HG Healthy Makeovers: Breakfast Bowls

Is it a bad thing that I laid awake for part of the night last night, thinking of doing this blog post? Probably. I've had the day from heck and cooking is the last thing I want to do right now, so I am abandoning my healthy eating for one evening to indulge in some awesome pizza from I Love NY Pizza (fattening, but no artificial stuff!). But...that won't stop me from doing some more healthy HG makeovers!

Our next chapter in the "300 Under 300" is "Breakfast Bowls". I'm going to tackle these a little differently than the egg mugs because there are alot of repeat ingredients in these bowls. Instead of going down the list and talking about the ingredient swaps in each dish, I'm going to pick out the unhealthy culprits and list which recipes they're in. Ready? Let's go!

Our first offender is: Fat-Free Reddi-Whip! Yes, they advertise that they're better than Cool Whip because cream is the first ingredient on the list. Be that as it may, when you add nasty things like corn syrup, artificial flavor, and nitrous oxide (!!!), it's still a pretty unhealthy concoction. What's the alternative? Buy a small carton of light cream and whip up your own fluffy topping! Most of the recipes that call for it involve a 10-15 minute cooking time so use that time to exercise those upper body muscles...it's a win-win scenario! Healther food and a fit bod! What recipes is it in? Banana Split Growing Oatmeal, Major Mocha Cappucino Oatmeal, Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal Parfait (optional)

Next up, we have...Sugar-Free Pancake Syrup! As I said in yesterday's post, these are made up mainly of some form of chemical artificial sweetener, artificial flavorings and colorings..just alot of stuff you don't need to put in your body. What's the alternative? The real deal, baby! Yes, real maple syrup costs more than Aunt Jemima, but the flavor is stronger, so you won't have to use as much. It also doesn't get that weird, chemically aftertaste when you cook with it like artificially-sweetened syrup does. Where is it used? Apple Pie Oatmeal Bonanza, Breakfast Bread Pudding Bowl

Next on the agenda...Fat-Free Non-Dairy Powdered Creamer! I don't know about you, but "non-dairy creamer" seems like a contradiction in terms to me. And have you read the ingredients list?! It's like a Who's Who of every bad thing there is: corn syrup solids (or glucose syrup), hydrogenated oils, artificial flavors, and various other chemicals. Yuck! There's definitely no cream in this creamer. What else can I use? Powdered skim milk or soy-based powdered creamer. But of course, be careful about using soy too often because excessive use of non-fermented soy products have been liked to various health issues. Which recipes is it in? Apple Pie Oatmeal Bonanza, Large & In Charge Neapolitan Oatmeal, Major Mocha Cappucino Oatmeal

This guy is a definite repeat offender who we're hoping to rehabilitate right now: No-Calorie Sweetener (a.k.a. Splenda)! Lemme tell you, this fellow gets around, he's in half the recipes in this chapter. He acts innocent, but is slowly being revealed for the real health criminal he truly is! (Thankfully his cousins Aspartame, a.k.a Equal, and Saccharine, a.k.a. Sweet'n'Low, are already on their way out the door) What's better? Stevia is the all-natural way to go if you're looking to save calories and carbs. If those aren't a concern, then good old-fashioned sugar or honey always does the trick. And, in most of these recipes, you're using such a small amount, it won't make that much of a difference anyway.Where is it hiding? Well, it's not hiding, it's all over the place. It might be easier to ask which recipes it isn't in! But here's his current safehouses (which won't be safe after we get done with them!): Apple Pie Oatmeal Bonanza, Large & In Charge Neapolitan Oatmeal, Major Mocha Cappucino Oatmeal, Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal Parfait, Cinn-A-Nilla Apple Oatmeal Parfait, Super-Sized Berry-Nana Oatmeal Parfait, Breakfast Rice Pudding, PB&J Oatmeal Heaven

We've listed the hard-core felons thusfar, now we're onto the misdemeanors: ingredients that aren't that bad, but have the potential to be a bit naughty if we're not careful.

• Semi-sweet chocolate chips: About the worst thing I've found in these so far is artificial colors/flavors (it's amazing how many websites don't list ingredients). Like all chocolate, you get what you pay for. If you don't want to buy an entire bag of chips, an alternative would be to buy a good organic/fair-trade chocolate bar (like Green & Black's or Dagoba) and grate however much you need (and you could eat the rest as a special treat to yourself!). Another advantage is that you can experiment with fun and unusual flavors like lavender blueberry or Maya Gold.
• Sugar-free preserves: Stay away from any that are sweetened artificially and go for the 100% fruit brands like Polaner.
• Hot cocoa mix: Most of the name brands are diabolical concoctions of corn syrup (or Splenda), hydrogenated oils, artificial colors and/or flavors...with cocoa not at (or sometimes even near) the top of the list. This also follows along the chocolate rule of getting what you pay for. All-natural cocoa mixes aren't very mainstream yet, so might be hard to find and/or expensive. Starbucks has a cocoa mix that might be all-natural (I can't find an ingredient list, but they are listed when I do a search for "all-natural cocoa mix"). Another alternative is to make your own...but again, you have to keep an eye out because many recipes use non-dairy creamer (and we've already gone over why those are ever-so-bad). Here's an awesome recipe by Alton Brown. 
• Sugar-free vanilla pudding: Another hiding place for our "friend", Splenda. Avoid the sugar-free variety and instead opt for an all-natural alternative like Kozy Shack's CowRageous! pudding. It still has only 100 calories and 0.5g of fat.
• Low-Fat Honey Graham Crackers: They sneak hydrogenated oils and artificial flavoring into these. Use with caution. I don't know of alternatives off the top of my head, if anyone knows of any, let me know. You could use Teddy Grahams...they still have the hydrogenated oils, but omit the artificial flavoring.
• Peanut Butter Baking Chips: Also loaded with hydrogenated oils and artificial flavors. Just add a small dollop of all-natural peanut butter instead.

And that's it for this installment. Now that we've taken a look over the line-up of food criminals, hopefully you'll be better-armed to fight them and their evil, unhealthy ways! :)