Snacks for the Sweet Tooth

Who doesn’t have a sweet tooth at least once in a while? It’s best to quell a strong sweet tooth with natural sugars first, such as fresh, canned or frozen fruits or 100% fruit juices because these contain fiber and other nutrients. You can also try the following snacks to help a sweet fix. They may not have the nutritional punch of an apple with a tablespoon of peanut butter, but they’re sure to tame a sweets craving!

• Dove Dark Chocolate Promises, 3 pieces (126 calories)
• 24 Frosted Mini Wheats (200 calories)
• 2 Fudgsicle low fat pops (120 calories)
• Edy’s Frozen Fruit Bars (60-120 calories depending on flavor)
• Skinny Cow Ice Cream Sandwich (150 calories)
• Ice cream sundae: ½ cup Edy’s Slow-Churned Vanilla Frozen Yogurt with ½ cup fresh or frozen strawberries or blueberries and 2 tablespoons granola cereal (200 calories)
• Swiss Miss Fat-Free Hot Cocoa with Calcium (50 calories)

Bake It Better
Because many packaged baked treats contain added sugar, salt, and trans fat (a type of fat that has a similar detrimental effect on the heart as saturated fat) you might consider baking your own sweet treats. You can modify recipes with ingredients that are lower in fat and sugar and even boost the nutrients while cutting out the chemical additives and preservatives many baked goods contain. For example when making chocolate chip cookies, you can use whole wheat flour instead of white, add oats or ground-up bran cereal for more fiber, and use less added sugar (decreasing the amount by up to 1/3 cup is not noticeable). Pureed fruit such as applesauce or prunes work well as a fat replacement in brownies and cookies.

Try these recipe substitutions in your favorite cookie, muffin, brownie, or cake recipes:

Sugar	Reduce sugar by 1/4 to 1/3  cup in baked products and desserts. For example, if recipe calls for 1 cup, use 2/3 cup.
Sugar	Replace sugar with a sugar substitute like sucralose in baked goods, which can reduce the calories from sugar in a recipe by 50-100%. Follow package directions for the sugar substitute. Baking times may be shorter.
All-purpose flour	Substitute whole wheat flour for up to ½ of the flour.
Butter, margarine, oil	- For cookies and cake mixes, replace half the fat with ½ as much applesauce or mashed banana (for example if the recipe calls for 1 cup butter, use ½ cup butter and ¼ cup applesauce) - For brownies, replace all of the fat with half as much applesauce or prune puree (for example if the recipe calls for 1 cup butter, use ½ cup applesauce) * May need to reduce baking time by 25%.
Eggs	Use egg whites (usually 2 egg whites for every egg) or ¼ cup egg substitute.
Full-fat sour cream Full-fat cottage cheese Full-fat ricotta cheese	- Use nonfat or reduced-fat sour cream or nonfat plain yogurt. - Use 1% or nonfat cottage cheese. - Use part-skim ricotta.
Cream	Use evaporated skim milk.
Whipping cream	Use nonfat whipped topping or cream (note that this is only nonfat if one serving size is consumed).