Cheater Margarita Smoothies

DIY restaurant style fruit margaritas at home--simply blend your fruit with a prepared margarita mix and ice. And for the kids--blend limeade with fruit and ice for a nonalcoholic smoothie

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Recipe testing for this post has been so. much. fun!  It's my first beverage post, and I started off with a bang, seeing as this is also an alcoholic beverage as well as two recipes in one post.  I'm not going to start any cocktail post trends--Friday pizza and Monday muffins are enough for me--though I do have a lovely winter chai apple blend to share when the weather warrants it, and perhaps a summer ice tea concoction . . . but first--the Cheater Margarita Smoothie. It's too easy and too tasty not to share, and if you've got any lingering fruit in your freezer this will make quick work of it, enabling me you to empty and defrost the freezer before the new Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share season begins.

I was wondering why it is that I just don't mix cocktails at home, and I've come to the conclusion that it's because I have spent a good portion of my adulthood in states that don't sell hard liquor everywhere.  In Virginia, for example, you need to go to ABC stores (run by the state Department of Alcohol Beverage Control) in order to purchase anything stronger than beer or wine.  [In Hawaii the ABC store is where you get sunscreen and a can of macadamia nuts before heading to the beach.]  Ditto living on a military base, but it's called a Class Six store.  [I have no idea what classes one through five are.]

Since I'm not used to having bottles of spirits around and mixing and measuring, I gravitate to the premixed bottle of margarita stuff.  I can't enter into a debate about the merits of this or that tequila because I just don't know enough about them.  I just know I like the frozen slushy fruit margaritas at restaurants.

During the winter I spent some time in Florida watching my son march with his high school marching band in Disney and sharing HashtagOrangeWeek here.  Our last night there, my daughter and I were too pooped to venture past the TGIFridays in the hotel lobby for our dinner.  Conveniently, it was Ladies Night, and when I ordered the strawberry margarita the server brought two!  Score! Finally I slept well in a hotel room!

with an Easy Cheesy Vegetable Enchilada bake

The recipe I'm sharing is terrific for a family Cinco de Mayo celebration.  Start by making a pitcher of limeade-based fruit smoothies for the kids, then make a pitcher of margarita-based fruit smoothies for the grown ups.  Everyone gets a fruity drink which makes them happy.


I've made this with blueberries, with blueberries and raspberries, with strawberries, with bananas, blueberries and raspberries, and with peaches.  [Told you recipe testing was fun.] So far my favorite is the mixed fruit with banana--the addition of banana adds a nice creaminess to the base much like it, or yogurt, can do for a standard smoothie.

One note--Kate over at Diethood asks the hard questions to find out what we all wanted to know: 

how do you get the margarita salt to stick on the rim of the glass? The answer will surprise you.

For more recipes using bananas, please see my Banana Recipes Collection. For more recipes using blueberries, please see my Blueberry Recipes Collection. For more recipes using raspberries, please see my Raspberry Recipes Collection. For more recipes using strawberries, please see my Strawberry Recipes Collection. These collections are part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient, a resource for folks like me eating from the farm share, the farmer's market, the garden, the neighbor's garden, and great deals on ugly produce at the grocery store.


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For the Non-alcoholic Limeade & Fruit Smoothie:

Ingredients

• 1 can limeade mix (12 ounces)
• 1 can water (12 ounces)
• 1-3 Tablespoons honey, optional
• 2 cups frozen fruit (blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, bananas, peaches)
• 2 cups ice cubes

Instructions

1. Dump everything into a good blender (I have a teenage Vitamix), slowly bring up to full speed, and blend until smooth. 
2. Pour into tall glasses and serve.

Cheater Margarita Smoothie

Ingredients

• 2 cups (16 ounces) margarita mix (with alcohol included)
• 1 cup (8 ounces) water (or go for a 3rd cup of mix, your choice, I'm a lightweight)
• 1-3 Tablespoons honey, optional
• 1-2 cups frozen fruit (suggestions are the same as above)
• 2 cups ice cubes
• corn syrup & margarita salt, optional

Instructions

1. Dump margarita mix, water, optional honey, frozen fruit and ice cubes into a good blender (I still have a teenage Vitamix), slowly bring up to full speed, and blend until smooth. 
2. If you'd like to have the salt-rimmed glasses, pour a small amount of corn syrup into a shallow plate, dip the rim of the glass, then dip the glass into margarita salt. 
3. Pour into prepared glasses and serve.

Apparently I use a martini glass for margaritas.  I'm such an uncultured bumpkin.  Don't care.  I feel high falutin' when I sip out of it. I could show you me just plunking the straw into the blender . . .

Did I mention how fun the recipe testing was? Oh, good.

This recipe joins the party at Fresh Foods Wednesday, What's Cookin' Wednesday, Fiesta Friday, From the Farm Blog Hop, Clever Chicks Blog Hop, Simple Supper Tuesday, Tasty Tuesdays