Pie! And Chai! Oh My!

    In my last post I showed you the Peppermint Patty Pie that we all enjoyed (it's in the Recipe file). This time I made the ice cream pie with a bag of Dove Sugar Free Peanut Butter Creme Silky Smooth Chocolates.

IT. WAS. AMAZING.!!

    I used a pre-made Chocolate Keebler Ready Crust,  4 cups of our store brand (Publix) premium Vanilla No Sugar Added Light Ice Cream, the bag of chocolates cut into quarters and a drizzle of Smucker's Sugar Free Sundae Syrup (about 4 Tbsp). Look at the bottom of the post for nutritional information.

     Last week I popped into a coffee shop to get a gift card for my son's stocking. Can I say it starts with a "D"? I spotted Vanilla Chai on the menu board. I haven't had one in years, so I got a medium to drink on the way home. It was as tasty as I remembered. Then I got home and checked the Nutritional Information on their website. And then I fell off my chair!!

It wasn't the 330 calories or even the 8g of fat. It was seeing that my little cup of happiness had

45g of SUGAR!!

The next day I tried to reproduce the drink at home. A cup of Chai tea with a splash of milk, one envelope of Splenda and one teaspoon of vanilla extract just wasn't the same. It finally dawned on me that the coffee shops have bottles of flavored syrups that are probably loaded with sugar.

You can make a sugar free syrup at home!

I searched the internet for you!

Sugar-Free Simple Syrup

1 Cup of Splenda

1 Cup of boiling water

1 tsp of vanilla extract

Keep it in a jar in the fridge for 5 days to flavor coffee and tea drinks.

Today I made a pot of tea with 16 oz of water, 2 Chai teabags, 1/4 cup of the Sugar Free Simple Syrup and a splash of Half-and-Half.

It was as satisfying as the High Calorie-High Fat-High Sugar cup of Happiness that I had last week.

You can get Chai teabags in grocery and specialty food stores. I have used Yogi Tea, Stash Tea and Tazo Tea. They are all good and I don't really have a favorite.

Nutritional Info for Peanut Butter Cup Pie: 1 serving= 1/8 of the pie

Calories: 262

Total fat: 12g

Total Carb: 39.5g

Total Sugar: 11g