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.

10 Calorie Pumpkin Pie Holes

I sort of just threw these together - they turned out like a cross between pumpkin pie and cinnamon sugar donut holes - and under 80 calories for the whole batch!

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

Recipe: Makes 8

1/4 cup Pumpkin Puree - 20 calories

2 tablespoons Unsweetened Apple Sauce - 12.5 calories

2 tablespoons Oat Flour - 45 calories

1 teaspoon Cinnamon

For coating:

2 tablespoons Stevia

2 teaspoons Cinnamon

                                                                                       

=77.5 total - makes 8, about 9.7 calories each

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2. Mix together the flour, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, pumpkin, and apple sauce

3. Spoon into a greased mini muffin pan - bake for 15 minutes

4. Remove from pan and roll in the stevia and cinnamon mixture - enjoy :) store in the refrigerator

95 Calorie Apple Pie Protein Smoothie

Here's another protein smoothie recipe :) This one tasted fantastic in my opinion, I think the apple and cinnamon flavors worked really well with the Vanilla Vega protein powder 

Using half a serving of the Vega Protein powder gives this protein smoothie 7.5 grams of protein and a full serving of vegetables :)

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

Recipe:

4 tablespoons Unsweetened Apple Sauce - 25 calories

3/4 cup Unsweetened Almond Milk - 30 calories

1/2 serving Vanilla Protein Powder(1/2 scoop, or half of a single serve packet) - 40 calories

1/2-3/4 teaspoon Cinnamon                                                   

= 95 calories total

1. Freeze Applesauce in an ice cube tray over night
2. Put apple sauce cubes, almond milk, protein powder and cinnamon in the blender
3. Blend until smooth - it may take 1 or 2 minutes for your apple sauce cubes to fully blend if your blender is like mine
4. Serve cold :)

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... ~

67 Calorie Apple Tart

After I went Apple picking I had a huge supply of apples to experiment with in my baking - here is one of the recipes I came up with!

This individual-size apple tart is so low-calorie you could eat 3.5 of them for the same calories as one McDonald's personal apple pie - I think I would rather eat my low-cal and gluten free version anyways

In addition to being gluten free, this apple tart is dairy free and vegan!

Recipe:

For the crust:
2 tablespoons Oat Flour - 44 calories
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon Unsweetened Almond Milk - 3 calories
1/4 teaspoon Stevia, a dash of cinnamon and a pinch of salt    

For the Apple topping:
1/4 of a large Honeycrisp Apple - 20 calories
1/4 teaspoon Stevia, 1 teaspoon Cinnamon  
                                                                            
= 67 calories!


1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
2. Mix together the ingredients for the crust
3. Spread the crust batter into a greased personal tart pan or quiche pan (it is very sticky but smooth it out the best you can, it will be covered by apples anyways)
4. Chop up and peel the apple, coat with stevia and cinnamon
5. Place the apple on top of the crust
6. Bake for about 25 minutes, until the crust is cooked - enjoy hot!

150 Calorie Pumpkin Butter & Maple Stuffed Acorn Squash

I had half of an Acorn Squash left from when I made my 200 Calorie Apple & Chicken Sausage Stuffed Acorn Squash - so I decided to use the other half to make a dessert!

Instead of cooking the squash with butter and sugar I thought I would make it healthy by baking it and then adding my Skinny Pumpkin Butter and Sugar Free Maple Syrup!

This was a great Autumn dessert - it's only 150 calories, and it is gluten free, dairy free & vegan!

Recipe:

1 half of an Acorn Squash - 115 calories

4 tablespoons Skinny Pumpkin Butter - 24 calories

1/8 cup Sugar Free Maple Syrup - 10 calories               

= 149 calories

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees

2. Fill a baking dish with about 1/2 inch of water, cover with aluminum foil

3. Bake for 30 minutes at 400 degrees

4. Remove from oven, fill with pumpkin butter and drizzle maple syrup over the top

5. Enjoy while still warm!

Skinny Pumpkin Butter (165 Calories for a Whole Jar!)

