Being Smart About Hot Cocoa

The minute the cold weather hits, out comes the cocoa powder to make hot cocoa. It's been a favorite winter beverage in the Magee house since my girls were old enough to ask for it! Since none of us particularly like drinking milk as a cold beverage, hot cocoa is a welcome opportunity to get some of that calcium, vitamin D, and protein that low fat milk so aptly provides.

Not to ruin the whole celebration of hot cocoa or anything, but depending on how you make the hot cocoa and the embellishments added to it, we could be talking about a high nutrient beverage with about 120 calories and 1.2 grams of fat OR we could be talking about something that is in the ballpark of a rich dessert with about 350 calories and 20 grams of fat (12 grams saturated fat). So...if any of this matters to you, here is the "lighter" way to look at the basic three ingredients in hot cocoa:

The Lighter Way To Look At Hot Cocoa

• Cocoa powder (about 2 tablespoons unsweetened) [40 calories, 1 gram fat, 0 g saturated fat, 2 grams fiber]
• Nonfat or 1% lowfat milk (about 1 cup) [83 calories, .2 gram fat for nonfat and 102 calories and 2.4 grams fat for 1% lowfat milk]
• Powdered sugar/sweetener (about 1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons) [45 calories for 1 1/2-tablespoon or 60 calories for 2 tablespoons]

If you want to add extra flavors without getting into the triple digits in calories (and double digits in fat grams), shoot for items that add flavor without a lot of calories like cinnamon, peppermint or vanilla extract. Remember a little peppermint extract goes a long way (add a drop first and taste before adding more). You can also serve your hot cocoa with a candy cane as a stirrer. That's one way to use all those candy canes from Christmas.

1-Minute Is All You Need!
One of my favorite hot cocoa blends is Moonstruck's Mexican or American Hot Cocoa which is a combination of their special cocoa and powdered sugar that is then added to milk. To make a cup of 1-minute hot cocoa, all you do is warm a cup of 1% milk (or nonfat milk) in the microwave for about 1 minute on HIGH. Then stir in the suggested amount of whatever cocoa powder you are using. Because the milk is nice and hot, the cocoa powder (blended with the powdered sugar) is easily stirred in.

Related Topics:

• Avoid Weight Gain: Watch What You Drink
• Overweight? Cocoa May Cut Blood Pressure
• Cocoa for Diabetes?

The Food Synergy Gift Bag!

I'll admit it - I'm a gift basket maniac. I love creating designer gift baskets for friends and family. Each basket has a theme, though (it usually falls under the category of pampering yourself or inspiring romance.) You fill the baskets with the thickest, softest, most comfy socks, the best CD you can find, wonderfully scented candles...you get the picture.

But I don't stop there (I told you I am a gift basket maniac)...Given that I write books; I also like to give books packaged with food gifts. For example, for my book THE FLAX COOKBOOK, I've given the book with a pound of ground flaxseed and a cute tablespoon measure. For my book, FRY LIGHT, FRY RIGHT! I've given it with a nonstick frying pan and canola oil sprayer and Teflon spatula wrapped like a gift basket.

For my new (and favorite) book, FOOD SYNERGY, I'm going to give it in a re-usable canvas shopping bag along with 7 of the 10-synergy superfoods that are nonperishable like:

1. Nuts
2. Ground flax (comes in 1 pound bags)
3. Extra virgin olive oil (small or large bottles)
4. Canned tuna (for fish)
5. A bag of whole-wheat pasta or a small bag of whole-wheat flour or a package of whole wheat Boboli Pizza Crust (for whole grains)
6. A fun box or can of green tea (choose a fun flavor like tropical green tea or blueberry green tea or chai green tea)
7. A can or jar of fancy marinara or pizza sauce (for tomato and tomato products)

Including the 10 synergy superfoods will surely get the food synergy gift bag recipients started on the road to a higher level of health courtesy of food synergy secrets.

The whole shebang will run you about 13 dollars for the book (on an internet bookstore) + 99 cents for the re-usable canvas grocery bag + $16 for the food synergy superfoods = $30

This is a great last minute gift, especially if you need a something for someone dealing with the four chronic diseases spotlighted in my book: diabetes, cancer, stroke and heart disease.

