What are your favorite "insteads"?

sdwelk11

grapes instead of candy/chocolate/anything with sugar

TRY PUTING GREEN GRAPES IN THE FREEZER AND EATING THEM! IT TASTES LIKE CANDY! THEY ARE SO GOOD!

My "instead" is Brownie bites instead of cake or something else. Only 65 calories each!

Cytherea

Frozen yogurt or sorbet instead of ice cream.

Homemade popcorn (with a whirley pop) instead of all other salty snacks (omg so good!).

Slices of ham with a string cheese instead of a sandwich.

heyitsmekatie

Hmmm, good question...
40% less fat Cape Cod chips instead of full fat Lay's (gotta have my chips!)
2 eggs for breakfast instead of eggs with bacon and toast
Weight Watchers giant ice cream bars instead of a giant bowl of regular ice cream
1 slice of pizza instead of 3
Lean Cuisine and Healthy Choice frozen meals for lunch instead of the crap my work's cafe sells
Subway instead of McDonalds

nelsaphine

spaghetti squash instead of pasta . With some spaghetti sauce on it and a sprinkle of parmesan cheese....mmmmm!!!

spaghetti squash? I've never head of that but it sounds interesting

sue26

definitely the frozen grapes, they are better than candy

bowmankd

Apples and Amish Apple Butter (15 calories, no fat) instead of anything crunchy.

Beef Jerkey

swimmermama

Thank you for all of the ideas! I am going to try several of them. The spaghetti squash idea might be dinner this weekend! I will also have to try the frozen grapes. Yum!

critter347

Chips and salsa are my greatest weakness. Today, I picked up some rice cakes They made me happy, I think I just just missing the crunchy salty goodness. You could even make salsa and toss it on your rice cake. I haven't tried it, but salsa isn't terrible IF you make it yourself

Agreed! My weakness is chips more so than anything, so finding rice cakes has been great!

also another favorite "instead" of is that i work at a fast food, instead of getting fries I get a small fruit cup

superwmn

- Egg white omelettes instead of whole egg omelettes
- REAL bacon instead of turkey bacon
- Unsweetened almond milk instead of milk
- Sandwich fillings rolled in the sandwich meat instead of served on bread
- Black coffee instead of coffee with cream/sugar/reduced creamer/splenda
- Preparing my meals instead of dining out
- Real Yogurt (all natural, only ingredients I can pronounce) instead of the lite/lower calorie varieties

Charmagne

superwmn

1 slice of pizza instead of 3

*like*

neebelung

Hummus or Grey Poupon Creamy Dijon instead of mayo on a sandwich.

Fat free greek yogurt with bit of dijon and honey as a sauce or dip (or even salad dressing) for poultry

Really, fat free greek yogurt is my "go to" for any sauce base - lots of protein, great tangy flavor and creamy texture. Makes things taste much "richer" than they are.

currlygirrl

Plain Greek yougurt instead of Sour Cream

paroxysm

Deep Chocolate Vitatops instead of a brownie (100 cal and 9g of fiber!) very filling and SO YUMMY/Chocolaty!

Mediterranean Snacks Sea Salt & Cracked Pepper Baked Lentil Chips instead of potato chips/crisps (110 cals for 22 and they have 4g protein)

Mini Babybel Light cheese instead of string cheese/etc cheese - 50 cals for a rather large piece.

Quaker Mini Delights/Chocolately Mint 90 cal pack instead of Andes Mints

We've also started subbing in Ground Turkey and sometimes veggie crumbles instead of ground beef and using the the http://www.skinnytaste.com/ and http://400caloriesorless.com/ for recipes which has caused a lot of "instead"...way too many to list!

lklein

Homemade hummus on sandwiches or as a veggie dip
Mustard insteas of mayo
Flavored green tea instead of coffee/cream
Flavored water instead of juices or soda
Gum instead of sweets

kath711

bump!

sweetpea_73

Have you ever tried salsa on baby carrots or cucumbers... yummy!

jbars11

Any of the Blue Diamond almonds. They're fabulous! I never used to like them...but then I tried the Smokehouse ones. Wonderful. Today I tried the Butter Toffee and Mint Dark Chocolate. 6 net carbs, 5g of Sugar and 5g of Protein. Great alternative for any type of chip of "snacky" food! You can get 100 calorie packs for on the go, too. I've gotten the cocoa powder coated ones and they're wonderful.

