Holiday Portions

Portion control, that’s what so much of calorie counting is all about. During the next three months, the challenge for many of us will be to keep our portions under control, especially when it comes to those luscious cakes and pies that we or others will be baking and bringing to parties and family gatherings. That’s why I like cupcakes and cookies. When it comes to cutting slices of cake or pie, or even scooping out servings of cobblers and crisps, our eyes are sometimes bigger than our stomachs, as my parents used to say. Of course, it’s not that we can’t eat that much, it’s that we shouldn’t. While a typical layer cake is intended to be sliced into about 12 servings, sometimes we end up cutting larger slices and getting only about 8 or 10 out of it.

If you’ve decided to bake a cake for an upcoming Halloween party, why not make cupcakes instead? The same amount of batter for a 2 layer cake will make 24 cupcakes. Since cupcakes aren’t filled and iced like a layer cake, you save calories on frosting as well. They’re also a lot of fun to decorate, are easier for children to handle, and they can be frozen for later if you have any left and don’t want all of them sitting around. The Betty Crocker website, http://www.bettycrocker.com/ has Halloween ideas for cupcakes along with the nutrition information for their recipes.


Cookies are also great for keeping portions under control as long as you don’t eat more than a recommended serving amount, usually 1 or 2, and make them all about the same size. This is also wise for getting evenly baked cookies. So if you have a recipe that says you’re supposed to get 24 cookies out of it, try to make sure you do. As you portion out the dough to get that recommended amount, you may also see a much smaller cookie than you had expected. That’s OK. You’ll at least know what to expect from that recipe next time and you’ll know exactly how many calories you’re getting every time you take a bite! Hey, holidays are meant to be enjoyed and food is part of that. But you don't want to associate them with over-indulgence and end up dreading them each year.

A Word About Eating Out

Bowing to outside pressure as there is more concern about America's growing girth, many more restaurant chains these days are starting to include healthier choices on their menus. It's a welcome change, but don't assume that just because an item is listed as "healthy" or "smart," it's going to be lower in calories. For example, a recent check of the popular baked goods chain, Dunkin' Donuts, shows they have a line of items dubbed "DDSmart." These are items that are billed as "Better For You Choices That Keep You Running." That may well be, but take it upon yourself to do a little investigation.

Listed under their bakery items, Dunkin' Donuts has a Reduced Fat Blueberry Muffin. That sounds good. But the muffin is listed at 400 calories, 45 of those from fat. Right below the muffin is listed a Cheese Danish. I would think it would be much higher in calories but instead, it's only 340. However, it gets 200 of those calories from fat. Certainly the muffin would be considered healthier because it contains less fat, but note that it is higher in calories. Listed under bagels, the "DDSmart" item is the Multigrain Bagel at 380 calories, 50 of those are from fat. Multi grains are great, but the Plain Bagel listed contains 320 calories, 25 of those from fat.

This is why it's important to actually have the nutrition information on items and not simply rely on those little menu logos that mark items as healthy or low fat or heart healthy. And for those restaurant chains that don't bother to give nutrition information, you can't assume you can just look at something and tell, or assume that since similar items you might eat at home aren't that high in calories, the ones in the restaurant chains aren't going to be either. Be responsible for what's important to you. If you need to eat low fat, fine. But if you're assuming things that are listed as low fat are also low calorie, think again.

Calorie Counting Cookbook

I'm always on the lookout for new cookbooks. I have quite a number lining my kitchen shelves, cabinets, drawers, you get the idea. But my favorites have two things in common, colorful photographs of the recipes, (how am I supposed to know what I've fixed looks the way it's supposed to if there are no pictures?), and the nutrition information.

A new cookbook written by Duncanville, TX cooking teacher, Karel Anne Tieszen, has both. It's called "In Your Own Kitchen" and it's her first venture into writing down what she's been doing in the form of her adult cooking classes for years. On her website, it states that the classes "emphasize realistic food preparation for 'regular' people..." And that appears to be the approach of her cookbook, too.

She came up with the more than 150 recipes for the cookbook after years of seeing which ones her students favored. In an interview with The Dallas Morning News, Tieszen said, "If you know the reality of what the calorie count is going to be, you know how to accommodate it into your day." Amen to that! It's nice when a cookbook author realizes the importance and benefit of providing it for you. The cookbook is offered through Amazon but is currently sold out and there's a waiting list. It can, however, still be purchased directly from Tieszen's website, http://www.kitchen-friends.com/

Another bit of good news: On a quick shopping stop at a Super Target yesterday, I was encouraged to see that many of their packaged baked goods, the ones from their own bakery, now include nutrition labels complete with calorie count! In the past, I was tempted to buy some of their specialty breads but resisted since I had no idea how to figure them into my day. Another store I like to frequent, Texas-based Central Market, has a large heavenly aromatic bread-baking section which I still avoid for that same reason. As people become more mindful of their calorie intake, hopefully, such stores will eventually 'get' how important that factor is to many of their customers.

Use Cookbooks With Easy Ingredients & Nutrition Info:

I haven't found a great number of them, but there are cookbooks that include nutrition information with every recipe. Some Better Homes and Gardens, as well as The Eating Well cookbooks have them. They are worth seeking out. Also a number of websites like Allrecipes.com and Bettycrocker.com include nutrition information with most of there recipes.

When you see how many calories are in a serving and how many servings that item is supposed to yield, it helps you maintain portion control and helps you make better food choices. A 'cost', for example, of 150 calories per brownie might sound acceptable, until you see the cookbook writers are counting on your getting 16 brownies out of an 8x8 sized pan. If you cut the brownies so that there are only 9 portions, count on each brownie now 'costing' you 267 calories!

Always look at the amount of servings you're supposed to get in a recipe. I've seen some well-known so-called 'lite' calorie magazines that, when reading the small printed nutrition info at the end of the recipe, have simply cut a two-layer cake into 18 servings instead of the typical 12. Anybody can reduce the calories in a slice of cake by cutting it smaller!

And one more thing, don't forget to adjust the recipe's calorie count if you change ingredients. Using real butter instead of margarine is going to add more calories, while substituting oil with applesauce will 'lighten' any recipe.