Healthy & Delicious: White Peach Bellini Recipe

Note: On Mondays, Kristen Swensson of Cheap, Healthy, Good swings by these parts to share healthy and delicious recipes with us. Take it away, Kristen!

When you're trying to lose weight or maintain a weight loss, one of the trickiest areas to navigate is alcohol. Beer, wine, liquor, and mixed drinks are a caloric minefield, and too many pints can sink a diet faster than a box of doughnuts. (Mmm, doughnuts.) Of course, a life without booze is nigh unthinkable for some of us. (Note: me.) So, how do we reconcile our desire to get healthy with our desire for a Mudslide?

Moderation is part of it, as is planning ahead, pacing ourselves, and quaffing water between drinks. Choosing lower-calorie mixers like diet soda, seltzer, and fruit purees helps as well. And of course, some beverages are naturally lighter than others. An average glass of red wine should only run you about 110 calories, while a full-size frozen margarita will cost you 750. (For more calorie counts, see here.)

Two of my favorite ways to imbibe intelligently are mimosas and bellinis. Usually served with breakfast, they mix small amounts of fruit juice or fruit purees with champagne or a sparkling white wine like Prosecco. Generally less than 100 calories a pop, you can nurse them for awhile without feeling guilty. Oh, and they're delicious, too.

This White Peach Bellini recipe comes from Bon Appétit. The original instructions don't call for straining the puree, but I highly recommend it. After trying it both ways, I found there's way too much pulp in the non-strained version. Beyond that, it's pretty dang tasty. And for the drinking dieter, you can't do much better than that.