Mocha Frappe - The Lighter Version

Ever since we left to live full time on the boat, mocha frappes were a routine version of coffee for us. It was just too hot to drink hot coffee most of the time that close to the equator. My old version included 1/2 & 1/2 or cream and was decidedly un-Noom-ly. I've since developed a much lower calorie version of it and in the summer heat here in St. Louis I have it at least several times a week. I've experimented with cashew milk and hemp milk but the almond gives it the best flavor. I have also used regular skim milk but it doubles the calories since almond milk is only 40 calories per cup. If you have more calories to spare, then you can use other milks. This makes a tall milkshake-sized glass.

Ingredients:

1 cup of almond milk, unsweetened
1/4 cup of cacao powder
Sweetener of choice to taste (I use Swerve but Stevia or Monk fruit or a blend of the two would work)
9-10 frozen coffee cubes (I freeze strong coffee in ice cube trays then pop them out and store them in a gallon ziploc in the freezer)

Directions:

Put all the ingredients in a Magic Bullet or blender and pulse until the ice is broken up then run full speed till slushy. Enjoy!

Dark Chocolate Covered Cherries

I recently picked up a bag of organic frozen sweet cherries which are delightful just by themselves right out of the freezer (at 2.25 calories each) and I've also been chopping them and adding them to my plain Greek yogurt which is just too wonderful to describe. But...I'm always looking for healthy recipes that include dark chocolate. Dark chocolate is one of those treats that really satisfies me with small quantities because it's so rich. I also find that treats that are frozen are much easier for me to control portion sizes. So today I got this really bright idea to melt some dark chocolate chips and coconut oil and to dip the frozen cherries in it. Heaven in a bite, let me tell you. So if  you're looking for a little treat after dinner, at 25 calories each these fit the bill perfectly.

I used the Lilly's no sugar added mini chips because I had them in the freezer. To be honest, they're not my favorite brand. I usually use the Enjoy Life chips even though they're higher in calories because they just taste much better and they don't have any weird added ingredients. Whatever chocolate you use, just be sure to adjust the calorie content of them.

The cherries I used are the Great Value organic frozen ones from Walmart but any organic sweet cherries will work.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup chocolate chips of your choice
2 tsp coconut oil
35 frozen sweet cherries


Directions:

Line a small cookie sheet with parchment.

Melt chocolate chips and coconut oil in the top of a double boiler. If you don't have a double boiler then use a small pan over another smaller pan with warm water in the bottom pan. Be sure to use low heat. Too hot, and the chocolate will congeal.

Spear a cherry with a skewer and dip it in the chocolate. Tap the side of the pan to knock off excess. Push the cherry off onto the parchment.

Repeat with all the cherries. You will have to use a rubber spatula at the end to scrape the chocolate off the pan and kind of smear it on the last couple cherries.

Place the pan in the freezer to firm the chocolate and then store in a plastic container. These are 16 calories each with the Lily's chips and 25 each with the Enjoy Life ones. They are delightful!

De-lite-ful Blueberry Muffins

Muffins are the one thing that I've really missed since starting Noom. Muffins are one of those things that I'm not satisfied with only one. If I can't have three, I don't want them. And I'm talking normal size muffins here, not those gargantuan things you get in bakeries. So I started looking around for a lite muffin recipe that I could play with.

Most lite muffins that I've made are small, dense, dry, and totally unappealing. I started out with a recipe for 100 Calorie Banana Craisin Muffins from recipes.sparkpeople.com but by the time I got to today's version, it's completely different. So without further adieu, here is the best lite blueberry muffin I've ever had.

De-lite-ful Blueberry Muffins - 89 calories each (yes you read that right)

Ingredients:

1/4 cup packed Swerve brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1-1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk
2 medium bananas, mashed: 1 cup
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup egg whites (I used the refrigerated box kind)
1 cup fresh or frozen thawed blueberries

Directions:

Mix the sugar, soda, salt, cinnamon and flour in a medium bowl. Whisk to combine well and remove any sugar lumps.

Mash bananas in small bowl and add applesauce, milk, and vanilla.

In a separate bowl, whip egg whites until soft peaks.

Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir quickly just to combine. Fold in egg whites till no white streaks remain. Stir in blueberries.

Fill 12 muffin tins lined with papers. You will have to pile it up in the middle and you will think they are too full but these muffins don't rise a lot so it's fine. Bake 375° for 15-20 minutes or till golden and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. At 15 minutes mine were done so don't overbake these. Remove to cooling rack immediately. Let cool slightly before serving.

Notes: Be sure to use whole wheat pastry flour. If you use regular whole wheat flour they will be more dense. If you don't have any, you can reduce the flour by a tablespoon or two and be sure to sift.

Use very ripe bananas for the sweetness. I ran short 2 tablespoons and filled the rest of the cup with greek yogurt which worked great.

Work quickly in your mixing as overmixing causes muffins to be tough.

You can use regular 1% milk but you have to adjust the calories. I like the nutty taste that almond milk gives these.

If you don't like sugar substitutes, you can replace with real sugar, just add the calories to the total. I don't use sugar substitutes that often but I really like the Swerve brown sugar. It tastes and behaves exactly like real brown sugar and it's naturally sourced from plants.

Tasty Microwave Popcorn Popper - A Product Review

One of the gripes I have with microwave popcorn is that even with the fat-free or light versions, it's more calories and popcorn than I want to eat by myself and I don't always have someone to share it with. While shopping at Walmart the other day (she cringes because she hates Walmart but needed a fast place to get a lot of things,) I happened on this very cool snack-size microwave popcorn popper. It was only $8 and change so I decided to spring for it on the chance that it might work.

The popper has a maximum capacity of 1.5 quarts. The directions say to fill the silicone floppy lid to the line with kernels, then dump them into the popper, but I only wanted a 60-calorie snack. I had regular Orville Redenbacher popcorn kernels in the cupboard and the nutrition info for it says that 3 Tbl of unpopped kernels is 120 calories. So I took 1-1/2 Tbl of kernels, put them in the popper, put the lid on and stuck it in the microwave. No oil, no butter, nothing but popcorn. I set the microwave on the popcorn setting (our microwave is 1100 watts) and watched and listened. It took almost 2 minutes for it to slow to the recommended 2 second between pops. It would take longer with a smaller microwave. The popcorn was delicious. I did end up with a little more than a 1/2 tsp of unpopped kernels which would reduce the calorie count some, but I attribute this to the fact that this jar of popcorn has been in the cupboard for awhile. The lid has little holes in it so that if you're splurging and want buttered popcorn you just put the butter in the lid and it melts as it pops, dripping perfectly into the popped corn.


The features that I like the most about the popper:

• It's perfectly sized for a snack and I can control the amount depending on how many calories I have in my calorie budget that day
• You can use plain, organic kernels so you don't end up eating a bunch of chemicals that are in normal microwave popcorn or even bagged popcorn
• It's easy to clean
• It has silicone around the glass, on the handle, and the lid so it's easy to handle getting in and out of the microwave

In short, it's a 5-star score!