Beverage Tuesday

"Diet" Cocktails

We all want to be able to have a cocktail or two and maintain our figures, but what to drink and not sacrifice the flavor.
You can of course have low cal drinks at home with diet juices & other diet mixers, you can also substitute Splenda for the sugar in a few drinks, but at a bar what do you order?

• How about the Skinny Bitch, which is a Rum & Diet Coke?
• You can order any liquor with Diet Coke.
• The lower the proof, the lower the alcohol content. Most shots of basic alcohol {1 1/2 ozs.} will set you back about 100 calories.
• Bars don't usually have any other mixer that is diet. Tonic water is not a diet drink, nor is ginger ale.
• You can order your drink with Soda Water. Which is only bubbly water.
• A Wine Spritzer is just that, wine with soda water.
• There is always the light beer, but that can be boring.
• A glass of Champagne is pretty low in calories, too.
• There are conflicting reports online about the Sour Apple Martini, but most say it is fairly low in calories.
• The Mojito is somewhat low-cal, even better if you can slip in a sugar substitute.
• If you are at a bar that has infused liquors, give those a try on the rocks.
• Bloody Mary's are fairly low in calories, too, since they are made with tomatoes instead of fruit juice.
  

Next time I will give you some recipies to try at home.

Cheers,

Welcome 2010

Hello Everybody. Welcome to 2010. I have been off the map for awhile, {I lost my father & planned a joint celebration of life for my parents, during the holidays, fun stuff!} but I am ready to get a jump on a new year and decade.

I do want to say congratulations to everybody who got engaged over the holiday's. How very exciting for you.

As a newly engaged couple where do you start? After you show everybody the ring and let everybody know just how excited you are where do you go from there?

• The first thing you need to do is decide on who is paying for the wedding. Or how much can you spend on your dream wedding?


• Once you figure that out, hire a wedding planner. They are not an additional expense, they can be a godsend. I am not biased or anything. We do help you, a lot!


• Once you do those two things then you can have some fun! Buy magazines, look at blogs, figure out what your wedding day style is.


• If you don't hire a wedding planner, you need to book a venue for your reception, one for your ceremony if you are planning on having them in different locations.


• While you are doing that and getting sticker shock on the per person cost, you need to decide on your guest list. At this point you will be cutting out a lot of people who you don't think is worth the $100.00+ per plate charge & understand why you couldn't just bring a date to your second cousin's wedding.


• You will also need to start looking for your wedding dress. If you don't get it at David's or a similar take it home today store, you need to allow at least 6 months for your dress to be made just for you.


• You need to also think about the entertainment for the evening. Do you want a band or DJ? Since they will be there with you for your entire event you need to book them soon.


• But until you have a venue locked down {a signed contract and deposit paid} you don't have a date & if you don't start the search soon you will find that your dream location just might be booked on your desired date, especially if you want a Saturday in May, June or October.


• It takes about three hundred hours to plan a wedding, which is a lot of time. There are lots of decisions to make, lots of details to consider. Do yourself a favor and hire a wedding planner, even if you have one just for the Day of. Interview a couple. Make sure you click. Don't choose one on price alone. They will help you alleviate a lot of stress, because nobody wants to turn in to the dreaded...


• Have fun during this time. Enjoy the thrill of being in love and sharing that love with your fiance. Can you believe that you have one? I wish you all the best.

Congratulations Again,