Low Calorie No-Bake Cookies

Low Calorie? Say what!?

Yep, I've found the perfect recipe for no-bake cookies! 54 Calories per cookie! Awesome!
I will give you the ingredients, and tell you how I tweaked it, you choose how you make it, but your calories may change!

Ingredients:
1 Cup Splenda
1/3 Cup almond milk (regular milk is okay, but your calories and fat will change)
2 tablespoons of butter - I use a smart healthy butter that is lower in calories
1 1/2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 pinch of salt
1 1/2 scoops chocolate protein powder (mocha or coffee)
** here is where I changed it up. I added chocolate flavored lean 25 from GNC
1/4 Cup of creamy peanut butter ** I used PB2.
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups quick oats

Directions:

1. In a large saucepan (medium heat) add Splenda, milk, butter, cocoa powder, and salt. Bring to a boil and let the mixture boil for one minute, stirring frequently.

2. Remove from heat and whisk PB2 (or peanut butter) protein powder, and vanilla until well mixed. Stir in the oats.

3. Roll into golf ball sizes and drop onto waxed paper or you can plop them down with a spoon for the "haystack" look. Allow them to cool and setup for 15 minutes and coat with additional cocoa powder, PB2 and finely chopped nuts ** I didn't top mine with anything.

Low Calorie Turkey Chili

Doesn't it just look fabulous!?

It tastes even better!

Servings: 8-10 (my batch made 8 cups) at just under 200 calories per cup

Ingredients:

1 lb. Ground Turkey- I used 97% fat free

1 can Organic Black Beans (I found the lowest calories I could)

1 Can Red Beans

1 Lg. Can of Tomato Juice

Kale

Mixed Colored Bell Peppers

Onion

Chili Powder

Garlic Salt

Paprika

(seasonings are optional)

Also Optional:

Greek Yogurt 0% (sour cream substitute)

Part Skim Shredded Cheese

90 Calorie (or low calorie) tortillas or crackers

Directions:

Cook ground turkey like you would ground beef

Once turkey is cooked thoroughly, add your cans of beans and tomato juice. I started with 8 ounces and ended up needing a couple more ounces- It just depends on how thick you prefer your chili!

Add diced peppers and onion

Add chopped Kale- I cute mine pretty small so I wouldn't know it was even it there!

Add seasoning if you choose to do so- Maybe a tsp of each? I didn't measure- just add to taste!

I let my chili simmer for about an hour or so, the longer it simmers, the more flavor you'll get! 

With my leftovers, I saved a bowl and then froze the rest for another day!

Good Luck and Enjoy!

Low Calorie Grilled Turkey Burger

This is probably by far one of my new favorite recipes! I seriously liked it just as much as a regular old beef patty!

One Serving: Approximately 300 Calories

Ingredients:

*Ground Turkey LEAN 97% FAT FREE

*Onion

*Avocado (peeled and cut)

*Salsa- I use Herdez (15 calories per serving- and tastes like restaurant salsa)!

*Low Cal Buns- I just used 35 Calorie whole wheat bread

Jalapeños are optional.

*preheat your grill or stove top (I used a grill)

For the burger:

One serving is 4-5 ounces (read your label). 

Mix in desired amount of onion and a TBSP of Salsa.

-I didn't use a lot of onion because I put onion on top of my burger as well.

Mix ingredients into patty and place on aluminum foil.

**I wrapped my foil around the whole burger so that I could place it on the grill and flip it without the burger falling apart.

I also sliced a few strips of the onion and wrapped them in aluminum foil as well and grilled them (they don't take long at all and burn easy! I used 0 Calorie butter spray as well (maybe 2-3 sprays?)

I also toasted my bread halfway- that's optional!

Once your burger & onions are cooked thoroughly, place on your bun or bread slice. I put about 1/4 of a sliced avocado on top of my burger, along with jalapeños and salsa.

Other toppings are optional- that's just how I prepared mine!

Enjoy!

Baked Taco Salad

Baked Taco Salad

315 calories per taco salad- including the shell!

You will need:

**preheat oven to 350 degrees

*Around 1 pound Ground Lean Turkey- I found 97% fat free

90 Calorie Whole Wheat Tortillas

Lettuce (I used Iceburg) -shredded may work best!

