Lisa Lillien - Hungry Girl - Recipes and Survival Strategies for Guilt-Free Eating in the Real World

chapter twelve

happy hour

cocktails
time to toss back some guilt-free sips.

Alcohol has lots of calories. That's not exactly a secret. The key to making guilt-free cocktails is figuring out what low-cal stuff to mix with that alcohol. That's where HG comes in! This chapter features some amazingly delicious drinks—and they each have no more than 175 calories (in fact, most have closer to 100). Keep in mind, any of these can be made without alcohol, and if you drink 'em that way (virgin style), you'll be saving close to 100 calories a drink. Cheers!

magical low-calorie margarita
PER SERVING (entire recipe): 115 calories, 0g fat, 55mg sodium, 2g carbs, 0g fiber, 0.5g sugars, 0g protein

This recipe is so awesome, you'll be able to fool everyone into thinking they're drinking a super-high-calorie margarita. If you don't like your drinks super-sweet, feel free to use just half of the lemonade drink mix.

Ingredients
6 ounces diet lemon-lime soda
1ВЅ ounces tequila
1 packet (two 5-calorie servings) sugar-free powdered lemonade drink mix 2 tablespoons lime juice
5 to 8 ice cubes or 1 cup crushed ice Optional: lime wedge (for garnish)

Directions
Stir all ingredients together, except for the ice.

For a frozen drink, place mixture in a blender with the ice and blend until smooth. Or simply pour mixture over ice and enjoy. If you like, serve with a lime wedge.

MAKES 1 SERVING

Ingredients
One 25-calorie packet diet hot cocoa mix
Вј cup light chocolate soymilk
1ВЅ ounces vodka
ВЅ ounce sugar-free calorie-free syrup (white chocolate or vanilla) 1 teaspoon sugar-free chocolate syrup
2 no-calorie sweetener packets
5 to 8 ice cubes or 1 cup crushed ice Optional: Fat Free Reddi-wip

Pour and, if you like, top off with a squirt of whipped topping!

MAKES 1 SERVING

piГ±a colada freeze
PER SERVING (entire recipe): 156 calories, 0.5g fat, 41mg sodium, 18g carbs, 0.5g fiber, 12g sugars, 2g protein

This is definitely the most decadent of all. . and definitely one of the best piГ±a coladas you'll ever have. It's extremely creamy but NOT sickeningly sweet!

Ingredients
1ВЅ ounces coconut rum
1ВЅ ounces sugar-free calorie-free coconut syrup
Вј cup fat-free vanilla ice cream
1 tablespoon canned crushed pineapple in juice
1 no-calorie sweetener packet
5 to 8 ice cubes or 1 cup crushed ice

Pour and enjoy!

MAKES 1 SERVING

For a pic of this recipe, see the photo insert. Yay!

Cocktail Mixer Face-Off!

Check out all the calories you can save. .

Sip It
Skip It
Sugar-Free Fruity Syrups—0 Calories
Light Vanilla Soymilk—9 calories
Sugar-Free Fruit Drink Mixes—1 calorie
Club Soda—0 calories
Diet Lemon-Lime Soda—0 Calories

Full-Sugar Syrups—70 calories
Sour Mix—30 calories
Tonic Water—10 calories
Heavy Cream—100 calories (and 10g fat!)
Fruit Juices—17 calories

Nutritional information based on averages for 1-ounce servings.

Would You Rather. .
You finally took that vacation and decided to take advantage of the happy-hour drink special. That creamy frozen piГ±a colada will cost you about 650 calories and 20 grams of fat! To burn all of that off you would have to:

Battle seaweed and jellyfish in the ocean nonstop for nearly 1ВЅ hours
or

Face off solo against the tennis ball machine (set at warp speed!) for almost 2 hours
or

Trudge barefoot across the hot sand for more than 3 hours!

Times based on estimates for a 150-pound woman.
3-for-1 special cherry vodkatini
PER SERVING (