Homemade Watermelon Margarita Recipe

A margarita is one of my favorite drinks to enjoy with some delicious Mexican food. Or that was the case until I found out how many calories are in a typical margarita served at most big chain restaurants! Taking a quick glance at my book “Drink This, Not That” by David Zinczenko and Matt Goulding, I found that most margaritas served at restaurants range from 350 calories all the way up to 890 calories!!

That’s scary stuff! If I drank the margarita with 890 calories I would be consuming almost half of my daily allowance of calories in a drink! Keep in mind that this drink doesn’t provide me with any fiber, protein, vitamins, antioxidants, minerals that I would have gotten if I had eaten 890 calories worth of healthy food.  If I want to eat “bad calories,” I think I would rather have a few slices of light cheesecake or about 3 candy bars!

Using one of the pre-made margarita mixes that can be purchased at grocery stores to make margarita’s at home isn’t really a better option either. Scan the ingredients list of a few of the pre-made mixes at the grocery store and you will typically find a list of ingredients that goes like this: water, high fructose corn syrup, lots of preservatives, lots of additional kinds of artificial sugars, a few things I can’t pronounce, and different kinds of food coloring. That list of ingredients doesn’t add up to something I should be drinking because something seems to be missing from that list of ingredients: real fruit!

So what’s a girl to do if she doesn’t want to give up her drinking of an occasional margarita? Well this girl decided to start making her own margaritas at home from scratch. The recipe I found was very easy to make and contained real fruit which means I will be getting some vitamins and antioxidants with my drink! The watermelon margarita recipe is from Cooking Light magazine and each margarita is only 105 calories per serving!!! It’s a no guilt recipe and I won’t feel like I have to run 12 miles just to burn off the calories from one margarita.

Watermelon Margarita via Cooking Light magazine’s July issue

Ingredients:

• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1 lime wedge
• 3 ½ cups cubed seeded watermelon
• ½ cup tequila
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• 1 tablespoon Triple Sec (orange-flavored liqueur)
• Lime wedges or watermelon balls (optional)

Preparation:

1. Place 2 teaspoons sugar in a saucer. Rub the rims of 6 glasses with 1 lime wedge; spin rim of each glass in sugar to coat. Set prepared glasses aside.

2. Combine watermelon and next 4 ingredients (through Triple Sec) in a blender; process until smooth. Fill each prepared glass with 1/2 cup crushed ice. Add 1/2 cup margarita to each glass. Garnish with lime wedges or melon balls, if desired. Makes 6 servings so share with friends!

Depending on the size of the watermelon you purchased you may or may not have extra watermelon left over to eat or use in additional recipes. I did have some leftover watermelon that I used to make the watermelon ice cubes that were used to make the iced green tea drink I wrote about in a previous post. If you missed that post please take a quick glance at it to find another great drink recipe!

Evol Burrito Review: Chicken, Rice & Bean

The chicken, rice & bean frozen Evol Burrito is the perfect solution for those days that I don’t have time to cook or actually don’t feel awake enough to cook.  It only takes 2 minutes and 45 seconds to heat up in the microwave. I know what you’re thinking, that frozen burritos are unhealthy and don’t have a lot of flavor but that isn’t the case with this burrito. I think it’s the best frozen burrito I have ever tasted.

 The description of the chicken burrito on the package states that the burrito is made with “tender free-range chicken braised in a sweet guajillo chile sauce, pinto beans, rice, Monterey jack cheese and an authentic tomato & roasted corn salsa-all hand rolled together in an insanely tasty flour tortilla.” Delicious! Also, it is a meal that will provide you with 21 grams of protein and 6 grams of fiber. It kept me full for hours!

 Beside the great taste, I love how the burrito is made with free-range chicken raised without any antibiotics and the cheese in the burrito comes from cows that were not given RBST (a growth hormone that a lot of cows are given).  Also, the list of ingredients contains things that I might find in my own kitchen, things like:  tomatoes in juice, garlic, jalapenos, lime juice, pinto beans, Monterey jack cheese, cilantro, water, etc. It makes me feel good to know that I am eating a product that lists ingredients that I actually recognize! A lot of the ingredients found in other frozen burritos are not ingredients you would find in your own kitchen. Their ingredients are found in chemistry labs and you have no idea what they are or what they are made out of when you read them on that ingredient list. If you want to eat something like this, be my guest but I think I’ll stick with my Evol burrito.

I found my Evol burrito at my local Whole Foods grocery store but according to the company’s website the burritos are sold all over the U.S. so you should be able to find their burritos at your local grocery store.

If you do decide to try one of their burritos let me know what your opinion is! They have lots of different flavors to try if you are not a fan of chicken burritos. My husband brought the shredded beef flavor recently so I will have to ask him what he thought of it. I can’t wait to try their veggie fajita and egg & potato burritos next! I especially want to try the egg & potato burrito because the egg in the burrito comes from cage free chickens.

The only downside of the burrito is that the burritos are kind-of expensive as far as frozen burritos go. The sell for an average of $3.00 a piece, but I think they’re worth it because most fast food meals cost more than that these days.