Swapping recipe ingredients for lower calorie/healthier options?

Agreed that it’s the fats that do in the calorie count quickly.

Be cautious with baking with “healthier” flours. Low carb/Paleo people will use almond and coconut “flours” (others might encourage chickpea “flour”). Those have higher protein, some fiber, a lot more fat and fewer carbs than wheat flour (but pretty much the same number of calories). Some will therefore designate them as “healthier”. Typical flour has gluten. Gluten is what gives your baked goods the texture/substance you like. It’s what makes bread chewy. You can find all kinds of recipes using alternative “flours” (which are just ground up ______), but the texture of your baked goods will suffer workout the gluten. Edible? Sure. But for no real health or calorie benefit? Not woth it.

Lately when i make cookies, i add more walnuts and almonds as well as high cocoa % chocolate chips, that way i lower the amount of flour i have to use (usually lowers flour by half). Calories will only slightly go down, but carbs go down by a lot. They're not carb free cookies, but have less than before.

swap unsweetened apple sauce or purred pumpkin for cooking oil. Equal amounts are perfect for bars and cakes.
FYI The pumpkin is fine for something with chocolate flavor. I don't like applesauce with chocolate flavor.

You can make really moist cupcakes by mixing a box of Devils Food Cake mix with a single can of Pumpkin Puree and then baking them.

I use splenda to bake with. The only time Splenda doesn't work for me is when making Pineapple Upside Down Cake. It just doesn't carmelize like real sugar.

You can do the same by mixing it with a can of coke or pepsi for 0 extra calories. You can do this with any of the box cake mixes.[/quote]

Actually I believe using fruit or coconut sugar or something like that would ultimately be better in the long run. 0 calorie drinks only have 0 calories because they use fake sugars to replace real ones. When you digest it, your body releases a bunch of leptin thinking that it’s about to digest real sugar. When it doesn’t find any real sugar to digest, everything you just consumed is stored as fat. Basically because your body has no idea what it is. 🤷🏼‍♀️ That’s my recent research anyway.

I would try to do more cooked Berries topped with a little Organic low fat Granola. I only add a teaspoon of sugar per cup of berries if needed and sprinkle of cinnamon.