Posts Tagged ‘calories’

What is your favourite thing about summer?

Mine is ice cream. In a cone. That is hands down that greatest thing about this time of year, in my humble opinion anyway. Mint chocolate chip, world class chocolate, banana, peanut butter chocolate, anything with coffee .... oh man I need an ice cream cone right now ... BRB!

OK, I'm back. And boy do I have some fantastic news to share with you.

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!

How to cut calories AND eat ice cream
Our good friends over at Baskin Robbins - one of the most well-loved Canadian ice cream chains - recently shared some amazing news about their delicious frozen treats. Back in January, they released a new line of ice cream called BRight Choices, which feature some calorie friendly ice creams that are:
• dairy-free
• fat-free
• no-sugar-added
• calorie-reduced

You can take your pick from ice cream, frozen yogurts, sorbets, sherberts and ices. The BRight Choices flavours range from 90-160 calories per 2.5 ounce scoop. It's amazing. You can go for a treat and not feel guilty.

Guess what? I tried some of the flavours from their new line. I just couldn't resist. My faves were Rainbow Sherbert. It only has 130 calories and 1.5 grams of fat per serving. Bonus: It reminds me of being a kid.

And, because I'm a choco-holic, I fell in love with the no sugar added Chocolate Overload. At 120 calories and 5 grams of sugar per serving, you can't go wrong.

See a complete listing of Baskin Robbins BRight Choices line here.

Amazing contest
Guess what? We're giving away 8 free ice cream scoops from Baskin Robbins. Leave a message here telling us what your favourite thing about summer is and you could win! I'll announce a winner on June 23.

Instead of: Bottled salad dressing

Use: Homemade salad dressing

How to cut calories: Next time you have a salad, make your own healthy dressing.

Packaged salad dressing can contain a whole whack of calories, fat and sodium. Creamy bottled salad dressings generally have up to 160 calories for a mere 1-2 tablespoon serving. A great way to cut calories is to make your own. It's easy, tasty, healthy and way cheaper.

My good old standby is white wine vinegar, olive oil, a little sea salt and fresh black pepper. If I'm feeling totally crazy I'll add in a little Dijon mustard and/or some honey.

Find some tasty dressings here:
20-plus salad dressing recipes
23 savoury and sweet salad dressing recipes

What's your favourite salad dressing?

Delicious. Who knew?

Do you have any idea how delicious fruit is?

I really had no idea. I picked up some pre-washed, pre-cut strawberries, pineapple and kiwi on a whim at the grocery store the other day and I was blown away by how much I enjoyed it.

I snacked on it while I made dinner last night (Quick Fisherman's Stew) and it kept my hands and mouth too busy for me to bother pouring myself a glass of wine. No small feat.

And while I suddenly find fruit to be a surprisingly tasty snack, I still can't accept the idea of having it for dessert. Even fruity pies are suspect. I am unwavering in my belief that dessert should be chocolaty (and preferably gooey).

So you can imaging my delight when I came across a Chocolate Fondue recipe this afternoon. It meets all the criteria for an indulgent little weekend reward: It's chocolaty! It's gooey! It includes my new BFF, fruit! And you can spike it with amaretto, brandy or rum!

Each tablespoon has 64 calories, 6 grams of fat, 4 grams of carbs and a gram of fibre, which makes it a reasonable weekend treat to reward another successful week of healthy living with Boot Camp.

How will you reward yourself this weekend?