Low-Fat Chocolate Cake

We all know that sometimes there are days when you just NEED a piece of chocolate cake to make everything better. Chocolate cake will listen to your problems. Chocolate cake will boost you morale. Chocolate cake will make everything better….

Until you realize that you just ate 1,800 calories in one sitting and the sugar is causing your anxiety to go through the roof!

So you decide to quit your relationship with chocolate cake cold turkey, but then the craving hits you really hard and you’re back to being two elbows deep in chocolatey goodness.

If only there was a way to make carrot sticks taste like chocolate cake… If I could figure that out I’d be the richest person in America!

But I can tell you about the next best thing – LOW FAT CHOCOLATE CAKE! Yes, just like the Lochness Monster and Bigfoot, it really does exist! In fact, it has less calories and fat than that granola bar hanging out in your lunch box.

And my favorite part about this cake is that it doesn’t have any weird ingredients, like purified cauliflower or avocado. I guarantee you already have all of these ingredients in your pantry right now!

So how does it work? Don’t worry, I’ll tell you! (I hope you’re not tired yet of me asking questions and answering them myself.) I made a very important ingredient swap to cut down on fat and calories.

I replaced the oil with yogurt!

Oil, whether it be vegetable oil or canola oil, is found in most every cake recipe. That’s because oil is what makes the cake moist. But it’s also the least healthy ingredient – 1 cup of vegetable oil contains 1,927 calories and 218 grams of fat. Wow! So by replacing the oil with yogurt you can save a LOT of fat and calories.

Yogurt works in the same way oil does – it helps moisten the cake. It’s important to note that if you make this substitution you should add a little fat in the recipe to help with consistency. That’s why there’s 1/4 cup of peanut butter in this cake.

In review, one piece of this cake has about 150 calories and 3 grams of fat. Compare that to Hershey’s “Perfectly Chocolate” Chocolate Cake recipe, which has a whopping 490 calories and 14 grams of fat! That’s a HUGE difference!

So my friends, with this recipe you can have your cake and eat it too! (You knew I was going to make that joke somewhere in this post!)

Low-Fat Chocolate Cake

Yield: 10 servings

Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose or gluten-free flour (125 grams)
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar (150.75 grams)
• 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips (optional)
• 6 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder (45 grams)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup Greek yogurt (60 grams)
• 1/4 cup peanut butter or any nut butter or allergy-friendly alternative (67 grams)
• 3/4 cup milk (171 grams)
• 2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

 Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and grease 9-inch round pan. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, optional chocolate chips, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt.
3. In a medium bowl, combine Greek yogurt and peanut butter; stir well. Whisk in milk and pure vanilla extract until smooth.
4. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Pour batter into greased pan.
5. Bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out mostly clean when inserted.
6. Let cake cool in pan for 10 minutes, then remove cake from pans and onto wire rack to finish cooling.
7. You can serve plain or sprinkle powdered sugar on top or add fat-free whipped topping to cake before eating.

Recipe adapted from Chocolate Covered Katie

Slow Cooker P.F. Chang’s Chicken Lettuce Wraps

Confession: I ate more food over the holidays than I think I’ve ever eaten in my life. And by holidays I mean Halloween through the New Year… plus a few days. I know I should say “everything in moderation blah blah blah.” But sometimes binge eating is good for the soul. And I do not regret it one bit!

But now that it’s the New Year, I should probably start to control my eating. So I’ve been trying out some new healthy recipes.

Personally, I think two of the most important things to strive for when trying to eat healthy are convenience and “knockout” taste (I couldn’t think of a better word than “knockout” and I went kickboxing this morning so that’s where that came from). This is what I mean by that – no one will want to continue to cook healthy meals if they’re difficult or if they’re bland.

Keeping that in mind, I decided to make slow cooker Asian chicken lettuce wraps!

I’m a big fan of P.F. Chang’s lettuce wraps and I knew I could make a slow cooker version, so that’s what I set out to do. P.F. Chang’s uses ground chicken in their lettuce wraps, but I prefer the way chicken breasts cooks In the slow cooker, so that’s what I used. The chicken breast shreds easily after cooking in the slow cooker and it combines well with the sauce.

Another thing to note is that the chicken gets it’s “knockout” taste from the Sriracha and the freshly grated ginger.

Can you omit these ingredients? Yes, but I can’t promise you’ll have the same “knockout” taste.

Can you substitute regular hot sauce for Sriracha? Yes, but the taste will be slightly different. Sriracha is a bit sweeter and more garlicky (garlickier?) than hot sauce or Tabasco sauce.

Also, if you don’t like lettuce, you can serve this chicken over brown rice instead, and it will be equally tasty.

Slow Cooker P.F. Chang’s Chicken Lettuce Wraps

Servings: Enough for about 12 lettuce wraps

Ingredients

• 2 pounds chicken breast
• 1 red bell pepper, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup yellow onion, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup hoisin sauce
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 Tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 Tablespoons Sriracha
• 1 Tablespoon freshly gated ginger (or 1 teaspoon ground ginger)
• 1 head big leaf lettuce (you can either use bibb lettuce, Boston lettuce, or butter lettuce)

Optional toppings:

• Chopped green onion
• Shredded carrots
• Roughly chopped peanuts
• Toasted sesame seeds
• Pineapple
• White or brown rice

Directions

1. Place chicken breast, red bell pepper, yellow onion, hoisin sauce, garlic, soy sauce, Sriracha, and ginger in a slow cooker. Cover and cook on low heat for 3 to 4 hours until chicken is tender and fully cooked.
2. Shred the chicken and combine with the sauce left in the slow cooker.
3. Separate leaves from head of lettuce.
4. To serve, place 1/4 cup chicken filling on top of lettuce. Add optional toppings like green onion, shredded carrots, peanuts, sesame seeds, pineapple, and brown rice.

NOTES

You can make this with ground turkey, ground chicken, or ground beef instead.

Recipe adapted from Cooking Classy.

Cranberry Mousse

Cranberry mousse has been a staple at every holiday dinner in my family for as long as I can remember.

So what exactly is cranberry mousse? Cranberry mousse can be a dessert. It can be a side dish. It can be a snack. It’s a little tangy and a little sweet. And it’s healthy and delicious!

Cranberry Mousse

Ingredients

• 1 (20 ounce) can crushed pineapple
• 1 (14 ounce) can whole berry cranberry sauce
• 2 small packages of sugar free strawberry gelatin
• 1 (16 ounce) container of fat free sour cream

 Directions

1. Drain pineapple and set the pineapple tidbits aside. There should be approximately 1 cup of juice. Add water to the juice so you have 1.25 cups of liquid.
2. Mix pineapple juice liquid with dry gelatin and cranberry sauce in a sauce pan. Bring it to a boil on medium heat.
3. Let boil for approximately 1 minute.
4. Take off heat and leave out until liquid is room temperature.
5. Place it in refrigerator for about an hour or until it is semi set.
6. Add sour cream and pineapple tidbits to mixture and fold together.
7. Let set in refrigerator.