Today I’m a pretend baker. Well, I actually baked a pumpkin bread. But, it was from a box. OMG.  Not just any box though, a Trader Joe’s box. My husband was sucked in by their tasty demo. Those marketing geniuses.  Which lead to a box recipe show down.

They are out there these recipes in a box. Luring you, tempting you. Saying I’m super easy to make. I have all the ingredients in one place. The downside is how a unhealthy most of them are. The box won’t tell you that, I will .

So let’s compromise.

How do you make a boxed recipe less calorie dense, and healthier? It would be very difficult to sift through the flour and remove the sugar, and ahem, what would be the point? Let’s make it easy, very easy.

Substitute the oil for unsweetened applesauce. Done and Done. Saved a few hundred heart clogging calories there.

Next, reduce portion size. The directions on the box advised to use one loaf tin. To cut these huge portion sizes I split the dough into two tins. (Just cut the baking time to almost half). U can’t even tell the difference. Plus, you have a loaf to freeze when unexpected company shows up at your door.

And according to the test tasting husband who tasted the Trader Joe’s demo in it’s full form, and my “healthier” version- he says they taste the same.

All right then, now the take home lesson:

For most box recipes u can substitute some type of purée for oil. For example pumpkin purée for a brownie box, or some mashed bananas.

Apple recipe coming up Friday. I was going to post some I have seen over the past few days, but most had lots of sugar, or butter. So I will work on modifying some and test them out over the next few weeks. In the mean time check back Friday for a filling healthy apple recipe you can use as a main meal or side dish.