Strawberry Margarita anyone? No, not the cocktail, but a wonderful summer dessert. In this recipe for Strawberry Margarita Squares, a crunchy pretzel crust is filled with a mixture of pureed strawberries, sweetened condensed milk, lime juice and frozen whipped topping. It's then frozen until serving, which makes it perfect for entertaining. Each serving contains 11 grams of fat.

For this rehab, we:

• Tried using light margarine in the crust. Although it usually doesn't produce a good crumb crust, we thought it might work in this recipe because the crust was not baked long.

We were wrong; the crust turned out soggy. So instead, we reduced the amount of regular margarine from 4 tablespoons to 2, added an egg white to help hold the crumb mixture together, and baked the crust 6 to 8 minutes.

• Used fat-free sweetened condensed milk.

• Used a fat-free frozen whipped topping.

Results were excellent. Once we solved the problem of the soggy crust, no one could tell a difference in the flavor. Reduced to only 2 grams of fat per serving, this is one "margarita" even the children can enjoy.

Tip of the Week: To cut frozen desserts easily, run your knife under hot water before slicing.

Strawberry Margarita Squares

11/4 cups crushed pretzels

2 tablespoons margarine, melted

1 egg white, beaten

1 can fat-free sweetened condensed milk

1 cup pureed strawberries

1/2 cup lime juice

8 ounces fat-free frozen whipped topping, thawed

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In 13-by-9-inch baking pan, combine crushed pretzels, margarine and egg white; press firmly in bottom of pan. Bake 8 minutes; cool.

In large bowl, combine milk, strawberry puree and lime juice until well blended. Fold in whipped topping. Pour into cooled crust. Cover and freeze 6 hours or overnight. Let stand at room temperature 15 minutes before cutting. Garnish with sliced strawberries. Makes 12 servings

Before and after

Based on 1 serving ( 1/12 of recipe)

Strawberry Margarita Squares		Adapted
Calories	272	220
Fat	11 g	2 g
Carbohydrate	38 g	43 g
Sodium	224 mg	211mg
Fiber	1 g	1 g
Cholesterol	25 mg	3 mg
Calories from fat
	37%	9%

Nutritionists recommend those on daily 2,000 calorie diet limit their fat consumption to 65 g or less, cholesterol to 300 mg or less and sodium to 2,400 mg or less per day.

Karen Weber, Pat Streicher and Ellen Illig are registered dieticians at Jewish Hospital's Cholesterol Center. Their Recipe Rehab Cookbook is available by mail. Send check or money order for $40 to RR Cookbook, P.O. Box 58100, Cincinnati 45258.