Thirsty Thursday: Frozen Watermelon-Lime Margarita

Maybe I’m a cheapskate, but frozen fruit is expensive.

So I like to stock up various fruits when they’re in their respective peak seasons at super-cheap prices, and then freeze them myself. 

Example?

A 14oz package of Dole frozen strawberries can go for $2.50 at Wal-Mart.  OR---I can buy a 16 oz carton of fresh strawberries for 99 cents, wash, hull & halve them, and then freeze them myself.   That’s a 12 cent per ounce savings.  And with the recent popularity of “green” and fruit smoothies, there are probably families out there spending at least $10-20/month just on pre-frozen fruit and smoothie mixes.  For the upper end of this scale, these families could save up to $144/year just by freezing their own when things are on sale.  Aldi’s constantly has random fruits under a buck—and as I’ve mentioned before, if you don’t like the quality of the produce at Aldi’s, you can get Wally-World to price match it.

ANYWAY… this also means I have a veritable crap-ton of fruit in our freezer right now.  Which my husband likes to remind me of, because it’s taking up valuable retail space where more manly things, like meat and ice cream, could be. Because the two shelves filled with everything from chicken tenders to elk steaks apparently isn’t enough meat.  (…love you, honey…) ;-D

This weekend I organized our freezer and decided it was high time to use up some watermelon (I went a little crazy when they were marked down to $2.99 for a large seedless).  Did you know you can freeze watermelon???  I didn’t, until this summer.  Granted—it’s not so great for “freezing then thawing” uses, but if it’s intended to remain in a frozen state (think frozen yogurt, smoothies, granitas, etc) then everything is peachy-keen!

You know what I like in a frozen state?  Margaritas.  And when you use frozen fruit?  No ice needed.

 

Ingredients:

2 cups frozen watermelon

juice and pulp of one lime

2-3 tablespoons sugar (start with 2, then taste & add more if necessary.  The amount needed will depend on how sweet your watermelon is.)

1/3 cup tequila

pinch of salt (optional, but I think it makes the flavor of the watermelon pop)

 

Directions:

Combine the above in a blender and pulse, using the “ice crush” setting.  Pulse until no large chunks are visible.

Wet the rim of a glass with lime juice, and then dip in a shallow plate/bowl of sugar.

Garnish with lime slice & straw.

INHALE. Savor on your back porch as the sun sets on another weekend.

Makes two small (10 oz) margaritas (or one big @$$ one).

NutriFacts:

Calories 190.1

  Total Fat 0.7 g

  Saturated Fat 0.1 g

  Polyunsaturated Fat 0.2 g

  Monounsaturated Fat 0.2 g

  Cholesterol 0.0 mg

  Sodium 3.5 mg

  Potassium 199.6 mg

  Total Carbohydrate 23.1 g

  Dietary Fiber 0.9 g

  Sugars 20.8 g

  Protein 1.1 g