Guiltless Splurge


Tricking the Treat
October 24, 2012, 2:57 AM
Filed under: College Cooking, Dessert, Freshman Fit-Teen | Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

This week I have a bake sale for my Nutrition Task Force Club at Cornell’s Farmer’s Market. Like any other college student, the idea of buying a box of Entenmann’s or Little Debbie’s and throwing them on a plate to look homemade crossed my mind.

Motivating factors why I did not go with this plan:

One. the bake sale IS for a nutrition club.

Two. I forgot how therapeutic creative baking was

Three. I had a can of pumpkin that had to be used in my fridge

Fourth Bonus: Our apartment smelled significantly like chocolate afterwards.

Thinking back to my Hungry Girl roots, I grabbed a box of cake mix on the walk home. Two ideas ran through my head: can of diet soda + cake mix  (I tried this freshman year and didn’t love it. I could not get the after taste out of my mouth); next, can of pumpkin + cake mix. Golden. I had made it with brownie mix once before, but remember it being super super dense.  To fix this, I added a few spoonfuls of Fat Free Vanilla Greek Yogurt to the batter below.   (another guiltless splurge recipe to try in the future: cake mix + 1 cup greek yogurt –> light/fluffy/moist cake)

(more pictures to come when i’m actually allowed to cut into the cake more)

Not Your Average Devilish Food Cake 

1 box devil’s food cake mix
15 oz. can of pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
optional: greek/regular yogurt (plain or vanilla)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix the contents of the cake mix with the pumpkin puree. The batter will be very dense. Add a few spoonfuls of yogurt to make the mixing easier. Transfer the batter into a sprayed nonstick pan. Place in the oven for ~ 25 minutes or according to package directions on the cake mix box. 

keep in mind I probably would have cut this cake into AT LEAST 24 nice size squares:

PER SERVING (1 generous piece, 1/12th of cake): 183 calories, 3.5g fat, 301mg sodium, 37g carbs, 1.25g fiber, 20.5g sugars, 2g protein — PointsPlus® value 5*

Break Down:

Cake Variations

  1. Diet Soda + Cake Mix –> interesting flavor 
    • diet root beer + spice cake mix
    • diet 7 up/sprite + any flavor
    • diet coke/cherry + chocolate cake mix
    • diet orange + white cake mix
  2. Canned Pumpkin + Cake Mix –> dense   
    • spiced cake mix + pumpkin
    • devils food cake + pumpkin
  3. Yogurt + Cake Mix  –> light/moist
    • devils food cake + yogurt
    • yellow cake + yogurt
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Trick AND Treat Your Body this Halloween
October 17, 2010, 4:46 PM
Filed under: Dessert | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

AHA! Halloween, everyones dream. Knock on a door, receive free food. But we all know there must be a catch to such a great event – ah, yes, the chocolate that is conveniently placed on the counter, or the kids leftover milkways that are brought in to work, or my personal favorite – the long lost lollipop that is found at the bottom of your purse.

Forget the “trick OR treat” this year. We want it all. . . don’t we? It’s time to trick AND treat.

Follow these tips and guidelines for halloween! Although these numbers may seem small, remember the size of the candy may be too! Don’t unwrap too many or next year you’ll be sporting the sheet-over-the-body “ghost” costume.

TIP 1: Do NOT hand out your favorite candy (how much “handing out” will you really be doing?)

TIP 2: CHOCOHOLICS: while these candy don’t seem to have a lot of calories, remember they dont have alot of nutrients and are only the fun-size. Lets be realistic, we are ALL going to eat more candy around halloween time. Stick to a few fun-size packages every once in a while and these lower calorie candies.

Hershey Kiss 26 calories, 8 g carb
Whoppers (small tube) 30 calories, 5  g carb
Hershey’s Miniature Bars 38 calories, 5 g carb
Starburst Fun Size 40 calories, 10 g carb
Reese’s Cup Miniature (per cup) 44 calories, 5 g carb
Life Saver’s Gummys (per roll) 52 calories, 13 g carb
Tootsie Pop 60 calories, 15 g carb
Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Bar* 67 calories, 8 g carb
Candy Corn (11 pieces) 70 calories, 18 g carb
Kit Kat* 73 calories, 9 g carb
Milky Way* 75 calories, 12 g carb
Mounds Bar* 83 calories, 9 g carb
M&Ms* 88 calories, 12 g carb

*indicates fun-size

Tip 3: Guiltless Splurges! Use these recipes around the holiday time to experience the seasonal flavors without the extra “seasonal gifts”.

  • Jell-O Fat-Free/Sugar-Free Instant Pudding: BUTTERSCOTCH, WHITE CHOCOLATE, CHOCOLATE

Pudding Parfaits

Pudding Pies – FF/SF Pudding + FF Cool Whip

  • Canned pumpkin

1 box devils food cake + 1 15 oz. can of pumpkin.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine the 2 ingredients in a large bowl. Mix well. Place the thick batter in a baking pan sprayed with nonstick spray. Bake until a knife comes out clean, approximately same time as directed on the box.


  • Baskin Robbins No Sugar Added Hard Candy

(cookies & cream, mint chocolate chip, mango delight, pralines & cream)

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