Alcohol-Free Sangria

Back in my first trimester of pregnancy, I stumbled across a couple memes one night that made me laugh because they so perfectly captured how I was feeling…which was tired, all the time, and somehow constantly queasy but also constantly hungry/thirsty.

Basically, I was preggers and my body wouldn’t let me forget it.

The best part about being in my second trimester is that I pretty much feel like a normal person again. Frequent pee-breaks aside, I have tons of energy, my queasiness is gone, and I can eat food everyday like everyone else (i.e., 3 regular meals and a snack or two vs. 15 very small meals/snacks).

The worst part about being in my second trimester is….that I pretty much feel like a normal person again. With pregnancy symptoms at an all time low, my bump still small enough to be mistakable for an epic food baby, and no discernible movement from the kid yet (although I swear I felt something the other day that wasn’t just gas), it’s easy to forget sometimes that there’s anything different about me.

Except, of course, until someone invites us to do something fun and I realize belatedly that I’m not allowed to fully partake in the fun. For example, like last weekend when my friend Alex decided to throw a birthday party for his fiancée at one of our favorite wineries, and I got all excited thinking about the winery’s Sangria Shack…then remembered that sangria = alcohol, and I can’t have any.

I don’t miss a lot of the things I’m not supposed to eat/drink anymore, but I do occasionally get tired of drinking nothing but water!

I had about 10 minutes of mourning for the Sangria Shack, then started looking up recipes for alcohol-free sangria online. After all, it’s not the buzz-y effect of alcohol that I miss, it’s the fruity taste and the refreshment of enjoying a cold one on a nice day with friends. And what is sangria but some fruit juice with a kick, right? Right!

So I whipped up a batch of this pomegranate and cranberry juice-based “sangria” and brought it to the winery with us. It looked like sangria (enough that the manager of the winery came over to make sure I hadn’t brought outside alcohol) and tasted a little bit like the real stuff too (maybe a little sweeter than I’d prefer…there’s a version with black tea I’m going to investigate soon), and I enjoyed it immensely. Most importantly, I didn’t feel at all left out of the fun, and had absolutely zero pangs of longing for the boozy stuff.

If you’re looking for a super easy, tasty alcohol-free beverage to add to your spring/summer rotation, give this one a try! And keep your eyes peeled for the black tea version, which I will hopefully try soon 🙂

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