed it so much that today I thought I would try to make some out of the cantaloupe or honeydew that I had sitting on the counter.

First, I decided just to throw the cut up melon into the blender with a little water.  However, it didn't taste quite right, so I decided to look up some recipes for aguas frescas.  Well, guess what the secret ingredient is?  LOTS of sugar!!!  Oh no!  That makes them not so healthy!  So I just added A LITTLE sugar and it turned out very yummy and refreshing.

So, now you have learned something new about life in Mexico!

Where Do You Shop for Bargains?

I thought some of you might enjoy seeing where I shop for bargains. Remember, I live in Mexico, so this is pretty normal. Here is the spice aisle - great prices, you just need to save your old containers to store them in. Also I scoop from down deep so try to avoid the dust and stuff on top:-). These prices are in peso per kilo, so you have to do two conversions to compare to dollars per pound.

And here are the dried chiles. Do you see the pile of egg cartons in the back? No, they do NOT keep eggs refrigerated here. But they are usually fresher than in the states, too.
And here is some grain, dog food, bird seed, etc. Many things that they sell for bird food, we eat, like millet, white wheat, etc.
This is the same store where I buy my honey for about $12.00/gallon. Yummy and cheap! I don't have Aldi's or Trader Joe's, so I just go to Welton's and buy bulk to save money.