Summer's Best Frozen Desserts

By law, a "light" scoop must sport half the fat or one-third less calories than its full fat counterpart. But "light" is a relative term since regular ice creams start out all across the board when it comes to fat and calories. So we set parameters for the kind of frozen assets that make a "light" scoop skinny enough for a nightly summer treat. Taste testing included national brands (no local dairies) like Breyers, Edy's/Dreyer's, Haagen Daz, Ben & Jerry's, Healthy Choice, and Blue Bunny. In our book, taste and nutrition are both high priority, so not every brand made the final cut. Here are our top picks.

Best Light Vanilla: Breyers® Smooth & Dreamy™ ½ the Fat Creamy Vanilla Ice Cream
Artificial vanilla flavors and strange aftertastes are all too common with many light vanillas, particularly budget brands. But time and again Breyers® proves a taste winner with its authentic vanilla flavor. Light on calories and fat, it's the perfect skinny scoop to crown fresh baked brownies or summer's best cherry pie.
Frozen assets per ½ cup: 110 calories, 3.5g fat, 2g sat fat, 16g sugars

Best Light Chocolate: Edy's/Dreyer's® Slow Churned® Rich & Creamy Chocolate Ice Cream
Craving chocolate? Edy's/Dreyer's® slow churn technology takes smaller amounts of fat and disperses them evenly to deliver a creamy chocolate hit in every bite. At 100 calories a scoop, there's plenty of room to add toasted chopped nuts or stir in a few mini chocolate chips and create your own healthier mix-ins, all without breaking the fat and calorie bank.
Frozen assets per ½ cup: 100 calories, 3.5g fat, 2g sat fat, 13g sugars

Best Light Frozen Yogurt: Blue Bunny® All Natural Bordeaux Cherry Chocolate FroYo
Blue Bunny's® skinny all-natural blend of chocolate liquor, concentrated cherry juices, and cherry halves helps keep the lid on fat and calories while delivering healthy yogurt cultures. Also noteworthy: a short ingredient list minus all the freaky additives some light brands employ to keep scoops creamy. Look for the new 2-serving size Personals™ portion.
Frozen assets per ½ cup: 120 calories, 3g fat, 1.5g sat fat, 17g sugars

Best Sorbet: Whole Fruit® Mango Sorbet
This nifty tropical treat from Whole Fruit® hits your taste cylinders with an intense, but not too sweet, flavor. Close your eyes and it's almost like eating a fresh juicy mango complete with a quarter's day supply of vitamin A. Sugar numbers exceed our limit, but a big chunk of that is natural sugar since the main ingredient is mango puree. Runner up: Häagen Daz® Strawberry Sorbet.
Frozen assets per ½ cup: 150 calories, 0g fat, 0g sat fat, 36g sugars

Best Fat Free: Breyers® Smooth & Dreamy™ Fat Free Chocolate Fudge Brownie
When first introduced, Breyers® Slow Churn Fat Free Ice Creams fooled tasters at Consumer Reports who couldn't believe they were sampling something fat free. To our taste, this ice cream (and the little brownie bits) sport a chewier fudgsicle-like texture that might turn off a diehard ice-cream purist. One downside: the laundry list of gums and additives it takes to create this fancy little faux fat treat. For just 50 calories, serve your favorite scoop in one of these portion-controlled waffle bowls.
Frozen assets per ½ cup: 110 calories, 0g fat, 0g sat fat, 15g sugars

Best Premium Light: Ben & Jerry's® Half Baked® Fro Yo
McMansions of the ice cream world, premium scoops deliver more of everything—more fat, more calories, and more indulgent mix-ins. So trimming half the fat puts them on par with regular ice creams, not in our light scoop territory. This one from Ben & Jerry's® is almost an exception. Slashing 10 grams of fat from its popular "Half Baked" cookie dough flavor produces a slightly sweeter knock-off of the original. This is our pick for “worth-the-splurge” if premium, goodie-filled scoops are your thing. It's higher in calories and sugar than our benchmark, so go easy.
Frozen assets per ½ cup: 200 calories, 3g fat, 1.5g sat fat, 24g sugars