I picked up some Pumpkin Butter from the Apple Holler - it was soooo sweet, and 40 calories per tablespoon. I checked out the ingredients and thought to myself "Hey, I could make this"

My version didn't use any refined sugar - all you need is Stevia, Sugar Free Maple Syrup, Apple Sauce, Pumpkin and Spices!

Pumpkin Butter is great on fruit, toast, bagels, pancakes, oatmeal, or anything else you want to add a Fall twist to!

This Pumpkin Butter is Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Vegan - and it has less than 6 calories per tablespoon!

Recipe: (Makes one large jar, or about 28 tablespoons)

1 can Pumpkin - 120 calories

1/4 cup Unsweetened Apple Sauce - 25 calories

1/4 cup Stevia

1/4 cup Sugar Free Maple Syrup - 20 calories

Cinnamon, Allspice, Cloves and Ginger to taste(or Pumpkin Pie Spice)        

= 165 Calories for entire jar - or 5.8 calories per tablespoon

1. Mix together all ingredients, add to saucepan

2. Bring mixture to a boil

3. Reduce heat, allow mixture to simmer for 35-40 minutes, cover with lid ajar, stirring occasionally

4. Remove from heat, secure lid on saucepan and let rest for 5 minutes

5. Pour into jar and allow to cool - Store in refrigerator!

200 Calorie Apple and Chicken Sausage Stuffed Acorn Squash

In honor of the first night of fall I decided to make a fall-inspired dinner for myself, since it was also my first night back in my apartment for school

I have half a peck of honeycrisp apples that I picked myself so I knew I wanted to include those, and I also wanted to try making acorn squash for the first time. To add some protein I decided to also add a link of Chicken Apple Sausage - you could add more but I had italian beef and sausage for lunch, and I usually don't eat very much meat so I didn't want to go into a meat overload

For this recipe you only need 3 ingredients: an acorn squash, an apple, and sausage

This recipe is Gluten free, Dairy free, and Paleo :)

Recipe:(makes 2 servings)

1 small Acorn Squash - 230 calories

1 small Honeycrisp Apple - 80 calories

2 links Applegate Farms Chicken Apple Breakfast Sausage - 80 calories    

= 390 calories total, makes 2 servings, 195 calories per serving

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. Slice open the acorn squash, cutting down the middle from the stem to the pointed end

3. Scoop out the strands and seeds from the middle of the acorn squash
4. Chop up apple and sausage and fill both halves of the squash

5. Place filled squash cut side up in a baking dish(fill the baking dish with about 1/2 inch of water) and cover the dish with aluminum foil
6. Bake for about 30 minutes or until the squash is tender
7. Let cool for 5 minutes before eating, top with cinnamon if desired

300 Calorie Pumpkin Cinnamon Roll Cake

The weather is cooling down, which is totally getting me into the Autumn spirit - which means....

Pumpkin!

I love baking with pumpkin, it is a great substitute for oil and it really adds bulk to my baked goods without adding many calories - it also has a lot of nutritional benefits

Today I made a Pumpkin Cinnamon Roll Cake!

This cake is gluten free, dairy free, and only has 300 calories in the whole loaf!

Recipe: 

Cake:

3/4 cup Pumpkin Puree - 60 calories

1/4 cup Unsweetened Apple Sauce - 25 calories

1/2 cup Oat Flour - 180 calories

1 egg white - 17 calories

1 tablespoon Stevia

1/2 teaspoon baking soda                     

= 282 calories

Cinnamon Swirl:

