Skinny Margaritas

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Skinny Margaritas

For Christmas one year during college my mom gave me the coolest margarita glasses. The stems were swirled with festive colors, but in a way that looked fun and artsy, not tacky and cheesy.

You see, we’d gotten into the habit of having margaritas the first night we saw each other after being away. I honestly couldn’t tell you where or when the tradition started, but I’m sure it had something to do with my love of Mexican food.

Over the years our frozen margaritas went “on the rocks,” and we started making them at home instead of going out. After all, we were both becoming more health knowledgeable and health conscious, we knew that margaritas were not our best options to maintain the lifestyles we were trying to live.

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Adult Holiday Beverages

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Adult Holiday Beverages

Spiked cocoas, coffees, and holiday cocktails.

When it comes to cocktails, the Holidays are bursting with drinks that seem synonymous with the season. (Wassail, spiked eggnog, or champagne anyone?)  However, anymore it seems that if you put the word cranberry, peppermint or some kind of holiday-ish word such a mistletoe or Santa (Santa Clausmopolitan… really?) in front of the name, it immediately classifies as a holiday beverage… and I’m not even going to touch that. 

Now don’t worry, I’m not about to tell you that as a person living a healthy lifestyle over the holidays you have to forgo your favorite drinks.  What I DO want to go over is the cocktails and beverages that you are actually likely to encounter throughout the season, or may even be embedded in some of your holiday traditions.

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Are Non-Alcoholic Holiday Beverages Healthier?

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Are Non-Alcoholic Holiday Beverages Healthier?

True or False? Non-alcoholic Holiday beverages are healthier than alcoholic holiday beverages.

Trick question (sorry!). The answer is, it depends. What’s beverages are we talking about, and what’s your personal measurement of “healthy?”

During the holidays it’s easy to convince ourselves that non-alcoholic beverages are better for us because, well, they don’t have alcohol.  While that may be true, the hard fact is that even without the added impact of alcohol, some of the most popular holiday drinks are just as calorie-dense and laden with undesirable substances as your favorite cocktail. 

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Hot Tea... You make my Heart Sing

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Hot Tea... You make my Heart Sing

The weather is cooling down and fall weather is finally here (at least a couple days a week!).  Which means… it’s tea season. In my personal opinion there is nothing quite like a hot cup of tea during the cool weather, and especially the winter. I particularly love it in the evening.  There’s nothing quite like relaxing with your hands wrapped around your favorite mug to end the day.  But I’ll be honest, I’ll drink it all day long on a really cold wintery day.  I actually have quite the collection of teas in my cabinets because different times of day call for different teas… obviously ;)  But in actuality, I’m sensitive to caffeine, so different times of the day really does call for different teas!

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NEW and IMPROVED Pumpkin Spice Latte

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NEW and IMPROVED Pumpkin Spice Latte

Omgeeze you guys.

I thought my original Homemade Pumpkin Spice Latte (henceforth PSL… whatever, I know I’m anything but basic) was fine. It calmed the craving of the season, and cut calories and sugar in half from Starbucks. In fact, I’ve been enjoying this version for at least the last four years. And it’s still good, don’t get me wrong… but I found something else.

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Homemade Chai Tea Latte

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Homemade Chai Tea Latte

t's fall... and as the weather starts changing I want nothing more than cozy socks, comfy scarves, and a hot beverage in my hand... and I know I'm not the only one.

In fact, besides the infamous PSL (Pumpkin Spice Latte... but I didn't need to clarify that for you, did I?)  the standard fall back cozy hot beverage seems to be a Chai Latte.  Now granted, this is taken from the relatively small population of my tribe (you know, my friends, family, clients, students, etc.), but maybe you, like several of them, will be surprised that even though it often has the word "tea" in the title, there is nothing healthy about the Chai Tea Latte you get from the coffee shop down the street.  In fact, it's often not even brewed from real tea on the spot, but comes out of a box.  What the what?!?!  And not only that... but check out the sugars! UGH! 

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Guilt-Free Cinco de Mayo

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Guilt-Free Cinco de Mayo

It’s that time of year again. Cinco de Mayo time!  YUM!!!!

Seeing that I wrote about this last year, you can probably pick up on the fact that I love any excuse to eat Mexican (Tex-Mex) style cuisine. I know the holiday is pretty much an American thing, but whatever. I’ll eat my Fish Tacos and Fresh guac with pride and pleasure.

Oh, and did I mention that I’ll totally do it guilt free? Oh yes I will. Below is my Guilt-Free Cinco de Mayo menu this year.

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