This Vs. That

Every healthy website has guides on how to make healthyswaps in order to cutout some of the fat and calories in recipes.  I thought I'dtry a new piece that shows you MY personal favorite swaps.  As I've told youbefore I'm a total peanut butter addict.  A bowl of peanut butter with a few scoops of jelly was not an uncommon lunch for me.  I didn't realize that besides having roughly 860 calories it also had over 48 grams of fat and atleast 40 grams of sugar!

Recently I came to a realization.  Jelly is fruit {kinda.}  Why don't I put REAL fruit on my peanut butter PB2 sandwiches instead of jelly or jam?

Real fruit is so much more beneficial than jelly, jam and preserves.  

1 cup of sliced strawberries

Calories: 54

Fat: 0.5

Sodium:  2 mg

Potassium:  254 

Carbs:  13

Fiber:  3.3

Sugar:  8

Protein: 1.1

1 Tablespoon Smuckers Seedless Strawberry Jam

Calories: 50

Fat: 0

Sodium:  0 mg

Potassium:  0 

Carbs:  13

Fiber:  0

Sugar:  12

Protein: 0

I know what you're thinking. "But the jam is pureed and the strawberries are sliced."  Okay, let's look at another set of numbers

1 cup of strawberry puree

Calories: 76

Fat: 0.7

Sodium:  2 mg

Potassium:  355 

Carbs:  18

Fiber:  4.6

Sugar:  11

Protein: 1.6

So see that??  A cup of puree is healthier than 2 tablespoons of jam.  The calories, sugar and carbs are significantly lower, and you'll get in some extra fiber and protein.  You'll be doing your body a major favor by swapping your jelly for fruit.

The trick is to make sure that your fruit is super ripe and sweet.  And don't limit yourself to just strawberries!  Any fruit will do.  I've put almost every different type of fruit on my sandwiches.  I actually haven't found one I DON'T like.  And doesn't this look delicious???

What do you like on your peanut butter sandwiches?

An Inspired Post

My trip to Smoothie King really opened my eyes to the possibilities of vegetables.  The fruits really blend well with the vegetables.  They also hide the taste.

Tonite was smoothie and muffin nite.  I decided to slip some spinach into my smoothie.  I was surprised at the fact that I couldn't taste the spinach at all.   

The one in the front is mine.  The only difference between mine and the girls' is the fact that I added spinach.  But honestly, I bet if I had added spinach to theirs they wouldn't have known.


Spinach Smoothie
Serves: 1
Calories: 226
Carbs: 41 g
Protein: 17 g


Ingredients

4 oz (.5 cup) Fat free plain Greek yogurt
.5 medium banana
About 2  cups of spinach
.25 cup blueberries
.25 cup raspberries
4 frozen strawberries
.25 cup light soymilk

Directions

1. Put all ingredients in the blender and puree until smooth.

Do you add vegetables in unexpected places?  I'd love to hear about it! 

Baked Marshmallow Bananas

The dessert I made for our Iron Chef competition was so simple.  I'm not going to lie, I picked Baked Bananas with Roasted Marshmallows because it's what I wanted for dessert.  It would have been prettier if I had a blow torch to roast the marshmallows with.

Bananas have a whole bunch {pardon the pun} of health benefits.

• The average banana has 467 mg of potassium.  It may prevent high blood pressure and atherosclarosis.
• They protect against stomach ulcers
• Slow digesting
• Good source of fiber
• Helps your eyesight
• Promotes kidney health

This dessert hits the spot for me though.  Healthy, sweet, simple, and it has a bit of crunch.

Baked Bananas with Broiled Marshmallows
1 banana
1/2-1 tsp cinnamon (depending on taste)
1 T sugar free maple syrup
1/4 cup mini marshmallows (enough to cover the top of the ramekin)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. Spray small ramekin with pan spray
3. Slice banana into small chunks in a medium bowl
4. Sprinkle with cinnamon and maple syrup and toss to coat (or you can just put it all ontop of the bananas in the ramekin)
5. Bake for 10-15 minutes until soft. 
6. When it's done turn broiler to HIGH and top bananas with marshmallows
7. Place ramekin back in oven on top rack and broil for 1-3 minutes until marshmallows are brown and charred {watch them carefully!!  They go from slightly brown to burned VERY quickly}

I personally like mine slightly brown and Ken likes his basically burnt.  How much you roast them is your personal preference.  I bet that apples would also taste good under the marshmallows.  

What other fruits would be good topped with marshmallows?

National Banana Bread Day

Bananas.  One of my most favorite fruits.  I actually eat a banana 6 mornings a week (occasionally 7.)  So when I found out that today was National Banana Bread Day I couldn't help but jump on it!  I wanted to put my own spin on the day though.  Banana Bread Pops using my new never been used cake pop pan.

Why make pops?  Well, for one, I wanted to use my pan and since we are on the health train in this house, cake doesn't make an appearance often anymore.  I also like to do things differently.  I like to be unique.  Plus, it's conveniently pre-portioned for you!

This recipe was taken out of my handy-dandy very loved Cook This, Not That!  350 Calorie book.  It made 36 cake pops and one large muffin.  For the nutritional I just put in 36 servings so, it's actually a bit lower in calories then the facts say because I'm betting the muffin was equal to 3 or 4 pops.

Ingredients 4 large ripe bananas
3/4 cup grated carrots (you could also use zucchini, but if you do make sure you squeeze out all the water)
2 cups white or whole wheat flour (I used 1 cup of each)
1/2 cup greek yogurt (I actually used fat free vanilla regular yogurt)
Egg substitute equivalent to 2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder

Direction

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Mash your bananas (I like to give them a whirl in my food processor to make sure they are fully smushed)
3. Mix together the bananas, yogurt, egg substitute (or egg whites), and vanilla
4. In a separate bowl mix together carrots, flour, baking soda and baking powder.
5. Stir dry ingredients into the wet
6.  Spray your cake pop pan and fill each hole with batter
7. Bake for 25-30 minutes until done
8. Let cool in the pan for 10-15 minutes and then place on a cooling rack
9. Repeat steps 6-8 until all your batter is gone.

Look at the calories.  It's crazy!   Only 44 calories per serving and 0.1 gram of fat!  These are going to be my new snack for after the gym.