Low Calorie Soda
As you may or may not have picked up from my previous posts, I tend to have a love hate relationship with water. Some days I love it, and I can drink my 8 glasses without even thinking about it. Other days I have trouble drinking even a glass, and I find the plain taste of water incredibly unappealing. I like to keep some more exciting drinks around for days that I have this issue, so I’m always on the lookout for low calorie drinks (without artificial sweeteners) that have an interesting flavor (like hint water), health value (like herbal tea, or zenergize), or bubbles (like carbonated water).
I recently found a line of all-natural bottled sodas at Whole Foods called DRY Soda that are relatively low calorie and pretty tasty. The flavor I like is called Lemongrass (which is subtly sweet in a really refreshing way), but the soda also comes in Vanilla Bean, Juniper Berry, Lavender, Kumquat and Rhubarb. The sodas vary from 50-70 calories per bottle (which are 12 ounces so 1.5 cups), depending on which flavor you buy.
As I mentioned, I found this soda at Whole Foods, but I read on their website that it is also available at Bev Mo as well as various other retailers.
PS. In the non-water drink department, I’m also a big fan of low calorie Izze Esque soda, Mint water, and Fizzit, as well as making my own fruity flavored water using real fruit like they do at the spa.
Low Calorie Crepes
Yes, you can! And they are *REALLY GOOD*, too. So, I recently found these wonderful crepes in the frozen food section at Whole Foods. Unfortunately, they are a bit expensive, but they are a totally delicious, low calorie food (also low in weight watchers points at only 2 WW points per giant crepe). If you heat them up a bit, you can unfold them and spread them across an entire plate. Then you can put on them whatever you please. I personally like putting my favorite low calorie ice cream on them (half a serving usually). I also sometimes put fat free whipped cream, frozen cherries, or frozen bananas (or any frozen fruit) in them as well. The possibilities are really endless. Sometimes, I just eat the crepe, they are so delicious on their own. I hope you enjoy!
Low Calorie Mozzarella Sticks
As you know, mozzarella sticks are delicious! If you’ve never had one, a mozzarella stick is fried breaded cheese that is available as an appetizer at most Italian restaurants. They are usually served with a side of marinara sauce for dipping. And, as you can imagine, since they are breaded, fried, and cheese based, they are very high in both calories and fat.
A few weeks ago, I realized that I had the perfect ingredients to make low calorie mozzarella sticks in my kitchen, so I decided to go for it. I’ve actually written about most of the ingredients separately, so now it is time to just combine them together!
Ingredients (makes 2 servings):
- Two low calorie mozzarella string cheese sticks
- A quarter cup of egg beaters or egg whites (you’ll only end up using about half)
- One quarter cup of your favorite Italian bread crumbs or whole wheat breadcrumbs (you’ll only end up using about 1 tablespoon per serving, so regular Italian breadcrumbs are okay)
- Two tablespoons of your favorite low calorie pizza sauce
Instructions:
(1) Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees
(2) Cut two mozzarella sticks in half and set aside
(3) In a shallow bowl, pour 3 tablespoons of egg beaters or egg whites
(4) In a separate shallow bowl, weigh out a quarter of a cup of whole wheat or Italian breadcrumbs using your food scale
(5) Dip each individual cheese stick into your egg beaters so that it is completely coated
(6) Once cheese stick is coated, roll it in your breadcrumbs until it is coated
(7) Place cheese stick into oven safe bowl
(8) Repeat for the other three cheese sticks
(9) Lightly spray each of your cheese sticks with a bit more oil
(10) Put oven save pan with cheese sticks into the oven for about 7 minutes — keep your eye on them, you want to take them out right before they begin to flatten and melt
(11) Put two tablespoons of your favorite pizza sauce in a separate bowl for dipping!
Okay, so in the calorie department, each serving (two breaded halves of a string cheese) comes out to approximately 110-120 calories (depending on what ingredients you use), with 3-5 grams of fat (depending on your string cheese) and approximately a gram of fiber.