1/4 cup Unsweetened Almond Milk - 10 calories

1 tablespoon Stevia

1 tablespoon Cinnamon and Pumpkin Pie Spice    

Total = 292 in whole cake

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
2. Mix together the pumpkin, apple sauce, flour, 1 tablespoon Stevia, the baking soda and an egg white
3. Pour the mixture into a greased loaf pan (or 2 mini loaf pans)
4. Mix together the cinnamon swirl - almond milk, cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice, and stevia
5. Pour the cinnamon mixture on top of the pumpkin cake batter and swirl with a fork or spoon
6. Bake for about 40 minutes - remove from oven, let cool, and store leftovers in the refrigerator

This is what the cake looked like when it came out of the oven! The cinnamon really darkened nicely, but if you want more of an orange look to the cake you could use less of the cinnamon topping

 

150 Calorie Fall Harvest Bread Pudding

Since my Skinny-tized 435 Calorie Pumpkin Loaf and  Skinny 400 Calorie Cinnamon Apple Loaf turned out so well I decided to try combining them - this recipe is what I came up with

I combined the Pumpkin loaf base with the chopped up cinnamon apples, and I added a chopped up plum for good measure. This turned out very dense like a bread pudding - but it is still gluten free and dairy free!

The fresh fruit chunks in this make the loaf/bread pudding tart and delicious even without a whipped topping!

Recipe: (Makes 3 mini loaves)

3/4 cup Pumpkin Puree - 60 cal

1/2 cup Unsweetened Apple Sauce - 60 cal

1/2 cup Oat Flour - 180 cal

1 Honeycrisp Apple - 80 cal

2 egg whites - 34 cal

1 plum - 46 cal

Cinnamon - to taste, and to sprinkle on apple chunks

1/4 cup Stevia                                

= 460 calories in whole recipe - makes 3 mini loaves, 153 calories per loaf

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2. Mix Pumpkin puree, apple sauce, egg whites, and stevia - then add flour

3. Peel and chop up apple into small pieces, sprinkle with cinnamon

4. Chop up plum, with the peel - mix with apple chunks

5. Add the fruit mixture to the batter, add additional cinnamon if desired

6. Divide between 3 greased mini loaf pans

7. Bake for about 27 minutes, remove from oven when the top of the loaf is set

8. Let cool, or enjoy immediately - refrigerate leftovers

Skinny-tized 100 Calorie Gluten Free Oatmeal Creme Pies

      

I love those Little Debbie Oatmeal Creme Pies, but in addition to having Gluten and Dairy they aren't exactly healthy - So today I tried to Skinny-tize them!

I started with a recipe for Oatmeal Cookies - this recipe only made about 8 but you could easily double it for more cookies. I didn't end up using the Sugar Free Syrup but you could add some to the batter if you wanted more of a Maple/Molasses Flavor. I also decided to experiment with using a combination of Monk Fruit and Stevia sweeteners, but you could use all Stevia, or whatever you have on hand.

Recipe:

1/4 cup Pumpkin Puree - 20 cal
1 egg white - 17 cal
1/4 cup Oats - 90 cal
1/2 cup Oat Flour - 180 cal
1/4 cup Stevia
1/4 cup Monk Fruit
Cinnamon and Nutmeg to taste    
= 307 for whole recipe - makes 8 cookies at 38 calories per cookie


1. Mix Pumpkin, sweeteners, and egg whites
2. Add Oats and Oat flour, and spices
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and refrigerate dough
4. Roll dough into 8 balls, then flatten on parchment paper covered cookie sheets (the cookies did not change shape while baking so make sure you get them in the shape/thickness you want)
5. Bake for 12 minutes at 350 degrees, remove from oven and let cool before removing from paper

I tried making my own Sugar-free marshmallow fluff for these but it did not turn out very tasty - so I would suggest just using store-bought Fluff or JetPuffed Marshmallow Fluff, which only has about 40 calories for 2 tablespoons.

The total calories for one Skinny-tized Oatmeal Creme Pie(using Fluff as Filling) is about 100 calories, versus a Little Debbie Oatmeal Creme Pie which has 170 calories, and mine are also Gluten and Dairy Free!