Tested Low-Calorie Recipe: Skinny Puppy Chow

A couple Christmases ago, I made the classic Chex Mix Puppy Chow for my family and they loved it. I hadn't had it since I was in elementary school so it was a fun bit of nostalgia. I came across a recipe for the low-calorie version and couldn't resist giving it a try. Plus, it had almond bark which we have a lot of because of past cake pop adventures!

The original recipe is here: http://watchmedo.tumblr.com/post/12293923098/sweet-things-are-my-weakness-and-i-love-puppy.

Now I don't know why, but when I put the original recipe into the calculator on MyFitnessPal, it comes out to 218 calories per cup, not 100 calories per cup as advertised. I even bought the light "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter." Not sure what I did wrong. It's still a good recipe, and a half-cup serving is much more reasonable anyway, so here is a revised and tested recipe for 103 calories per half-cup. I changed the recipe to reduce the butter because it was way too buttery the first time.

Low Cal So Cal's Skinny Puppy Chow

INGREDIENTS:

1 box Jell-O Sugar Free-Fat Free Instant Vanilla Pudding
2 cups Fiber One - 80 Calories Honey Squares Cereal
2 tbsp Jif - All Natural Peanut Butter (Creamy)
1 cube Gurleys - Vanilla Almond Bark
3 tbsp I Can't Believe It's Not Butter! (Light)

DIRECTIONS:

1. In a large microwaveable mixing bowl, put the butter, almond bark, and peanut butter together, no mixing required.

2. Set your microwave on melt and set for about 6 minutes. If your microwave doesn't have a melt setting, microwave for about 1 minute increments and stir in between until it is completely melted (as it gets closer to being completely melted you may want to do 30 second increments to avoid burning the chocolate).

3. Remove bowl from the microwave and stir until the chocolate and butter is completely dissolved.

4. Add 2 cups of the Fiber One Honey Squares to the bowl. Stir gently until the cereal is evenly coated. Let the mixture cool for 20 minutes.

5. After the mixture has somewhat solidified, pour the mix into a large zip lock bag. Then pour in the box of pudding mix. Close the zip lock bag and shake gently until coated.

6. Scoop out half-cup portions into snack size zip lock bags. Bon appetit!

NUTRITION INFO (per 1/2 cup serving, recipe makes 3.5-4 cups):

Calories: 109
Carbs: 12 g
Fat: 6 g
Protein: 1 g

What's your favorite way to use almond bark?