Low fat/organic grilled cheese photo courtesy of GalaxyFoods.com

One of my all-time favorite foods is Grilled Cheese. Even though it’s warm, I especially love it in summer. I’ve found a great way to still enjoy grilled cheese and cut out most of the calories and fat! Here is how it breaks down:

Regular grilled cheese sandwich: (2 slices of American cheese, 2 slices of wheat bread, cooked with tablespoon of butter)

• Calories= 372
• Grams of fat=23.5

Low Fat Grilled Cheese (replace the regular American cheese with Galaxy Rice Cheese (american or cheddar) and use non-fat butter flavored cooking spray. You can find rice cheese in almost any supermarket these days. Just look in their vegetarian/organic section.

• Calories=210
• Grams of fat= 7

Just by making that simple switch, we saved 160 calories and 16.5 grams of fat in one meal! Imagine the calories and fat grams we could save at each meal by making simple changes.

Ingredients

Cooking spray

1/2 cup honey

1/2 cup natural creamy peanut butter

2 tablespoons maple syrup

1 tablespoon canola oil

1/4 cup light brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups rolled oats

2 cups crisp brown rice cereal

1/4 cup toasted wheat germ

1/2 cup chopped roasted peanuts

1/2 cup chopped dried apricots

1/2 cup chopped dried figs

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Directions

Spray a 9 by 13-inch baking dish with cooking spray and set aside.

In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine honey, peanut butter, maple syrup, canola oil, brown sugar, cinnamon. Stir and cook until mixture just begins to bubble, about 3 to 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla extract.

In a large bowl, combine oats, rice cereal, wheat germ, peanuts, apricots, figs and salt.

Pour peanut butter mixture over oatmeal mixture and stir gently with a spatula until well combined. Transfer to baking dish, cover with parchment paper and press firmly into dish. Allow to cool completely (will cool faster in the refrigerator). Cut into squares or bars.

Nutrition analysis per serving:

• Calories: 240
• Total fat: 10g
• Saturated fat: 1.5g
• Carbohydrate: 30g
• Protein: 6g
• Sodium: 70mg

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