Related Topics:

• WebMD Video: Food Baskets for Seniors Are a Welcome Treat
• Top 10 Food Synergy Super Foods

Frugal Food Gift #4: Chocolate Dipped Cookies

An Easy, Decadent Treat That Everyone Will Enjoy

Admittedly there is nothing healthy about this food gift. Well, you could use high cocoa chocolate chips to pump up the antioxidant value of the melted chocolate...but that's about it. I can tell you though that these chocolate dipped peppermint sandwich cookies are loaded with flavor and if you take your time eating and enjoying it, just one cookie is usually very satisfying. This is a great way to use up some of the leftover holiday sprinkles you have hanging around in the back of your spice cabinet. You could recycle holiday bowls, plates, and small gift boxes or place the cookies in holiday gift bags you have lying around.

Each box of cookies cost about $2.50 each ($5.00 total) plus you can pick up a bag of chocolate chips for about $2.00 for a total of $7.00. Since the batch makes about 6 food gifts, each gift will cost about $1.16.

Chocolate Covered Candy Cane Peppermint Sandwich Cookies

Ingredients:

• 11.5-ounce bag semi sweet chocolate chips (milk can be substituted)
• 2 boxes of peppermint sandwich cookies, about 66 cookies total (I buy mine at Trader Joe's - they look like Oreos but the vanilla filling has crushed candy cane in it--but if you can't find them, just use Reduced Fat or regular Oreos)
• Holiday sprinkles, or if you are using regular chocolate sandwich cookies, crushed candy cane works well

Preparation:

1. Pour chocolate chips into a 2-cup glass measure (or similar) and microwave on LOW for about 1 minute. Stir gently and if not melted, microwave in 30-second intervals until almost completely melted. Stir with spoon to distribute the heat evenly and finish melting the chips.
2. Line two jellyroll pans with wax paper. Dunk one of the cookies halfway into the melted chocolate and scrape away some of the excess chocolate with the flat side of a dinner knife or use the edge of the glass measure. Lay dipped cookie on the wax paper.
3. Repeat with remaining cookies until all the melted chocolate has been used (about 33 cookies per cup of chocolate cups). Sprinkle holiday cookie decorations/sprinkles or crushed candy canes over the chocolate of each of the cookies. Place jellyroll pans in the refrigerator to harden the melted chocolate.
4. Place cookies in holiday gift bowls, bags or boxes or on cookie plates. If you use about 11 decorated cookies for each gift, this recipe will make about 6 gifts!

Yield: makes about 66 halfway dipped cookies

Nutrition Information: 77 calories, .6 g protein, 11 g carbohydrate, 3.8 g fat, 1.4 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, .6 g fiber, 60 mg sodium. Calories from fat: 44 percent.

Frugal Food Gifts...The Series

Holiday Food Gifts That Make Cents
#1: Light Cran-Raspberry Sauce
#2: Tea Time
#3: 5-Minute Peanut Butter Rocky Road Fudge
#4: Chocolate Dipped Cookies

Related Topics:

• Healthier Holiday Cookie Recipes
• Holiday Cookie Swap

Frugal Food Gift #3: 5-Minute Fudge

Peanut Butter Rocky Road Fudge

One of the food gift ideas one WebMD community board member shared was a really easy recipe for peanut butter fudge. I played with her microwave instructions for the fudge and turned it into an 8 x 8-inch pan of higher fiber, higher cocoa rocky road by adding some Fiber One bran cereal and using high cocoa chocolate chips.

You can buy the chips for $2.50 and we are only using half a bag for one batch of the recipe ($1.25), plus one cup of natural-style peanut butter which will cost about $1.25 (on sale a small pint jar will run about $2.50). A cup and a half of the added marshmallows will add a cost of about $.75 and a cup and a half of Fiber One will add a cost of about $.50, for a total cost of $3.75. The batch of rocky road will make about 4 food gifts.

Each food gift will cost about $.93 if you recycle some holiday dessert plates or wrap each slab (cut the square of rocky roady into 4 smaller squares) of the rocky road in plastic wrap, and decorate with holiday stickers and some ribbon.

5-Minute Peanut Butter Rocky Road

Ingredients:

• 1 cup high cacao bittersweet chocolate chips (ie. Ghirardelli 60% cacao bittersweet chocolate chips)
• 1 cup natural style peanut butter
• 1 1/2 cups miniature marshmallows
• 1 1/2 cups Fiber One bran cereal

Preparation:

1. Line an 8 x 8-inch baking dish with foil.
2. In microwave-safe glass bowl, combine chocolate chips and peanut butter. Microwave on HIGH for 1 minute. Remove bowl and stir with spoon for a minute to finish melting chocolate chips. If necessary, microwave mixture for an additional 30 seconds and stir again.
3. Stir in the marshmallows and Fiber One cereal and pour mixture into prepared dish, smoothing mixture out to cover the bottom of the dish. Keep in refrigerator until hardened (about 1-2 hours). Lift foil from dish and place rocky road on a flat surface. Cut into 4 square slabs and wrap each with plastic wrap or cut rocky road into bite-size squares.