Best Regular Scoop That's Naturally Light: Breyers® All Natural Peach Ice Cream
Swirling chunks of sweet fresh peaches into a creamy regular ice cream is one way to capture some of the best flavors of summer. Turns out it also helps lighten the fat and calorie load just enough that this regular scoop from Breyers® easily meets our guidelines for light. All we can say is peachy keen.
Frozen assets per ½ cup: 120 calories, 4.5g fat, 3g sat fat, 16g sugars

Need a new summer snack?

Make Your Own Popsicles!

Instead of buying store brands packed with more sugar and high fructose corn syrup than fruit, I make my own using the freshest ingredients. They’re an easy and refreshing treat.

You will need:
A blender
8 ice pop molds (you can also use dixie cups and popsicle sticks)
Fine mesh strainer (if you’re using fresh fruit with seeds)

Possible flavor combinations:
Watermelon, lime juice, cilantro
Mango and orange juice
Strawberries and skim milk
Raspberry and lemon juice
Lemon juice and mint
Coconut milk and lime juice

Strawberry-Lemon Popsicles
Ingredients:
3 cups whole strawberries
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon honey
4 fluid ounces vodka (optional)

Directions:
Put strawberries, honey, lemon juice and vodka (if using) in blender; blend until smooth. Strain mixture through a sieve to remove seeds. Pour into molds, making sure to leave room at the top. Insert sticks all the way down into the mold. Freeze overnight. To remove pops from mold, run under warm water for a few seconds.
Serving Size: 1 popsicle
Nutrition: 26 calories, 0g fat, 6.5g carb, 1g fiber
From Healthy Eats Blog by Toby Amidor

Skinnygirl Sangria

Ingredients
8 peaches, pitted and sliced
4 white plums, pitted and sliced
1 pound green grapes, cut in half
3 bottles Prosecco (an Italian sparkling wine)
One 12-ounce can Fresca or diet lemon/lime soda
One 12-ounce can club soda

Directions
Combine all the ingredients and chill for at least 1 hour. Serve over ice.
From Bethenny Frankel

Under the Weather Peanut Butter Chocolate Cookies

Ingredients
1 3/4 cup oat flour
1/4 cup soy margarine room temperature
1-cup honey
1/2-cup no salt creamy natural peanut butter (room temperature)
3/4 cup chocolate chunks (I broke up chocolate bars, because that is what I have in the house)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp of salt

Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees
In large bowl, combine all ingredients and combine using a rubber spatula or wooden spoon
Thoroughly combine using an immersion blender or hand mixer
Line sheet pan w parchment to prevent sticking. Scoop w 3 oz ice cream scoop onto sheet pan
Bake for 20 minutes rotating halfway through
Cool and serve
*Makes 7 cookies
From Bethenny Frankel

Fruit Salsa

Ingredients
2 cups fruit (any mixture of mango, peach, pineapple or papaya)
1 red bell pepper, seeded, chopped
1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped
jalapeño, seeded, diced
3 green onions, diced
Juice from one lime

Directions
Chop any combination of fruit to equal approximately 2 cups.
Mix all ingredients together. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.
From recipetips.com

Cranberry-Carrot Muffin

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup pureed cooked carrots
Zest of 1 orange
1/2 cup leftover cranberry relish
2 tablespoons Demererra or granulated sugar, for sprinkling
Directions
Preheat the oven to 375degrees F. Line a 12-portion 1/2-cup muffin tin with paper liners.

In a large bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger together.

In a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or with a hand-held electric mixer in a large bowl, cream the butter on medium speed until lightened. With the speed on low, slowly add the sugar. Increase speed to medium high and beat until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating between each addition and scraping down the bowl as necessary with a rubber spatula. Add the carrot puree and orange zest and beat until well combined. With the mixer set on low, slowly add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined; do not overbeat. Remove the bowl from the mixer and with a rubber spatula, gently fold the cranberry relish into the batter until evenly distributed.

