This past weekend we had a little pre-holiday family get together with my dad's side of the family. After our recent loss of my grandfather to liver cancer a couple months ago, my mother and I thought it would be a great idea to get all of my cousins and our children together for a fun family sleep over to try and keep my families' spirits up this season.

While there, and amidst all the chaos of screaming kids, one of my aunts pulled me aside and gave me an unexpected gift; these wonderful wine-friendly drink coasters! What can I say? She knows me well! I was told that they better be seen being used in some of my photographs, so here you go Aunt Donna!

It's always time to wine down in my house!

Usually, the night before Thanksgiving we make up a giant crock pot of Pantry Pottage, but this year my mom was wanting to do something a little different. So, instead we made some shredded beef tacos. And to go with our tacos, I decided to make some holiday sangria.

Since we were having some tex-mex, I wanted to use this fun effervescent wine that's actually one of my old favorites; Vino Verde. It's a sparkling wine that is sort of crisp and bubbly like champagne, but not sweet at all! It's a really refreshing wine. I also wanted to tie the spirit of the holidays into my sangria, so I added in some sparkling apple cider and fruits of the fall and winter harvest.

The end result was perfection! A crisp and clean tex-mex rendition of a holiday drink that we can all know and love.

Of course, my mom had to ask me how this drink was healthy or skinny. Well, it's skinny because I used a white wine, which generally has less calories than red wine, and I also added some fresh fruit to it. Which makes it healthy too. Right?

Holiday Cheer White Sangria
TheSkinnyFork.com

The Skinny:
Servings: 12 • Size: About 1 Cup • Calories: 139.6 • Fat: 0 g • Carb: 18.1 g • Fiber: 0.9 g • Protein: 0.1 g • Sugar: 15.3 g • Sodium: 12.1 mg

Ingredients:
2 Bottles Vino Verde (Or other effervescent dry white wine.)
1 Bottle Sparkling Apple Cider
1 C. Whole Fresh Cranberries
1 Orange, Sliced
1 Apple, Sliced

Directions:

Toss all the ingredients into a large pitcher or drink server.

Tip: To help keep your apples from turning brown, don't forget to soak them for a few minutes in ice water with a little fresh lemon juice or a drop or two of lemon essential oil.

Serve chilled and/or over ice and enjoy!