No more"don't imagine eating that" diets...

Most of you know I started a diet about 5 weeks ago. So far I've managed to lose about 10 pounds but have a long way to go!

One of the things that is so hard is dealing with the feeling that I have to give up some of the things I really like to eat. In the past whenever I tried dieting, I stopped baking desserts and making some of the foods I thought were "no-nos" for dieters.

Some of the other dishes my family enjoyed were from recipes my mother in law taught me how to make and without an accurate calorie count, well... they were banished from the list of edibles as well.

But this time around I've found some new fun tools to help make dieting not only fun but easier as well.

One of those Internet techie "toys" is a free recipe calculator - you just enter in all the ingredients from your favorite recipe and voila! You get an accurate calorie count along with other nutrition information. It's just like reading a label on a can in the grocery store.

Now I can take my mother in law's great blueberry cake and figure out the calorie count making it the way she always did or with a few lower calorie alternative ingredients like Splenda for the sugar, egg beaters or skim milk. It tasted just as good with the substitutions as the original recipe did so I thought I'd share it since Blueberries are in season.

Blueberry Cake

1 C. sugar (or Splenda)
3 T. Butter (I used Promise Margarine)
1 egg (or 1/2 C Egg Beaters)
2 C. flour
3/4 C milk ( skim milk works well)
2 tsp. Baking Powder
1/2 pint blueberries

Mix the wet and dry ingredients together, adding the blueberries last to prevent squashing them. Bake in a greased and floured 8" or 9" square cake pan. Bake at350 degrees for 30 minutes or until lightly browned on top.

Makes 20 pieces.

Calorie Counting just got a lot easier!!!!!


Nutrition Facts (Diet version)
Serving Size: 1 serving



Amount Per Serving


Calories 83.3

Total Fat 1.0 g

Saturated Fat 0.8 g

Polyunsaturated Fat 0.5 g

Monounsaturated Fat 0.2 g

Cholesterol 0.2 mg

Sodium 72.7 mg

Potassium 48.1 mg

Total Carbohydrate 17.2 g

Dietary Fiber 0.6 g

Sugars 5.0 g

Protein 2.0 g


Vitamin A 1.9 %

Vitamin B-12 0.7 %

Vitamin B-6 0.6 %

Vitamin C 2.3 %

Vitamin D 2.2 %

Vitamin E 2.9 %

Calcium 4.3 %

Copper 1.3 %

Folate 6.1 %

Iron 4.0 %

Magnesium 1.2 %

Manganese 5.7 %

Niacin 3.9 %

Pantothenic Acid 1.8 %

Phosphorus 3.8 %

Riboflavin 5.3 %

Selenium 7.6 %

Thiamin 7.3 %

Zinc 1.2 %



You can find several recipe calcualtors online at"

http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/ (the one I used)
Calorie-Count at www.About.com
http://www.fitwatch.com/
http://www.nutritiondata.com/
http://www.calorieking.com/

There are probably more - these are just a few to get you started.