Creative Ways to Cut Calories

• Mix a puffed cereal with your favorite granola – ¼ cup of average low fat granola has 150-250 calories; 1 cup of puffed cereal is 50-90 calories. Since ¼ cup of granola is never enough, have the granola, but mix with some puffed cereal for volume. Save 100-140 calories versus having a ½ cup of granola.


• Choose vegetables that fulfill the need for starchy foods instead of instead of having rice, potato or pasta. For example: Turnip ½ cup cubes = 17 calories, Turnip mashed, 1 cup = 51 calories, Spaghetti squash 19 calories per ½ cup; Butternut squash = ½ cup = 40 calories. One half cup of mashed potato without any milk, butter or margarine has 119 calories and a half cup of brown rice has 109 calories.


• Can’t resist blue cheese dressing? Add a one inch cube of blue cheese to one 8 oz. package of silken tofu, mix with a little garlic salt, dry mustard, add vinegar to taste, then refrigerate for 2 hours to allow flavors to blend. Makes 4 – 2 oz servings (that’s A LOT of blue cheese dressing) and has only 50 calories whereas a mere one tablespoon of standard blue cheese dressing has 73 calories.


• Want a decadent dessert? Mix 1 T peanut butter with 1 T milk, then blend into 1 cup low fat non-dairy topping – It will satisfy your craving for a peanut butter cup when you put a dollop on top of low fat chocolate pudding.