Yield: Makes 36 large bite-size pieces.

Nutrition Information per serving: 77 calories, 2 g protein, 7.5 g carbohydrate, 4.5 g fat, 1.3 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 2 g fiber, 11 mg sodium (this value will be higher if there is salt added to the peanut butter). Calories from fat: 52 percent.

Frugal Food Gifts...The Series

Holiday Food Gifts That Make Cents
#1: Light Cran-Raspberry Sauce
#2: Tea Time
#3: 5-Minute Peanut Butter Rocky Road Fudge
#4: Chocolate Dipped Cookies

Related Topics:

• WebMD Video: Dark Chocolate's Heart-Healthy Benefits
• Chocolate Pictures Slideshow: This History of Chocolate in Photos

Frugal Food Gift #2: Tea Time

Here's an easy gift for the tea drinkers on your list. Keep your eyes open for a great deal on coffee mugs or tea cups. Often you can find them on sale for about $2 dollars each or a set of 4 mugs or tea cups for $8. You can also check the dollar store - they almost always have mugs in stock. And don't forget resale shops - you can sometimes find cups with matching saucers that are quite lovely.

Then buy a box filled with an assortment of individually packaged tea bags (you can find these on sale for about $3) and distribute the tea bags between about 3 of the mugs/cups.

Each of these food gifts will cost you about $3!

You can dress up each of the cups with some see-through cellophane wrap and ribbon too.

Frugal Food Gifts...The Series

Holiday Food Gifts That Make Cents
#1: Light Cran-Raspberry Sauce
#2: Tea Time
#3: 5-Minute Peanut Butter Rocky Road Fudge
#4: Chocolate Dipped Cookies

Related Topics:

• WebMD Video: Age-Related Vision Loss
• Holiday Tea is Here!

Frugal Food Gift Idea #1: Light Cran-Raspberry Sauce

Around the holidays, cran-raspberry sauce comes in handy for turkey dinners or turkey sandwiches or as topping for brie served as a holiday appetizer. The beautiful bright red color brightens up any holiday table.

Making the recipe below for Cran-Raspberry Sauce will make 3 gifts of about 1-cup each. You can use three 8-ounce jars that you have around the house (just make sure they have been washed well preferably in a dishwasher). Add a bow or some ribbon and keep it in the refrigerator until you are ready to give it as a gift.

The fresh cranberries can cost about $3 plus the raspberries (one pint) will cost around $2.50. By using jars you have around the house, an orange you have in the fruit bowl, and some sugar from your pantry, the total cost is about $5.50 with the cost per gift around $1.83.

Lite Cran-Raspberry Sauce

Ingredients:

• 15 ounces fresh cranberries (about 4 cups)
• 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• Zest from 1 orange, finely chopped
• 1 cup water
• 2 cups fresh or frozen raspberries

Preparation:

1. In a medium saucepan, combine cranberries, sugar, orange zest, and water. Bring to a boil, reduced heat to LOW and cook for about 5 minutes.


2. Stir in raspberries and continue to simmer on LOW heat for 5 minutes more.


3. Ladle mixture into three 1-cup jars (or similar), cover and keep in the refrigerator until ready to serve or give as a gift.

Yield: Makes about 3 cups

Nutrition Information (per tablespoon): 17 calories, .1 g protein, 4 g carbohydrate, 0 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 1 g fiber, .2 mg sodium. Calories from fat: 0 percent.

Frugal Food Gifts...The Series

Holiday Food Gifts That Make Cents
#1: Light Cran-Raspberry Sauce
#2: Tea Time
#3: 5-Minute Peanut Butter Rocky Road Fudge
#4: Chocolate Dipped Cookies

Related Topics:

• Crazy for Cranberries!
• THE 12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS (FOOD GIFTS)

Holiday Food Gifts That Make Cents

Frugal Food Gifts

Even without a tight holiday budget, homemade food gifts are a great way to share the holiday spirit of giving. People usually welcome homemade food gifts because they are consumable (you don't have to worry about where to put it or how to return it). And people usually give you food items you don't normally make for yourself, be it an old family recipe for marinara sauce or a pan of homemade light wheat cinnamon rolls, light cran-raspberry sauce or a loaf of freshly baked pannetone bread.

If you get your ingredients on sale or at a member-style warehouse like Sam's Club or Costco, it will cost you even less per food gift. In the next four days, I'll post four easy but festive food gift ideas (complete with prices and photos) that you can give as hostess gifts or to friends and neighbors.

