Hungry Girl Goes...Low-Cal Cocktail Crazy!

Want to get together with friends for some cocktails without taking in a gazillion calories? Hungry Girl is here to help with her top eight must-have ingredients to keep on hand. Mixing these with a shot of the alcohol of your choice can keep your drink at around 80 to 110 calories. Bottoms up!

1.  Sugar-Free Drink Mixes
Keep low-calorie powdered drink mix packets on hand. Adding them to cocktails is a great idea because they're typically calorie-free and they taste great. My favorites are Crystal Light Lemonade and Disney Magic Sugar-Free Drink Mix in Grape.

2.  Baja Bob's Martini Mixes
Baja Bob's makes all kinds of low-calorie mixers, but the best are their martini mixes. They come in Sour Apple, Blue Raspberry, Cranberry Cosmo, and Lemon Drop, and each only has only 10 calories per serving. Mai Tai fans should know that Bob makes a rockin' Mai Tai mix as well. Find these at bajabob.com and select stores.

3.  Diet Sodas
Diet sodas are another great mixer for alcoholic beverages. The best (in my opinion) are Sprite Zero, Diet 7Up, any diet orange soda and Diet Rite Red Raspberry. Even calorie-free colas like Coke Zero are good for a guilt-free rum & Coke.

4.  Light Juices
Juice, while sweet and delicious, often contains a lot of sugar and calories, so it's not ideal to mix with alcohol, which also contains plenty of calories. If you're looking for juice mixer, read labels carefully. There are lots of very low-calorie juice drinks out there—you just need to find them. My favorites are the 5-calorie Diet Ocean Spray drinks (which come in Cranberry and Cranberry Grape), and Tropicana Light 'n Healthy (half the calories of regular OJ).

5.  Fresh Fruit
You can't go wrong with keeping fresh lemons, limes, oranges, strawberries, pineapple, etc. on hand for your at-home cocktail gatherings. Fresh fruit not only makes your drinks look more appealing, it's good for you, low in calories and delicious!

6.  Club Soda
Club soda is a great mixer, 'cause you get the bubbles without adding extra calories. Pair your favorite alcohol with a few ounces of club soda and a splash of your favorite fruit juice (you can use an ounce or so of regular juice) and your cocktail will be tasty and fairly low in calories. Club soda is also a great way to make your white wine last longer. Remember white wine spritzers? They're back!

7.  Torani Sugar-Free Syrups
These are sooooo good and a must-have for your bar. These sweetened-with-Splenda syrups come in a whole slew of flavors (over two dozen!). Not only are they ideal for cocktails; they're also perfect to use in smoothies and other recipes. My favorite flavors are mango, peach, strawberry and black cherry.

8.  Good ice, cute glasses and fun straws
Don't sell these items short! Never use old ice that doesn't taste fresh; it can ruin a perfectly good drink. And the cuter the straws and glasses are, the better your drinks will taste (it's true!).

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Hungry Girl, aka Lisa Lillien, distributes her tips, tricks and takes on new food products through her daily emails and Web site. Check out Hungry-Girl.com

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