Looking for diet friendly Christmas baked goods recipes

Peppermint meringues!

I made alternative peanut butter fudge the other day and it is amazing!

1/2 cup of peanut butter
1/2 cup of coconut oil
1/2 cup of unsweetened coca powder
1/4 cup of natural or raw honey

-Mix it all together and let it sit for about 30 minutes in the fridge. The website suggested putting it into paper muffin cups in a muffin baking tin, but I did it the old-fashioned way in a greased 4oz square casserole dish.

If you make an apple crumble with no extra sugar in the filling, just use already sweet apples, then top with oatmeal, nuts, and a tiny bit of honey and butter- it will be significantly fewer calories than a traditional pie. I dont have a recipe because I just eye-ball and taste test this, but you can use a traditional crumble recipe as a base, just adjust until you are happy with the calorie content!

I love to bake at any time of the year, so I've learned lots of ways to lighten up traditional recipes with easy swaps. Here's a few I use regularly:

- Egg substitute in place of eggs: saves about 40 calories per egg used, which isn't tremendous when divided among the whole recipe, but saves some cholesterol;

- Unsweetened apple sauce or pumpkin puree in place of oil (for cakes, muffins, banana/pumpkin bread): I replace the oil with an equal amount of apple sauce or pumpkin. This can save you more than 300 calories for every 1/4 cup of oil replaced! The result will still be very moist and fluffy;

- Sugar-free sweetener instead of sugar: an obvious one. If it's for cookies or cakes I will do a 50/50 blend of sugar and sugar-free sweetener (they are more moist and flexible that way) but for breads or muffins I use all sugar-free sweetener;

- Non-fat Milk in place of cream, buttermilk, or whole milk. If the recipe calls for buttermilk I add a teaspoon of lemon juice to the milk before adding it to the other ingredients;

- Margarine or margarine/butter blend in place of butter or shortening: Another obvious one. Shaves off a little bit of cholesterol and calories. If it's for drop-cookies I use 50/50 margarine/butter blend (keeps the cookies from flattening out too much while they bake) and if for rolled cookies I use margarine.

Last weekend I made banana bread following the Better Homes & Gardens recipe, but I swapped out whole grain pancake mix in place of the flour, 50/50 sugar/Splenda blend instead of all sugar, unsweetened apple sauce instead of the oil, and egg substitute in place of the eggs. By far the best banana bread I've ever had, and still ridiculously moist even after a week!

Have fun!

Bump

Banana Bread
Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour (could use whole wheat or 1/2 whole wheat and 1/2 almond flour)
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar (maybe 1/2 a cup would still be sweet enough)
1/4 cup butter, softened (at 14 servings per recipe it's less than a teaspoon a serving. I'd leave it)
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups mashed ripe banana (about 3 bananas)
1/3 cup plain low-fat yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Cooking spray

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°.
Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt, stirring with a whisk.
Place sugar and butter in a large bowl, and beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended (about 1 minute). Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add banana, yogurt, and vanilla; beat until blended. Add flour mixture; beat at low speed just until moist. Spoon batter into an 8 1/2 x 4 1/2-inch loaf pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 1 hour or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack; remove from pan. Cool completely on wire rack.


Nutritional Information (14 servings)
Amount per serving
Calories: 187
Calories from fat: 21%
Fat: 4.3g
Saturated fat: 2.4g
Monounsaturated fat: 1.2g
Polyunsaturated fat: 0.3g
Protein: 3.3g
Carbohydrate: 34.4g
Fiber: 1.1g
Cholesterol: 40mg
Iron: 1mg
Sodium: 198mg
Calcium: 20mg