WDM, IA - Treats without Calories? Yeah, Right

I made some bars today. I used to make bars or cookies or cake, whatever, every week. When one batch was gone, I’d whip up some more. Most of these treats had chocolate in them but we’re both equal opportunity sweets eaters so would eat anything that had sugar in it. Actually, Gary ate more than I did since he is the one who has weighed 125 his whole life and doesn’t seem to be fighting a weight problem. I’d feed him and get a vicarious joy out of watching him eat. Yeah, right.

However, some time back, Gary told me to stop making ’treats’ since he’d only eat them. Hel-l-l-o-o-o. Isn’t that the idea? So I stopped. However, I’ve been finding ways to cut down on the calories in them and still be able to enjoy them. I’ve been able to substitute Eggbeaters for real eggs, whipped margarine for butter and applesauce for canola oil. I used to cut the sugar in half but have now found that I can use Stevia or other no-calorie sweeteners and save all those calories. Isn’t this great?

Please note that I am still using real chocolate. When they come up with calorie-free chocolate chips, count me in.

Are my brownies or bars or cookies as good as those with real butter, real eggs, real sugar and/or real oil? Well, does it matter? At least, we can eat them and have less guilt than those real things. And, isn’t that the goal?

So, today, we’ll enjoy the new bars I’ve made. And, maybe I’ll make some more when these are gone.


On another topic, I paid my prescription insurance premium today and, because they have not yet processed the direct payment from my Social Security, I actually had to WRITE a check, FILL IN the stub and MAIL it out. I used to do this all the time with mortgage payments, car payments, dental payrments, etc. Now, I use Wells Fargo bill pay and never have to write a check at all. Luckily, I knew where we hid the checks. Now, if I could only find that stamp.