Here's the part where you save money!
The average cost of the food gifts I'll be posting is about $2 per gift (ranging from $1.25 to about $3). If the gifts you would normally bring to friends and neighbors cost about 15 dollars, you will spend about $20 for 10 homemade food gifts compared to about $150.

Every year I try to invent a few more food gifts - it's part of what I do for a living as a nutrition expert and writer. Of course I tend to focus on the healthful options. Over the years I've done:

• Homemade cinnamon rolls (always a favorite) with wheat dough and light in fat and sugar, but still delicious


• Cranberry walnut bread or pumpkin pecan bread (less sugar and fat and more fiber)


• Homemade pannetone bread


• I did designer fudge one year (inventing various different fudge recipes for people's specific favorite flavors)


• Remember those jars with layers of ingredients that end of being a batch of cookies or brownies? I've done that too!!

For 4 more food gift ideas, stay tuned for the next 4 days.

Frugal Food Gifts...The Series

Holiday Food Gifts That Make Cents
#1: Light Cran-Raspberry Sauce
#2: Tea Time
#3: 5-Minute Peanut Butter Rocky Road Fudge
#4: Chocolate Dipped Cookies

Related Topics:

• The Recipe Doctor's Top 12 Healthy Cooking Gadgets
• 13 Food Gifts NOT to Give

Taste Test Tuesday: Moist and Lean Grilled Chicken Strips at Fast Food!

If you have a craving for lean but moist grilled chicken and you happen to be cruising by a Jack in the Box, fear not! You can order grilled chicken strips (4 strips) from Jack in the Box and they actually taste terrific.

With this blog in mind, I bought an order of the grilled chicken strips, tasted one of the strips right away (YUM!), and then used the other 3 strips to make chicken Caesar pitas for my daughters' lunches the next day. Both daughters commented on how tasty and moist the chicken was.

Each order of 4 strips contains:

180 calories
37 grams protein
3 grams carbohydrate
2 grams fat (10% calories from fat)
.5 g saturated fat
125 mg cholesterol
700 mg sodium

It's nice to know there is now a healthier choice to items like crispy chicken strips or curly fries!

Related Topics:

• 21 Healthier Fast-Food Meals
• Top 11 Reasons for Fast Food's Popularity

Frugal Friday - Frequent Buyer Cards Pay Off

I've got those frequent buyer cards for everything from sandwiches and pretzels to coffee drinks and pizza. I'm here to say, "They do pay off!" As long as the card is for something you normally buy or do, like order pizza every Friday night, it will be worth keeping all those cards. They definitely bulk up and complicate the wallet situation though, so I've come up with a solution.

Use one of your coin type purses to keep all of your frequent buyer cards in one place. That way, when you are at that store, you'll know right where to go in your purse to get the card.

Last Christmas, I gave each of my sisters and mother one of these coin purses and explained that there was "method in my madness." After describing my "system" they have kept it up ever since. Go get those free sandwiches and pizzas and burritos! It's worth the little bit of trouble of keeping the cards with you.

Related Topics:

• Raising Baby on a Budget: Tips For Saving Money
• How to Eat Organic Foods on a Budget

Taste Test Tuesday: Hostess 100 Calorie Packs Cinnamon Streusel Coffee Cake

They are darn cute, I'll give you that! Each 100 calorie pack contains 3 mini cakes - emphasis on the word "mini." Each mini cake is worth 1 hefty bite or two petite bites each. The serving size (32 grams weight) does compare to one regular Hostess Crumb Coffee Cake (32 grams weight).

The Mini Cakes are lighter in calories (calories go from 130 to 100 calories less), fat grams (fat goes from 5 to 3 grams), saturated fat (saturated fat goes from 2 to .5 grams), and sugar (sugar goes from 10 to 7 grams).

Fiber is higher though in the mini cakes. Regular Crumb Coffee Cake has zero fiber whereas the mini cakes contribute 5 grams of fiber per serving of 3 mini cakes. The fiber appears to be coming mainly from these added ingredients:

• Cottonseed fiber


• Guar gum


• Cellulose gum

The first five ingredients are: enriched bleached wheat flour, sugar, polydextrose, water, egg whites

How did it taste? Pretty good. The texture was nice and moist but there was a subtle banana flavor that my daughter and I both detected. We happen to not like the taste of banana so that wasn't a pleasant surprise for us. I couldn't find anything in the ingredient list, except "natural flavors" that could possibly explain the mystery banana flavor.

Related Topics:

• The Smart Way to Snack
• Healthy vs. Junk Snacks: How We Choose