Posts Tagged ‘healthy rethink’
healthy banana-chocolate chip muffins
My last few baking adventures have definitely not been swimsuit-season minded, to say the least. Chocolate cake and lemon bars and snickerdoodles… butter was definitely a theme these past few weeks. Thankfully since my gym is within walking distance of my apartment it hasn’t become an issue… yet. But there’s nothing wrong with nipping things in the bud and making a healthy(er) sweet treat once in awhile.
When I found this recipe I thought “Banana and chocolate… low fat? Sign me up!” yet I was still dubious. So many things claim to be delicious and satisfying yet healthy, and mostly fail. Especially baked sweets. Even as I ate the batter thinking “Wow, this is good…’ I still doubted the outcome. But good God almighty was I proven wrong with these muffins. They’re not only some of the tastiest muffins I’ve ever tried period, they really do only have 165 calories a muffin! I refused to believe it until I did the math myself because they are just. that. good.
The moistness is out of control with the bananas, the sweetness level is just right but not overpowering, and by cleverly using mini morsels and sprinkling them over only the top of the muffins, you get that delicious bit of chocolate, without adding the extra calories. No stand mixer required, too! They really are almost too good to be true…
(healthier) chicken salad
This is a fitting bookend for the healthy spinach egg bake with the chocolate stout cupcakes in between. Going back and forth can be torture, but life is all about balance and like I say, it’s important to indulge on a diet (pretty regularly, in my opinion) but it’s also important to either stay on the horse or hop right back on the next day. So if you’ve been indulging in cupcakes or avoiding the gym due to this frigid (horrible) weather, try this and you’ll feel a little better.
I got this idea when I started to use prepared tzatziki sauce like crazy last year. In my daily diet, I try to be as clever as possible to find substitutions for fatty, awesome ingredients and this is one of my favorite finds. Tzatziki became my #1 replacement for mayonnaise on sandwiches, ranch dip for raw veggies, bases for creamy salad dressings, etc, mostly because it has very little fat thanks to Greek yogurt, and only has 35 calories per 2 tablespoons.
So when I got a hankering for thick, indulgent, creamy chicken salad last summer, a lightbulb went off and I simply used tzatziki with a dab of low-fat sour cream instead of awesome fatty mayo. In comparison, my combo has 80 calories while 5 tablespoons of full-fat mayo has 500. And low-fat has 250. Ha! Beat that! The other ingredients in my chicken salad are pretty classic. I love sweet grapes and crunchy celery and that’s pretty much it. I’m not a huge fan of nuts in my salad, but feel free to add them. Don’t forget the average ½ cup of nuts has almost 400 calories – so don’t toss them in with a heavy hand!
Seedless and sliced.
