Healthy Baked Apples

okay, so I'm always looking for a good dessert that won't take out all my calories for the day! I have found that calorie counting is the most effective method of dieting for me. I keep a nice little white board on the fridge (from the $1 section at Target) and I write down every single calorie on the board as I eat it. So as I sat around craving sweets this afternoon I decided to make baked apples since I had only consumed about 350 calories so far. What prompted the baked apples idea? Well, I was reading Charlaine Harris...surprise surprise...and in her book From Dead to Worse the main character was baking apples, which just made me want some. So today I baked apples. To make the recipe 200 calories or under here is what I did:

1 apple
1tsp. white sugar
1tsp brown sugar
1 Tbsp. heath bar pieces
dash of cinnamon

Core out middle of apple with paring knife, and scoop out the seeds with small spoon if needed. Do not cut all the way through your apple, you want to leave the bottom of the apple intact, just get the seeds and main core out. Once you have your apple mostly cored and all seeds removed pour both sugars into apple. Next, press heath bar pieces into center of apple and sprinkle the top with a bit of cinnamon.( I also added about a tsp of water on top of the heath bar pieces so it would not get dried out. ) Wrap apple tightly in foil and bake at 350^ for 35-40 minutes. Carefully remove apple from foil and let cool for a minute or two before digging in! Apple should be so soft it is falling apart, and save the juices from the foil to pour over your apple ...yum!

To make this recipe even less calories you can add only the brown sugar, or omit the heath bar pieces (1tbsp of heath pieces is 80 calories). You may also wish to stuff the apple with raisins or dried cranberries instead of heath bar pieces.