Have Your Cookie and Eat it, Too!

I mentioned in my post the other day that splurges are okay. In fact, I believe that splurges are essential to maintaining a healthy lifestyle for the long term. I know that if I can't indulge my sweet tooth, I get cranky! But I have found healthier ways to indulge, mainly by adapting well-loved recipes to make them healthier.

Over time, I will share my tips on how to make your favorite recipes healthier. Today, I am going to start with everyone's favorite, Chocolate Chip Cookies. I will share with you the nutritional information from the original recipe, and then the modifications I made and the resulting nutritional information.

I used the Original Nestle Tollhouse Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe as my starting point. The nutritional information for the original recipe lines up like this:

(Note: I make bar cookies, and generally cut them into 20 bars per pan, so the information here is based on 20 cookies.)

• Calories - 251
• Carbohydrates - 33 g
• Fat - 13 g
• Protein - 2 g
• Sugars - 21 g
• Fiber - 0 g

To modify the recipe, I always use a mixture of organic white wheat flour and organic whole wheat flour, usually about 1.75 c of white wheat and the rest whole wheat flours. This alone adds a bit of fiber to the cookie which is always a good thing.

The other change I generally make is to use Olivio Spread instead of butter. This cuts down on the fat a bit. Sometimes, I will also substitute an egg white for one of the whole eggs, although this will make the cookie a bit dryer and more crumbly. Finally, I also reduce the amount of chocolate chip used to 1.5 cups instead of a full 2 cups. This is still plenty of chips for the cookies, and reduces the over all calories and carbohydrates by quite a bit.

The final numbers for my modified recipe, making the changes above but still using two whole eggs look like this:

• Calories - 223
• Carbohydrates - 29 g
• Fat - 11 g
• Protein - 3 g
• Sugar - 20 g
• Fiber  - 1 g

So while the changes may not seem significant, these little things can add up over time and the course of your day. They are easy swaps to make for the good of your health!

Let me know if you have any questions. For more healthy eating tips and recipes, visit me at Healthy Weight Loss Coaches or on Facebook.