5-Minute Chocolate Mug Cake Makeover

Who doesn't love the idea of mixing up chocolate cake batter in a coffee mug and then cooking it in the microwave for a warm chocolaty treat? A recipe for "5 Minute Chocolate Mug Cake" is making the rounds on the Internet... so much so that a few different people emailed me the recipe so that I could give it a makeover.

I tried out a lighter, higher fiber version of this cake and it was definitely moist and flavorful. My teenage daughters gave it a taste too and gave it the thumbs up. I used all whole-wheat flour instead of white flour and reduced the sugar by 25%. Instead of 3 tablespoons of oil I used 1 tablespoon of canola oil and 2 tablespoons of fat free sour cream.

Making these changes made quite a difference in the nutritional content. Check this out:

• Calories went DOWN from 415 to 240
• Fat grams went DOWN from 25 to 8 grams
• Saturated fat went DOWN from 2.8 to .7 grams
• Cholesterol went DOWN from 113 to 2.5 milligrams
• Fiber went UP from 1.4 to 3 grams

Here's the new and improved version of this recipe!

5 Minute Chocolate Mug Cake

Photo: Elaine Magee

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons whole-wheat flour
3 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
1/4 cup egg substitute (with yolk) or 1 egg
3 tablespoons lowfat milk or fat free half and half
1 tablespoon canola oil
2 tablespoons fat free sour cream
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons semi sweet chocolate chips (optional)
light vanilla bean ice cream (optional)
sliced strawberries or other fresh fruit (optional)

Preparation:

1. In microwave-safe coffee mug, combine whole-wheat flour, sugar, and cocoa.
2. Pour egg substitute or egg, lowfat milk, canola oil, sour cream and vanilla into the mug with dry ingredients and mix well with fork.
3. Stir chocolate chips into the cake batter in mug, if desired. Place mug in center of microwave (preferably one that has a turn table) and cook on HIGH for 3 minutes. The cake will rise about an inch or so above the top of the mug (don't worry it won't drip down the sides of the mug).
4. Let cake cool in mug for a few minutes then turn mug upside down over a serving bowl (the cake should slide out fairly easily).
5. Cut cake in half for a smaller sized serving and top with a small scoop of light vanilla bean ice cream and sliced strawberries (or other fresh fruit).

Serving Suggestion: Serve with a scoop of light vanilla ice cream and some fresh fruit like sliced strawberries or raspberries.

Yield: Makes 2 servings

Nutritional Information:
Per serving (if two per recipe): 240 calories, 7 g protein, 35 g carbohydrate, 8 g fat, .7 g saturated fat, 2 mg cholesterol, 3 g fiber, 115 mg sodium. Calories from fats: 30 percent.

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• Healthy Fruit Dessert Recipes
• Healthy Cooking with Elaine Magee, RD
• Healthy Cooking Newsletter - recipes, kitchen and shopping advice in your inbox

Taste Test Tuesday: Green Pudding!

JELL-O Sugar Free Fat Free Pistachio Pudding

Calling all pistachio lovers with a sweet tooth! For 70 calories and about 7 grams of sugar (from the lowfat milk not the pudding mix), you can have a serving of pistachio pudding.

Let's face it, it's a pudding flavor that you might not normally try... it's green for heaven's sake! But you might want to give it a go sometime - maybe even for St. Patrick's Day? It's an instant sugar-free and fat-free pudding mix by JELL-O sweetened with aspartame (NutraSweet) and acesulfame potassium. You would want to avoid this product if you have a sensitivity to either of these alternative sweeteners.

You can dial-in whatever milk you like or have at home (nonfat, 1% or 2%); they all work well.

Each 1/2-cup serving contains (if made with fat free milk):

70 calories
0 grams fat
0 grams saturated fat
7 grams sugar (lactose from milk)
0 g fiber
13 g carbohydrate
6 grams protein
390 mg sodium
15% Daily Value for calcium!

If you try it, please share your review here.

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• Sugar Shockers: Foods Surprisingly High in Sugar
• Healthy Cooking with Elaine Magee, RD
• Healthy Cooking Newsletter - recipes, kitchen and shopping advice in your inbox

Chocolate Chip Paradise Pie Not a Slice of Heaven

A Popular Restaurant Dessert You'd Better Order With 6 Forks!

Oh... I know how tempting Chili's Chocolate Chip Paradise Pie looks on the menu. On a recent trip to Chili's, my family and I witnessed quite a few of these tasty treats passing by our table (we were seated near the dessert fixing station apparently). A moist and chewy chocolate-chip cookie bar packed with walnuts and coconut is topped with rich vanilla ice cream, which is drizzled with hot fudge and caramel.

Had I known that each of these a la mode desserts represented a whopping 1,590 calories...I might have followed each of those desserts being delivered to their prospective tables and issued the warning, "You might want to share the dessert with everyone at your table (and maybe the next table over, too). "

Think about it - even if you order the dessert and 4 spoons to share with 3 other family members or friends at your table, we are still talking about 398 calories just for dessert! The entire dessert also contributes 37 grams of saturated fat - imagine that! That's the same amount of saturated fat in two Double Quarter Pounders with Cheese from McDonalds (there are 19 grams of saturated fat in each Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese).

This dessert was featured in the "Food Porn" section of the January/February issue of the Nutrition Action Healthletter, published by the nonprofit nutrition watchdog group, the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

Related Topics:

• WebMD Slideshow: Healthy Eating at Restaurants
• Healthy Fruit Dessert Recipes
• Healthy recipes delivered to your inbox every week!