My good friend Giovanna is super-duper fit.  That means when you hang out with her you tend to lean over to the super-duper fit side of life.  I don’t do it very well, but I give it a shot!  When I have dinner with her and her dog, Morgan, I usually want a glass of wine.  I like wine.  I like wine with dinner.  I like wine when I have dinner with a friend. Sue me. Unless she ran 20-50 miles (seriously) that day Giovanna tends to shy away from caloric beverages.  That includes wine.  On the other hand she is a fun chick so wants to partake. Honestly, I also think she wants to slow down my wine consumption.  To achieve these goals she designed what she calls a wine spritzer.  It’s a simple concoction of 1/2 red wine and 1/2 sparkling water.

It takes no genius to see this is just bubbly watered down wine.  As I drink from my glass I top off from the wine bottle and as Giovanna drinks from her glass she tops off with more sparkling water.  Either way we are both happy!

Giovanna purchases giant bottles of sparkling water by the case.  No doubt wherever she is right now she has a giant bottle in her purse ready to be consumed. I can’t commit to such a huge bottle.  I am a loyal fan of LaCroix canned water. Years and years ago while traveling for work United Airlines would offer LaCroix sparking water as a beverage option. That’s where I first got hooked.  United no longer offers it but you can buy it at grocery stores and your local Target.  It’s always on sale at my Ralphs.  I assume this is because I’m the only one who purchases it.  I enjoy the no flavor variety the best.  The lemon and lime flavors are pretty tasty too.  Giovanna recently purchased the grapefruit (to be fancy they use the French word “pample-mouse”) flavor and it is divine.  Not all are winners though.  The coconut flavor tastes like ass and I pushed it on my friend/hairdresser.  She demands I’m crazy and it is delicious.  The cran-rasberry tastes like it was mixed by the devil but Giovanna disagrees and happily drank the ones I had purchased.

This past weekend Giovanna came over and made her spritzer with LaCroix and red wine. As usual it was delicious and I admit a better summer drink choice than white wine.  We happily sipped our cocktails on the porch with our wide brim summer hats on with Riggins and Morgan at our feet.  Ok … we drank them in my living room but that doesn’t seem as nice.

Last night I was looking through Pinterest and found this …

WHAT???? SOMEONE ACTUALLY MADE THAT A LEGIT DRINK RECIPE???  Apparently if you add strawberries you can call the watered down wine a skinny sangria. I immediately emailed Giovanna telling her they stole her famous (at least in my house) recipe.  Hmmmm …. I have strawberries … I think I’m going to make myself some skinny sangria right now!

(The LaCroix web site actually has a number of cocktail recipes for you to enjoy.  Take a look.)