Get Your Veggies with Mocktails

Mocktails are non- alcoholic cocktails. They offer a wide range of ingredients like fruit juices, veggie juices, spices, herbs, mineral water, ice and sweetener. Also known as mock cocktails, they’re a delicious, refreshing alternative to an alcoholic drink. And for people who don’t want to broadcast that they’re avoiding alcohol, mocktails are the perfect answer. If you ditch the alcohol and choose healthy ingredients, including a healthy low-calorie sweetener such as stevia, you can avoid a boatload of calories not to mention a hangover.

So if you want to get rid of the winter “pudge” and that muffin top, add mocktails to your spring shape up plan. You should also feel a lot better when you wake up in the morning.

You may also want to try a short juice fast with mocktails before dinner. 

  

Icy Spicy Gazpacho
2 tomatoes, cut in chunks
1 cup fresh carrot juice (about 5–7 carrots)
1 lemon, juiced, peeled (if putting it through a juice machine)
1/4 cup cilantro, rinsed and chopped
1/4 teaspoon Celtic sea salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 small jalapeño, chopped
3 radishes

Place the tomato chunks in a freezer bag and freeze until solid. This is optional.

Or you can use fresh tomatoes placed in the blender; then you would need to add ice cubes.

Pour the carrot and lemon juices into a blender and add the frozen tomato chunks, cilantro, salt, cumin,  jalapeño, and radishes. Blend on high speed until smooth but slushy;
serve immediately. Serves 2.

Lemon Sipper
With less than 10 calories, this is an ideal low-calorie, vitamin C–rich thirst
quencher.

1/2 lemon, washed or peeled if not organic
1 cup unsweetened mineral water
2–3 drops liquid stevia
4 ice cubes

Juice the lemon and pour the juice into a glass over ice. Add the mineral water and stir to combine. Sweeten with stevia to taste.

Cherie Calbom MSN holds a Master of Science degree in whole foods nutrition from Bastyr University. Known as “The Juice Lady” for her work with juicing and health, she is the author of 32 books including her latest The Juice Lady’s Guide to Fasting and Sugar Knockout.