I'm happy to hear this...I haven't tried them...I see them and I always think about it and then I don't get them. Sounds like a good buy

jbars11

Deep Chocolate Vitatops instead of a brownie (100 cal and 9g of fiber!) very filling and SO YUMMY/Chocolaty!

Mediterranean Snacks Sea Salt & Cracked Pepper Baked Lentil Chips instead of potato chips/crisps (110 cals for 22 and they have 4g protein)

Mini Babybel Light cheese instead of string cheese/etc cheese - 50 cals for a rather large piece.

Quaker Mini Delights/Chocolately Mint 90 cal pack instead of Andes Mints

We've also started subbing in Ground Turkey and sometimes veggie crumbles instead of ground beef and using the the http://www.skinnytaste.com/ and http://400caloriesorless.com/ for recipes which has caused a lot of "instead"...way too many to list!

Awesome!!! I can't wait to find these lentil chips and check out the websites...thanks for sharing!!!

paroxysm

Awesome!!! I can't wait to find these lentil chips and check out the websites...thanks for sharing!!!

Here is a store locator for the chips (otherwise they sell them on Amazon in bulk--which is believe it or not MORE expensive than buying it at the store grrrr) http://www.mediterraneansnackfoods.com/store-locator/


When I used the locator it didn't have Kowalski's which carries the chips for some reason but it had Costco which I didn't know about-- awesome!! Going there tonight

theatr3geek

ground turkey instead of ground beef

I use it for chili, tacos, basically anywhere you would use ground beef

YESYESYES. I just gave up red meat. It was an amazing decision. And groud turkey, turkey bacon etc.. taste BETTER and are SO MUCH better for you!

Shan605

do you have a good recipe for homemade salsa?

Fresh roma tomatoes chopped up to bite size pieces
Red onion chopped
Fresh clintro
a can of rotel

Shan605

Laughing Cow cheese. I put one wedge on instead of cheese AND mayo on my chicken breast sandwhich and it's so creamy & good. It also lowers the amount of salad dressing I need on a salad.

I also am a fan of the laughing cow cheese. Their creaminess takes the place of conidement plus you get the flavor of cheese, its a WIN WIn

radicalreader

Instead of standing passively and vegging out while waiting in line, work your muscles.
Tighten and release your buns.
Contract and release your abs.
Go up and down on your toes.

You can google "exercise standing in line" for some other ideas. It's not a great workout, but every little bit helps, right? Plus I get less stress about how much time I "wasted" in line.

khollyk

bump!

sdwelk11

We've also started subbing in Ground Turkey and sometimes veggie crumbles instead of ground beef

WHERE DO YOU GET VEGGIE CRUMBLES? WHAT ARE THEY? HOW DO YOU USE THEM?

Dobsaya

A seminary muffin ( all recipes) which has 1/2 cup of chocolate chips in 12 muffins. Also has only 1 cup of flour and 1 cup of ground oatmeal. Filling and relatively healthy and gets rid of the sweet tooth.

paroxysm

WHERE DO YOU GET VEGGIE CRUMBLES? WHAT ARE THEY? HOW DO YOU USE THEM?

Here you go: http://www.morningstarfarms.com/products_meal-starters-grillers-recipe-crumbles.aspx

You can get them at Target, Cub, Rainbow, Whole Foods, Lunds, pretty much any grocer in the freezer area where the 'healthy food/vegetarian is located. Ask if you can't find it.

We like it in Taco's the best so far but have also used it in Chili to replace ground beef which was very very good too! There are some good recipes on the Morning Star site.

** Even better are the LightLifeSmart Ground Veggie Crumbles... but these are a little harder to find. We have some in our freezer but have only used them once (in taco's) they are DELICIOUS!

Edited to add the light life website: http://www.lightlife.com/product_detail.jsp?p=smartgroundoriginal