Tempt your tastebuds with a chocolaty cheesecake that’s easier on the waistline. A perfect sweet treat for Valentine’s Day, from our friends over at eatbetteramerica.

Prep Time:20 min
Start to Finish:2 hr 25 min
makes:12 servings

Cheesecakes
12 foil baking cups
12 thin chocolate wafer cookies (from 9-oz package), crushed (2/3 cup)
12 oz 1/3-less-fat cream cheese (Neufchâtel), softened
2/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/4 cup unsweetened baking cocoa
1 whole egg
1 egg white
1 oz bittersweet or semisweet baking chocolate, melted

Topping
1/3 cup fat-free hot fudge topping
Fresh raspberries, if desired

1. Heat oven to 325°F. Place foil baking cup in each of 12 regular-size muffin cups. With back of spoon, firmly press slightly less than 1 tablespoon cookie crumbs in bottom of each foil cup.
2. In large bowl, beat cream cheese with electric mixer on medium speed until creamy. Beat in sugar and vanilla until fluffy. Beat in cocoa. Beat in whole egg and egg white until well blended. Stir in melted chocolate. Divide cheese mixture evenly among crumb-lined foil cups.
3. Bake 28 to 32 minutes or until set. Cool in pan on cooling rack 15 minutes. Remove cheesecakes from pan; cool 15 minutes longer. Refrigerate about 1 hour or until chilled.
4. To serve, carefully remove foil baking cups. Spread fudge topping on cheesecakes. Garnish with raspberries. Store cheesecakes covered in refrigerator.

[Reprinted with permission]

Nutritional Information
1 Serving: Calories 200 (Calories from Fat 80); Total Fat 9g (Saturated Fat 5g, Trans Fat 0g); Cholesterol 40mg; Sodium 180mg; Total Carbohydrate 25g (Dietary Fiber 1g, Sugars 18g); Protein 4g Percent Daily Value*: Vitamin A 6%; Vitamin C 0%; Calcium 4%; Iron 4% Exchanges: 1 Starch; 1/2 Other Carbohydrate; 0 Vegetable; 2 Fat Carbohydrate Choices: 1 1/2
*Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.

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[Disclosure: I received a complimentary sample of this product. My policy is to only post giveaways about products I honestly like, or those I think FatFighterTV members would enjoy.]

What’s better than Weight Watchers® (WW) chocolate, lemon or carrot snack cakes? The New & Improved versions of them, of course!

The new WW crème-filled cakes are now moister with softer icing and come with a creamy filling. Each snack cake has fewer than 100 calories and a Weight Watchers Points® value of 1.

And guess what? As part of the Have Your Cake & Eat it Too! giveaway, WW is giving 3 FatFighterTV members a package with one box of each flavor of the new snack cakes – Lemon Crème, Carrot Crème and Chocolate Crème – plus a coupon to try another WW Sweet Baked Goods product.

To enter, just head down to the comments and tell me how your New Year’s resolutions are going so far. Are you hanging in there? My main resolution was to de-clutter our house, and I gotta admit – I’ve already fallen behind. *sigh* But I will get back on track. Promise.

See you in the comments!

Contest runs through midnight EST this Friday, January 22, you have to have a U.S. mailing address to enter, and we will use random.org to pick the winner.

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Congrats to FatFighterTV member – Daniel – for winning last week’s giveaway for the Weight Watchers stocking stuffers! And thanks, Weight Watchers!

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[Disclosure: I received a complimentary sample of this product. My policy is to only post giveaways about products I honestly like, or those I think FatFighterTV members would enjoy.]

While last week’s chocolate giveaway was fabulous, some of you were a little bummed that it was not edible. Well, this week, you can have your chocolate and eat it too!

A few weeks ago, Weight Watchers (WW) sent me some of their Pecan Crowns, which are so yummy! But like any other chocolate or sweets, you have to be careful not to eat too many or the calories will add up! Remember, these are a treat.

Depending on the flavor, one piece of Weight Watchers Chocolate Candies by Whitman’s has 45-54 calories, 2-3.5 fat grams, and most have just 1 WW POINTS value per piece. Check out all 11 flavors over here.

This week, Weight Watchers is giving one lucky FFTV member a Stocking Stuffer prize pack that has an assortment of WW chocolates PLUS vouchers for WW Sweet Baked Goods.

To enter for a chance to win, just tell me what you are doing to keep from gaining weight through all the temptations of the holiday season. Me – I’m trying to stick to my regular exercise routine and I eat a few nuts before parties so I don’t devour everything in sight!

See you in the comments!

Contest runs through midnight EST this Friday, December 11, you have to have a U.S. mailing address to enter, and we will use random.org to pick the winner.

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Congrats to FatFighterTV member – Monique Rizzo – for winning last week’s giveaway for the Chocolate Decadence Christmas Ornaments – enjoy! And thanks, Cherry Dot Sweet Treats!

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Mmmm… don’t those look good enough to eat?! But after all the Thanksgiving feasting, it’s a good thing they are not real, right? These adorable chocolate cupcakes are clay Christmas ornaments handmade by Michi over at Cherry Dot Sweet Treats.  She is so talented and turns all kinds of sinful eats into calorie-free miniature jewelry, magnets, key chains, and more!

I asked Michi why she makes all this yummy stuff. She’s half Japanese and tells FatFighterTV that she has always been obsessed with Japanese culture where everything is small and cute, but it’s not always practical.