Mixed bell peppers

Chopped onion

*Homemade Taco Seasoning 

1 tablespoon chili powder

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon onion salt (or powder)

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/4 teaspoon Oregano flakes

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1 1/2 teaspoons cumin powder

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

*0 fat Greek Yogurt (sour cream replacement) 

*90 Calorie whole wheat tortilla

*Heredez Salsa

1. Cook ground turkey just as you would ground beef. Once finished, add seasoning. -If it seems pretty dry you may need to add some water. I think I ended up using a couple of ounces of hot water. 

2. Add bell peppers and onion to the ground turkey, stir well and place the lid on top, letting the peppers and onion steam and saute with the ground turkey. 

3. **To make my taco salad shell, I put a bundt cake pan upside down on top of a baking sheet and sprayed it lightly with cooking spray and placed my tortilla on top and pushed down a small amount to make sure the torilla wouldn't fall through. I baked my tortilla for around 20 minutes? It really depends on your oven. Just keep checking it- you'll know when it's ready!

4. Once the veggies were sauted and the shell was complete, I put about 4 ounces of taco meat into the bowl. Then, I filled it up with lettuce! I then added a tbsp of Oikos Greek Yogurt, Heredez Salsa, and jalepenos. 

Photo on Instagram

I loved the taco salad, and I hope you will too! 

C-

4 Ingredient Pancakes & Only 77 Calories!

You will need:

2 oz. low-fat cream cheese 

2 eggs (whites only) 

1 packet truvia 

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 

Make sure your pan is pre-heated, it will help the batter not to spread across the whole pan. I would use the smallest frying pan you have!

In a small mixing bowl, whisk together all of the above ingredients.

I used 0 Calorie Spray butter  so that they wouldn't stick to the pan.

It actually took them longer than regular pancakes to cook, and they looked a bit funny.
But, they ended up tasting like french toast to me! I also used a little PB2 (chocolate) on top of mine and drizzled a little bit of honey on top.

These were heavenly. My batter made two pancakes and I was full afterwards! Yum!

Enjoy!

C-

PS: for photos of my food, please find on my Instagram! You can see/follow from my homepage Instagram button or find me @foodielovesfitness

Claudia's Chocolate Treats!

I've had a lot of requests via facebook and instagram for this recipe- so here it is! 48 calorie cupcakes!

Ingredients:
1 3/4 cup oats (old fashion)
1/2 tsp cream of tarter
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch of sea salt
1/2 cup of a sugar substitute. I used Splenda. I ran out of Splenda at 1/4 cup and used another 1/4 of brown sugar.
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
3 egg whites- 3 TBSP of liquid egg whites = 1 egg. So if you're using liquid egg whites, you'll use 9 TBSP
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce. I didn't have unsweetened, so I used 1/4 cup of regular.
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 0 FAT Greek Yogurt (I used vanilla flavored)
1 Cup of hot water
1/4 cup milk chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin pans with cupcake liners (I had enough batter to make almost 24 cupcakes).

In a blender, grind the oats until they are well ground.
Add the remaining dry ingredients into the blender with ground oats. (cream of tarter, baking powder, baking soda, sea salt, Splenda/brown sugar, unsweetened cocoa).
  -Put the blender lid on (mine ended up popping off and I had a cocoa powder mess).
  -Blend/Pulse until all dry ingredients are combined.

In a bowl (I used a medium mixing bowl) whisk together all of the wet ingredients (egg whites, water, applesauce, vanilla, greek yogurt).  Then add the dry ingredients all at once to the mixing bowl with wet ingredients and whisk until smooth.

I then placed 2-3 TBSP of mixture into each cupcake liner. Once all of your liners are filled, sprinkle chocolate chips evenly over each cupcake. (I ended up with around 4 chocolate chips on top of each cupcake).

Bake at 350 degrees for 13-20 minutes. Mine took about 17, but it just depends on how your oven cooks! Check with a toothpick to ensure that they are fully cooked.

Remove from the oven and let them cool for 5-7 minutes before you remove them from the pans.

Enjoy!