Orange Julius

I got this recipe from my friend, Amy, a couple of years ago at a recipe exchange. I didn't try it until a couple of months ago, and it has been a family favorite ever since. Today we had some neighborhood friends over to run through the sprinklers and I didn't have enough ice cream for ice cream cones. (The kids looked a little worried.) So, I pulled out the blender and we made these. All the kids liked them. Just a note: Don't try to double the recipe in your blender. It will overflow. Just make two batches. It's way easier than cleaning up the mess all over your counter!

Orange Julius

Ingredients:
6 oz. frozen concentrated orange juice*
1 cup milk
1 cup cold water
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/3 cup sugar or Splenda (optional)*
10 ice cubes

Directions:
Add all ingredients to blender, and blend until smooth.

*What I usually do, is just lay the container on its side and cut it in half. Then I have 6 oz., and I can just put the other half in a sandwich bag and back into the freezer.
If you use 100% orange juice, you kind of need the sugar. Two of our favorites are Dole 100% juice orange, peach, mango and Dole 100% juice strawberry, orange, banana. These are naturally sweeter, so I usually half the amount of sugar for these. I've never tried an apple based juice or a concentrate with added sugar. I would assume that if you used these you'd need less sugar also.