55 Calorie Maple Cinnamon Butter

I love the honey butter at restaurants like Longhorn Steakhouse and Redstone - so I thought I would try to make my own low calorie and dairy free version - I thought this turned out really well and it is only 55 calories per tablespoon - regular butter is 100 calories per tablespoon and regular honey cinnamon butter is probably even more than that!

I used Earth Balance Whipped as a butter alternative but you could use any variety you like -

This recipe is gluten free, dairy free, and vegan!

Recipe:

2 tbsp Earth Balance - 160 calories

1 tbsp Sugar Free Maple Syrup - 7 calories

1 tsp Cinnamon                                             

= 167 calories, about 55 calories per tablespoon

(vs. regular butter 100 cal per tablespoon)

1. Measure out butter in a small custard cup

2. Add syrup and cinnamon

3. Mix thoroughly (I used a fork)

4. Add more cinnamon or stevia if desired, store in refrigerator and use on toast, crackers, pancakes, waffles etc.

100 Calorie Carrot Fries

I love sweet potato fries - but these carrot fries are even healthier, and they taste really similar!

These make a great snack or side dish

These are also super easy to make, and they are gluten free, dairy free, and vegan :)

Recipe:

1.5 cups Baby Carrots - 78 calories

1/8 cup Sugar Free Maple Syrup -10 calories

Coconut Oil Spray - 10 calories                                          

= 98 calories total

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees

2. Slice the baby carrots in half length-wise, then in half length-wise again - cutting each carrot into 4 long pieces

3. Spread carrots on a foil covered baking sheet, spray lightly with coconut oil

4. Bake for 30 minutes, halfway through the cooking time move the carrots around to help them cook evenly

5. Remove from oven, serve with maple syrup as dipping sauce

80 Calorie Maple Pecan Sundae

This is my newest Sundae experiment with Wink Frozen Desserts as a dairy free alternative to ice cream - this time I topped the Cake Batter flavor with pecans and Sugar Free maple syrup - this tastes very similar to butter pecan ice cream :)

This is gluten free, dairy free and vegan!

Recipe:

1 tablespoon Pecans - 50 calories
1 tablespoon Sugar Free Maple Syrup - 5 calories
1 scoop Cake Batter Wink Ice Cream - 25 calories       
= 80 calories

Sweeten Your Own Cereal - 5 Ways!

Today I went to the grocery store just to get cereal - I keep craving it as a late night snack and I didn't have any in my apartment - the store didn't have Cinnamon Chex, so I took a closer look at the Gluten Free Chex labels and I realized that General Mills has been pulling one over on me....

Plain Rice Chex has 100 calories per 1 cup serving, the sweetened varieties have 120-130 calories - but those are measured in 3/4 cup servings! That means a whole cup of the sweetened Chex has over 160 calories!

So I decided to get the plain old Rice Chex and spice it up/sweeten it myself!

The first variation I tried was a Cinnamon Sugar copycat using Cinnamon and Stevia - these don't add any significant calories so my version is still about 100 calories for 1 cup (that's without milk - 120 cal with half a cup of unsweetened almond milk) - while regular Cinnamon Chex is 160 calories (without the milk!)

I tried four more variations:

Vanilla Sugar - 1/2 teaspoon Vanilla & 1/4 cup Stevia - 100 cal

Chocolate Chex - 1/2 tablespoon Cocoa & 1/4 cup Stevia - 110 cal

Maple Chex - 1/8 cup Sugar Free Maple Syrup - 110 cal

Peanut Butter Chex - 1 tablespoon PB2 Powder - 122 cal 

You could do this with any cereal you like! 

~ The more you know... ~