“I have shelves filled with the most adorable trinkets in my house that no one gets to see,” Michi explains. “So I started making miniature food and desserts out of clay into jewelry. When translated into clay, these foods are mini, calorie-free, and last forever.”

Michi says she usually makes goodies based on things she enjoys eating. This week, she wants to share her delicious creations by giving one lucky FFTV member a set of three Chocolate Decadence Christmas Ornaments.

To enter for a chance to win, head over to Cherry Dot Sweet Treats, take a look around, then come back and tell me which item is your favorite.  I am totally loving the Chocolate Treat Charm Bracelet – guilt free!

See you in the comments!

Contest runs through midnight EST this Friday, December 4, you have to have a U.S. mailing address to enter, and we will use random.org to pick the winner.

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Okay all you nibblers – it’s time to test your snacking smarts. A few questions… When do most people snack? What are the most popular munchies? The ones hardest to resist? Consumer Reports’ ShopSmart magazine surveyed 1,000 women about their snacking habits. So grab a quick healthy bite and check out the results:

ShopSmart’s Snacking Survey

Snack Time!
3% snack before breakfast
43% eat something between breakfast and lunch
74% snack between lunch and dinner
45% grab a bite after dinner
25% nosh before bedtime
23% munch in the middle of the night

Why snack?
53% of women say snacking has kept them from gaining weight
24% say it has helped them with their diet

Portion Control
54% of women who snack buy portion-controlled treats
33% use plastic bags to control portion sizes

Problem Snacking
94% said they munch even when they are not hungry

Top snacks
Fruit
Chips/pretzels
Cereal/granola energy bars

Snacks we can’t resist
24% said chocolate
19% said chips and pretzels

I’m a big snacker myself, but I tend to stick to healthy bites. Some of my favorite munchies are carrots with hummus, whole wheat crackers with light cheese, protein smoothies, nuts, yogurt, popcorn, fruit – so many!

What are your snacking habits?

[Photo Credit: stock.xchng]

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You may be holding off on buying some items in this tough economy, but are there other things – maybe treats of sort – that you still buy for yourself? A new report shows some of the products flying off store shelves during this recession:

• Chocolate (Profits at Hershey Co. are up 20 percent)

• Wine, but people are buying cheaper vintages

• Vegetable seeds (Sales of seeds like green beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash and lettuce went up 30 percent)

• Spam, Dinty Moore stew, chili (Hormel Foods Corp. had a six percent increase in its grocery products unit)

• Macaroni and cheese (Kraft Foods Inc. had double-digit growth in macaroni and cheese dinners)

• Running shoes

• Bicycle helmets

Also, see:

Slow economy doesn’t stop sweet tooth

Are you eating comfort foods in these tough economic times?

Is the bad economy making us fat?

I’m definitely contributing to the up sales in chocolate, but I’m not buying more now than I usually do – I just always buy chocolate.

How about you? Anything on that list you’ve been buying more of during this recession? Anything off the list?

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Don’t these look divine? And can you believe they only have 54 calories each? I am practically drooling just from this picture of Devin Alexander’s Chocolate Chocolate Brownie Cups from her cookbook, The Most Decadent Diet EVER!

From Devin:

I showed up to my pitch meeting for this book with brownie batter on my jeans. I have had so much success with these brownies and another variety that I’ve been making for years that I rarely go anywhere without taking them. I truly believe that in the case of my cooking, tasting is believing.

They’re so moist and chocolaty, they often end up on me or even on my publicist’s cell phone as we scurry to wrap up pretty platters of them. But we don’t mind because they’ve landed me tons of TV spots and even made this book possible.

I hope you’ll enjoy baking them as much as I do and that you’ll consider creating your own platters of them to give to people you care about. They’re sure to love them and you’ll be doing them a huge favor by saving them tons of fat and calories.

Note that they freeze extremely well if you want to keep them on hand for your children’s after-school cravings or your midnight sweet tooth. With only 54 calories and less than 1 gram of fat each, you really can’t go wrong!

Ingredients:
Butter-flavored cooking spray
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
8 large egg whites
2 cups raw sugar
1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons instant espresso powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Thoroughly mist two 12-cup nonstick mini-muffin tins with spray.

Use a sturdy whisk or spatula to mix the applesauce, vanilla, egg whites, and sugar in a large mixing bowl until well combined. Add the flour, cocoa powder, espresso powder, baking powder, and salt. Stir until just combined and no lumps remain. Working in batches, fill each cup until just barely full. Sprinkle about one-fourth of the chips evenly over the brownies in each of the tins. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out dry (a few crumbs are okay).

Transfer the tins to a cooling rack and cool for 5 minutes. Use a butter knife to gently lift the brownies from the muffin tins (if they stick, carefully run the knife around the edge of each cup). Cool on the rack for another 10 minutes. Repeat with the second half of the batter and the remaining chips.

MAKES 48 BROWNIE CUPS; 24 SERVINGS
Each 1-Decadent-Disk serving (2 brownies) has: 109 calories, 2 g protein, 23 g carbohydrates, 1 g fat, <1 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, trace fiber, 139 mg sodium

You save: 151 calories, 11 g fat, 2 g saturated fat

Traditional serving: 260 calories, 3 g protein, 37 g carbohydrates, 12 g fat, 3 g saturated fat, 15 mg cholesterol, 1 g fiber, 165 mg sodium

[Reprinted with permission]

[Photo Credit: Lisa Cohen]

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