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Wanna put a guilt-free spin on traditional holiday recipes without a complete overhaul? You can! Check out Hungry Girl's easy tips 'n' tricks for turning even the most "dangerous" holiday foods into guilt-free ones...
Cuts Calories in Creamy Casseroles
Casseroles are holiday classics. Unfortunately, they typically contain tons of fat and calories, thanks largely in part to those rich "cream of" soups that go into them. Well, Campbell's has come to rescue with their 98% Fat Free Cream of Celery, Chicken, and Mushroom Soups. Each time you swap a standard can of the regular stuff for one of these nearly fat-free ones, you'll shave as much as 125 calories and 14 grams of fat off that dish! And considering many casserole recipes call for more than 1 can (we recently spied a 4-serving recipe that called for three cans!), those numbers add up fast. BTW, this stuff tastes just as good as the full-fat versions, so no one will ever guess your casserole's been calorie-slashed!
Butter Beware!
The biggest contributor to the fatty stats on holiday foods is almost always butter. A stick of that fat-packed yellow stuff has an insane 810 calories and 92 fat grams!!! Luckily, there's a delicious, creamy alternative that works so well in so many recipes. Light buttery spread (like the ones by Promise and Brummel & Brown) and light whipped butter (like Land O'Lake's version) typically have only 45 calories and 5g of fat per tablespoon. That's around HALF the amount of regular butter! Use this stuff in desserts (like pies, cookies, and cakes), side dishes (like stuffing and mashed potatoes) and more. You'll thank us when you can still zip up your favorite pants on New Year's Day!
Do the Sugar Shakedown!
A cup of Splenda No Calorie Sweetener has close to 700 fewer calories than sugar, and the boxed granulated version is great for baking. But not everyone in your family will go for a full-on "Splenda-rific" dish. Before you write the stuff off altogether, consider this. If you use half sugar and half Splenda in a recipe, people will barely be able to notice the difference. But you'll still be ditching hundreds of calories in all those sugar-happy holiday recipes. That rocks! Try it in cookies, kugels, pies, and pastries.
Brownie Points!
1924... no, that's not the year of the first recorded brownie recipe -- it's the insane amount of calories in an average cup of oil! EEEKS! Fear not, cuz HG's got a great trick for ousting that evil stuff from your chocolatey desserts. Instead of oil, eggs, and butter, simply add a can of pure pumpkin to a box of devil's food cake mix. Add nothing else. Your batter will be thick (and may give your arm a workout while you stir it!), but the result will be amazingly moist and fudgy brownies that are way lower in calories and fat. And pumpkin also adds fiber, which means you'll fill up faster. So even if you're family's fave recipe includes a peanut butter swirl or hunks of chocolate stirred in, this trick'll still slice lots of fat and calories from your batch o' brownies.
Why stop there?
Here are some more baking swaps for your favorite festive recipes...
Use Egg Beaters instead of eggs and save over 20 grams of fat per cup.
Trade a can of regular condensed milk for fat-free condensed milk, and kiss more than 30 fat grams goodbye!
Treat pan-fried foods to a spritz of nonstick cooking spray (like PAM) instead of a pan full of oil. You'll save more than 100 calories and 13 fat grams each time you trade a tablespoon of oil for a few sprays instead!
For more guilt-free tips ‘n tricks, plus recipes, food finds, and more, visit hungry-girl.com and sign up for free daily emails!
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