When you visit Costco, there are usually people giving out samples of the items of they sell. Sometimes they are awesome, sometimes not so great..
Today I found something awesome.
Smooze!
This is going to be the perfect summer treat for me. It is basically coconut milk and fruit juice frozen. Under 70 calories per serve and you only need one. With some of the fruits (seasonal fruit for example) being rated at 76 calories, this is a great one to swap.
A pack of 35 Smooze was $14.69 at Costco which works out at 41 cents each. I saw them today in Woolworths for $4.99 for a pack of 10 which is not quite as good value but still worthwhile.
On the slightly more high calorie dessert front – going in order of low to high calories – the good thing about both of the options I am about to mention – you can eat half and then put the lid back on and back into the freezer for another day.
Gelativo Frozen Yoghurt
Tangy, zingy, good for you and your internals.. this is a decent option. More about Gelativo
I forget how much these cost me unfortunately – got them from Woolworths a few weeks ago to try and still have not got around to eating them though I have tried a spoonful from each to get an idea what they taste like. Honey = 138cal Strawberry = 132cal there are other flavours as well.
Tartufo
Found this one at Costco as well – there are 9 of them in the packet, it was really good value at just over $13 for the box, and hello, made in *Italy* the home of gelato.
Quite high at 201 calories and extremely rich, this will be a once a fortnight kind of treat I think.
Costco was quite an expensive trip this time – The Other Half got himself a tent which was incredible value and I found a lot of things there which fit in with substitutions. EG a big pack of 4 different kinds of the same kind of wafer crackers you get on Lite N Easy for $6.69. They were sampling these with tuna which had been mixed with tabasco sauce – awesome stuff and something I have already replicated here at home.
Substitution
JM mentioned it here in this blog post – Substitutions, Weight Loss & Lite N Easy – substitutions are not cheating. It is a perfectly ok thing to do and in some cases is quite necessary – eg food allergies.
Unfortunately Lite N Easy do not cater for people who have food allergies. I’m lucky because the two things I have unpleasant reactions to if I have too much of them – tomato and chili – can easily be swapped out.
There isn’t much chili in anything I have eaten so far and when they gave me sweet chili sauce I just went without the sauce.
There is a lot of tomato included in the diet but this is easily swapped out – so far I have swapped it for avocado, pineapple, tuna and beans. The chooks get to eat the leftover tomatoes. They are a huge fan of this!
I’m still looking for gluten free options – I bought a bread mix to make gluten free bread today which I will try this week. The gluten free bread which you can buy in the supermarket is *so* expensive. :(
There are some fruits missing from Lite N Easy which I miss – strawberries, bananas, mango.. I am always happy swapping a fruit for a different fruit. I also miss mushrooms a lot. I would like to add more mushrooms in – I guess they can be swapped for tomatoes too!
I had a tomato overload the first week. Haha. I have no problems with them, but I’m having more cereal this week to get a little break.
Substitutions are the name of the game, I reckon. If it’s still healthy with a similar amount of calories, then you’re good to go. And we all need treats sometimes, too. I have to do some looking around to see where I can fit in a little treat here and there. I miss strawberries, too…
Imagine if you had the executive membership over there…2% back on your purchases ;)
Gelativo looks delicious! I love strawberries and frozen yoghurt!