Since I plan on gorging myself on chicken wings and guacamole tomorrow while watching the Super Bowl, I thought it would be a good idea to come up with a low calorie drink option that is festive and tasty. I could just drink light beer, I guess, but I really don’t care for light beer in the slightest. Also, there is no rule that says you can’t watch football while drinking something out of a martini glass. I infused some vodka with orange for this martini, but you could use an orange flavored vodka or omit the orange all together. Infusing vodka is so easy there is no reason to buy a flavored vodka if you have the old plain stuff on hand. Once you get into the pepper infused vodkas and all that it is a different story, but if I wanted something akin to pepper spray in my mouth I would go to Downtown LA on May Day (zing!). That was a police brutality joke. Anyway, now for the drink!

Recipe:

1 orange or tangerine slice

1.5 oz Vodka (I used Stoli)

1.5 oz. Diet Cranberry-Pomegranate Juice

generous squeeze of fresh lime juice

lime for garnish (optional)

1. Pour the vodka in a container with the orange or tangerine slice and, with a lid on,  give it a good shake. Store in the fridge for at least an hour (overnight is better). You can use the martini shaker if you won’t be needing it in the meantime, which is unlikely. It’s the weekend, after all. You can always pour more vodka in if you are planning on making many more drinks. If you are trying to infuse more than 8 oz. of vodka I would use more orange slices.
2. Fill a martini shaker with ice and add the cran-pomegranate juice, vodka and squeeze of lime.
3. Shake vigorously and pour into a martini glass. Garnish with a lime wedge if desired.

This cocktail is about 100 calories, which isn’t bad at all, and tastes better than some of those pre-packaged cocktails that also claim to be low calorie.  If serving a crowd, you could always use a little more juice and add some club soda to make a nice punch. This drink is not “all natural” or healthy. The diet juice does use an artificial sweetener (Splenda), and I know some people try to avoid artificial sweeteners. Alcoholic drinks are not supposed to be healthy, and anyone who tells you otherwise is probably a snake oil salesman. If you want an alcoholic drink with long term health benefits, drink a glass of red wine 2-3 times a week. I will be posting a few more low calorie options over the next few weeks along with some not-so-low-calorie selections. If you do try this recipe, please let me know if you liked it or not.