Under 200 Calorie Cocktails

In summer, I really don’t want beer or wine.  I want an ice cold cocktail.  Salt is good.  500 calories a pop is not good.  I have no problem foregoing dessert but I really want to be able to have 2 cocktails and only consume 400 calories.  Oh- I want them tasty as well.  Is this too much to ask?

I know you are wondering what brought me to this mission.  I was at Taco Mamacitas enjoying their fabulous Vegetarian Caribbean Taco with Sweet Potato Fries and I ordered the 100 calorie Margarita.  While I love this place, I urge you to bypass this drink.  It is not good.  I only had two sips as it wasn’t worth the 100 calories.  It tastes like an artificial sugar limeade.  My thought was, “I’d be fine doubling the calorie count for great flavor.”  And so began my mission.  I gathered some friends and Elizabeth, blog partner, was in for appetizers and fresh peaches.  We told everyone: we’ll have four cocktails on hand, each under 200 calories and we want your vote on which is best.  All the cocktails were embraced and we had a tie for best one in the end.

Here are the recipes, to be made by the pitcher.  The first two listed are our tie winners, but all 4 had more than one vote:

June Bug
Modified from a cocktail served at The Lantern in Chapel Hill, NC

• 2 parts lemon soda* to 1 part Pimms 44 (I used 1.5 liters of lemon soda and .75 liters of Pimms)
• Pureed fresh ginger.  The amount I used for the above mix was 1/3 cup.
• Mix in a pitcher and let the flavors meld for at least an hour (best for 4 hours) in the refrigerator.
• Served over ice and garnish with chopped cucumber
• * I used Trader Joes Sparkling Lemon Soda

Pomegranate Mojito

• 3 cups Pomegranate Juice
• 3 cups white rum
• 1 cup fresh squeezed lime juice
• 1/2 cup Agave Nector
• large handful of mint leaves – pounded to release essence
• Mix in a pitcher.  Add mint leaves and any lime rinds from squeezing to seep for at least 1 hour but 4 hours is best.
• Remove mint and lime from pitcher and serve over ice with a splash of club soda
• Garnish with mint

Kristen Weaver, Elizabeth James, Jere Myers

Grapefruit Margarita

• 4 oz. Tequila
• 2 oz. Triple Sec OR Cointreau
• 3 cups grapefruit juice
• Fresh squeezed lime juice is optional.  A cup of lime juice only has about 60 calories so adding to the mix lowers the calorie count per 6 oz volume.
• For a pitcher (1.5 cups tequila, 3/4 cup Cointreau, 9 cups grapefruit juice)
• Salt rim and garnish with both a slice of grapefruit and lime.

We called this next one the “Lethal”:

Lethal

• 2 cups Tequila
• 1 cup St. Germaine Liqueur
• 1 cup fresh lime juice
• Mix and serve 4 oz as a sipping drink ice cold.  You will need to sprinkle Sea Salt over the top to counteract the tartness.  With salt, very tasty.

I forgot to mention that we did have food.  Yummy, healthy, full of summer goodness food.  I wanted everyone to be able to stand while eating, and I didn’t want to stick to “finger foods”.  Solution: serve salads and homemade pesto pasta in clear cups to eat with real silver forks.  We also had beef tenderloin (grilled on the Big Green Egg) rolled in tortillas with a homemade horseradish-chive-cilantro mayo.  For dessert, I went the easy route and picked up a tray of frozen lemon bars. Elizabeth brought some tasty appetizers that went with our healthy theme

This is how the salads looked before I topped them with dices of fresh picked peaches and Trader Joe's Cilantro Dressing. At this point, the salad is chopped baby spoon spinach, heirloom cherry tomatoes and avocado.

After adding chucks of fresh peaches to the top of each salad, I transferred the dressing to a plastic squeeze bottle to drizzle across the top of each cup. Here are the salads on the bottom tier of my display piece.

Here is the three tiered display piece loaded down with food. To make the pesto, I use spinach, basil, garlic, asagio cheese, olive oil and walnuts. It's the basic recipe I came up with years ago when I owned a lunch cafe in downtown Nashville. Then toss with your pasta and it's fabulous! I use 3/4 spinach to 1/4 basil.

This creamy dip with vegetables was really yummy. The other appetizer was bread rounds that had been toasted on the grill and served with a goat cheese & fresh herb spread.

This was a great way to have friends over in a casual way with not tons of work.  If I did it again, I’d love to take the time to have some of those small black board name signs to put by the drinks and the food.  Maybe something like this….I can see them stuck in a pot of mint on the bar.  Wouldn’t that be just too cute?  Living the Good Life Blog made these name cards.

I did have little plastic shot glasses so friends could sample each drink and then choose which one to make a full size from.

So, do you want to know my favorite?  The June Bug.  Elizabeth’s favorite was also my husband’s favorite: the Pomegranate Mojito.  Her husband David’s favorite was the Grapefruit Margarita.  We all liked the Lethal as well, but it seemed more like a Friday night drink, even the name, not a Sunday evening gathering drink!  For the most part, the ladies choose the June Bug for top honors and the men the Pomegranate Mojito.

My sweet friend Edith Kirkland, myself, Elizabeth and her husband David. My "bar" - an old Stickley Desk - was a bit of a mess by this point!

I hope we’ve inspired you to have a healthy party with fresh summer cocktails and good friends.  Elizabeth and I will have more gatherings…so friends don’t be insulted if you weren’t invited!  This was very last minute!

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