Healthy Alternatives for Easter Baskets

Kim Bensen shows you how you can downsize the amount of calories of Easter baskets with healthier alternatives.

Kim Bensen: Did you know that 19 million tuckered Easter Bunnies are produced each year, and most of them go into these lovely baskets for our children. Now as a mom of four wonderful different kids, I'm the first one to love watching their pleasure as they got from one goodie to the next in their Eastern Baskets. But as a woman who has struggled for years with all basically, I also know that overdoing in the holidays can make our kids struggle with extra pounds, just like we do. But with a little knowledge and planning, lighting it up at Easter can be easy and painless, just watch. Here I have two Easter Baskets, both are stocked with the same number of items bought from the same store, but that's where the similarities end. By making a feasible substitutions, I've lightened the Basket-A by more than 3000 calories over the Basket-B, let me show you what I mean. Let's start with the main state of the Easter Basket, the Chocolate Bunny. Here is where label reading is so important. If you read the back from the bunny from basket-B it has a total of 920 calories, while the Basket-A bunny has like 380 calories. See what the difference it can make more than 500 calories, so don't be fooled, you've to read the labels. Another substitution I've made is just in my eggs, just from switching from a Peanut Butter filled egg to a Marshmallow filled egg of the same size, I've saved 80 calories and a lot of fat. And speaking of eggs, Cadbury bunnies are busy laying 30 million of their popular eggs every year. I've opted for an adorable clucking, Cadbury stuffed bunny with only one 150 calorie egg. Instead of that di- normal eight pack of eggs, and that's the savings of almost 1000 calories right there. And that brings me to portion size. Here is a great example. These bubble gum eggs are favorite with my eight year old Andrew. But the difference between the small milk carton container filled with these eggs and the smaller egg carton container saves me almost 300 calories. Packaging helps a lot, a bunny holding a small carrot, filled with the green jelly beans is only 70 calories versus a large carrot filled with 400 calories of these pieces. Both are cute, both take-up about the same amount of space in Easter Basket, but the small jelly beans are in obvious lighter pick. You get the idea; we're looking for more cute packaging less candy. More trinkets like tattoos, and chopsticks and silly putty, and don't forget the cold cash, and less candy. And don't forget spring is a perfect time to add in the action toys. I mean it's spring time after all, let's get the kids outside,. it's time to enjoy outside play and the Easter Basket can be a great place to start with the Jump Ropes and the Frisbees. So lastly when you're filling those plastic eggs, some of my lesser evil options I think like Button Candy and Smarties over the higher fat chocolate. Did you know, you have to walk the length of one football field to burn out the calories and just one little M&M, just a little food for thought. One of the best things you can do is to join the Easter Egg hunt with your kids. A 175 pound woman will burn almost 120 calories in just 30 minutes of Easter egg hiding or hunting. So, voila, a gift for Easter with a savings of more than 3000 calories per basket, from Basket-A to Basket-B and no one will ever know the difference. Stick around; I'll be right for today's special guest to help you to lighten up a favorite Easter treat. Female Speaker: You're watching Parents TV, email us at ideas@Parents.TV. Kim Bensen: Welcome Back, I have with me a very special guest today. She is not only beautiful and wonderful, but she is also the women that taught me how to cook. I want you all to meat my mom Mary Brea. Now mom and I, we love these Bird's nest Candies that come out every Easter. There is something special about Jelly Beans nestled in chocolate that just hits the spot, don't you think mom? Mary Brea: That's for sure, you love them. Kim Bensen: We do, but we love what they taste like but at 140 calories a pop, well, let's just say we don't like what happens after we eat them, right. Mary Brea: Right. Kim Bensen: So here is a great alternative for you. In a microwave safe bowl, we have put 5 1/2 ounces of Dark Chocolate, right. Mary Brea: Yeah. Kim Bensen: We microwaved it down with a teaspoon of Peanut Butter and you're going top add-- Mary Brea: I'm adding a Fiber One. Kim Bensen: Fiber One 1 1/2 cups, and mom's going to mix it all together until these cereals are really thoroughly coated, and that is basically the ease of our recipe, and once it's all done, we're going to take about three tablespoons of the mixture. Can I sneak in here. Oh, it looks so good. It's really good. Mary Brea: It's delicious. Kim Bensen: We made some last night, we had fun doing it. It's just going to take about three tablespoons, it kind of looks like it's falling apart, but once we put it into the refrigerator it's going to harden and this is the gooey, yummy part. Now if you just left it like that, that would be our Hay Stack Recipe. But since it is Easter we're going to kind of shape it, like little bird's nest, and then Jelly Belly was nice, they came out with sugar-free Jelly Beans. So we're going to pop a couple in the middle for our little eggs, look at that, it tastes really good. Mary Brea: Look your fingers Kimberly. Kim Bensen: Some things never change. So we're going to pop into refrigerator, then store in an air-tight container till you are ready to serve, they taste delicious and they're only about 80 calories and 5gms of fiber and they look just beautiful, don't think. Mary Brea: They certainly do. Kim Bensen: For more tips and recipes, you've take peek inside of my new book, Finally Thin, head to my website kimbensen.com. For Parents TV, I'm Kim Bensen and her mamma.