As a first post, I thought I’d start out with a super simple “recipe” for a low calorie, semi low carb dessert. Have you ever purchased a container of ice cream with the intention of eating a reasonable portion for dessert, only to jam pack a bowl with a mountain of the stuff? This quick and easy combination of ingredients will yield you with 1 pound of delicious fat free, zero sugar vanilla yogurt. This is also a great alternative to regular vanilla yogurt which is jam packed with extra sugar.

The secret is buying nonfat plain (yes the bland unsweetened stuff) yogurt and adding Splenda brand sweetener and vanilla extract to it. The end result tastes exactly like your traditional vanilla yogurt, but contains close to half the calories and carbs. Also, despite the health benefits that greek yogurt provides, most varieties contain a good portion of fat and also have loads of added sugar. If you’re trying to lose weight, it’s best to avoid the greek yogurt for now and try some of this stuff.

You will need:

32 oz Plain Nonfat Yogurt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons Granulated Splenda

Mix the vanilla and Splenda into the yogurt and stir thoroughly.

The finished product contains 110 calories and 17 grams of carbohydrates per 1 cup serving, vs 200 calories and 33 grams of carbohydrates per 1 cup serving found in Dannon vanilla yogurt.

If you were feeling particularly ravenous for sweets, you could scarf down the entire 32 oz. tub and only have eaten 440 calories and no fat. When you compare that to eating a whole pint (16 oz.) of Ben & Jerry’s which has 1160 calories and 68 grams of fat, it’s not so bad.