We love the Skinny Margarita, as I believe it is just about solely responsible for the Skinny Cocktail revolution.

The margarita is an international cocktail favorite. But unfortunately, traditionally it’s loaded with unnecessary calories from sugar. The Skinny Margaritas featured here eliminate it without compromising the quality or experience we’ve come to expect. A few years ago when the Skinny Girl Margarita was introduced, it created great awareness to the topic – yahoo! Before this revolution, skinny seeking sippers were restricted to:

• Not caring, playing dumb, and assuming alcohol has no calories (dare I mention your average margarita has 300-700 calories. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news)
• Not drinking, axing booze completely if they were trying to “diet” or lose weight (which often results in silly decisions, like “I’ll drink my dinner instead of eat it” and we all know how that night ends)
• Restricting their options to mundane vodka sodas and rum and diet cokes (gets pretty dull pretty quick and a few drinks in after you get a case of the F-its, you order up a 350 calorie Cosmo)

But today we have choices! Consumers are getting smarter every day, which means vendors and manufacturers are getting more creative.

This Cinco de Mayo, you are in control and you can play it smart!

• You know booze has calories, but by reading this blog, you’ll know how to use them wisely!
• You know the All-or-Nothing approach sucks and can be detrimental to your healthy lifestyle.
• You will not be restricted to a poor tasting, uninspired cocktail.

Today I’m showcasing not just my original Skinny Margarita that was featured in my book, SkinnyTinis — All the Fun for Half the Calories but also two other great options. One leveraging an innovative product, Bare Mixers from a great friend of mine and the last one illustrates my new “functional” cocktail concept that I have been developing. Please enjoy and share with your friends. These three recipes really do showcase that we can “Have all the Fun for Half the Calories!”

SkinnyTini’s Original Skinny Margarita

• 1 1/2 oz Tequila
• 1 1/2 oz light orange juice
• 1 1/2 oz grapefruit juice
• 1/2 oz lime juice
• 10 drops liquid Sweet & Low

Calories: 138 for 5 oz serving = 54% fewer than standard recipe!

Directions: Fill a pint, margarita or highball glass with ice. Add all ingredients, stir, garnish with a lime wedge and serve. You can also put all these ingredients in the blender with 1/2 – 1 cup of ice and serve it up blended. And of course, if you prefer, you can use the equivalent amount of stevia or other all natural, zero calorie sweetener. Agave is also a good option, and 1 tsp should to the trick and will only add 20 calories.

Bare Mixer Skinny Margarita

• 1 1/2 oz tequila
• 3 1/2 oz Bare mixer

Calories: 156 for 5 oz serving = 49% fewer than standard recipe!

Directions: Fill a pint, margarita or highball glass with ice. Add both ingredients, stir, garnish with a lime wedge and serve. You can also put all these ingredients in the blender with 1/2 – 1 cup of ice and serve it up blended. This can be a great option if you are serving up big batches of margaritas and don’t want the mess of having to measure or mix a whole lot. You can also cut the calories a bit (and stretch your Bare product) by switching out 1 oz with soda water.

SkinnyTini’s Functional Pineapple Basil Mango Skinny Margarita

• 1 1/2 oz Tequila
• 1/4 cup diced pineapple
• 1/4 cup diced mango
• 1 T fresh lime juice
• 1 fresh basil leaf
• ½ – 1 cup ice

Calories: 147 for 5 oz serving = 52% fewer than standard recipe!

Directions: Add all ingredients to your blender and start on low for 5-10 seconds. Increase speed to sufficiently pulverize all the chunks. Pour into a decorative margarita glass, garnish with a lime or pineapple wedge and serve.

Why is this functional? Because I didn’t have to add any sweetener. Nada. All the calories (outside of the booze of course) come from real food – not simple sugar. Real food comes with health benefits from vitamins, minerals, fiber, and live enzymes. For example, “Bromelain found in pineapples work to neutralize fluids to ensure that they are not too acidic. It also helps regulate the secretions in the pancreas to aid in digestion. Apart from that, since bromelain has protein-digesting properties, it can keep the digestive track healthy.” Thanks 3 Fat Chicks on a Diet! They also bullet 6 other key benefits to eating raw pineapple.

Detox your Retox! And get this — after you indulge in your Cinco de Mayo fiesta — you can wake up and serve these up as refreshing 100% functional smoothie in the am!

Pineapple Mango Smoothie

• 1/2 cup diced pineapple
• 1/2 mango
• 1/2 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
• cinnamon and nutmeg
• 1/2 – 1 cup ice

Calories: 111 for 5 oz serving

I’m actually working on an entire Detox your Retox series where I a Functional SkinnyTini, then show you how to make a power house of a Retox concoction for the morning. If you are interested in the series, please sigh up here! I will keep you posted as it develops.

I sure hope that one or all of these recipes make it into your weekend celebrations. And of course, these will serve you well all year long — not just this weekend!

What’s your favorite Margarita recipe? Do you have any fun Cinco de Mayo plans? I’d love to hear about them!

Cheers!

The post Skinny Margaritas for Cinco De Mayo appeared first on Eat, Drink, and Be Skinny!.