Evenly divide the batter among the lined muffin cups and sprinkle a little sugar over the top of each. Bake in the center of the oven until light golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 25-30 minutes.

Cool in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes. Remove muffins form the pan and transfer to a rack to cool completely. Serve warm or at room temperature.

From Wes Martin

Oatmeal Blueberry Applesauce Muffins

Ingredients
1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/4 cups oats
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup low-fat buttermilk
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 tbsp canola oil
1 large egg, lightly beaten
3/4 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen)

Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Line a 12 cup muffin tin with paper cases or spray with nonstick cooking spray. I simple greased and floured a muffin pan, saving the paper.
In a large bowl combine flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. In a medium bowl combine applesauce, buttermilk, sugar, oil and egg. Make a well in dry ingredients and add applesauce mixture. Stir until just moist. Fold in blueberries. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full.
Bake for 16-18 minutes.

From Joy the Baker

Zucchini Bread

Ingredients

Canola oil cooking spray
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 cup granulated sugar
4 tablespoons canola oil
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 large egg
1 large egg white
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 cup grated zucchini
1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Directions

Preheat oven to 350-degrees F. Spray a loaf pan with canola oil spray and set aside. In a large bowl whisk together flours, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg and set aside. Using an electric mixer, combine sugar and canola oil. Add applesauce, egg, egg white, vanilla extract, lemon juice and zest and mix on low speed until well combined. Slowly add flour mixture and mix until just combined. Using a spatula, fold in zucchini and walnuts. Transfer to prepared pan and bake until a cake tester comes out clean (about 45 minutes) . Cool in pan for 15 minutes. Remove from pan and transfer to a cooling rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Serving Size: 1 slice (recipe makes about 10 slices)

180 calories, 8g fat, 26g carb, 4g protein, 2g fiber

From Dana White Nutrition, Inc.

Chicken and Spinach Pasta Bake

Ingredients
8 ounces uncooked rigatoni
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup finely chopped onion (about 1 medium)
1 (10-oz.) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed
2 cups cubed cooked chicken breasts
1 (14.5-oz.) can Italian-style diced tomatoes
1 (8-oz.) container low fat or fat free chive-and-onion cream cheese
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 1/2 cups (6 oz.) low fat shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions
Prepare rigatoni according to package directions.
Meanwhile, spread oil on bottom of an 11- x 7-inch baking dish; add onion in a single layer.
Bake at 375° for 15 minutes or just until tender. Transfer onion to a large bowl, and set aside.
Drain chopped spinach well, pressing between layers of paper towels.
Stir rigatoni, spinach, chicken, and next 4 ingredients into onion in bowl. Spoon mixture into baking dish, and sprinkle evenly with shredded mozzarella cheese.
Bake, covered, at 375° for 30 minutes; uncover and bake 15 more minutes or until bubbly.

From Southern Living

Texas Hold-Ums Mini Chipotle Beef Burgers with Warm Fire Roasted Garlic Ketchup

Ingredients
2 pounds ground sirloin
1 medium onion, peeled and cut in 1/2
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce, eyeball it
2 chipotles in adobo and 2 tablespoons of adobo sauce
2 tablespoons grill seasoning, a couple of palm fulls, (recommended: Montreal Steak Seasoning by McCormick)
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, plus some for drizzling
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1/4 cup vinegar
1 (15-ounce) can crushed fire roasted tomatoes, about 2 cups
Salt and pepper
12 slices, 1/2-inch thick, brick-cut smoked Cheddar or sharp Cheddar, (recommended: Cabot), optional
12 small round rolls, split
(Many markets sell mini Keiser rolls or use dinner rolls in any flavor you like)

Directions
Preheat grill pan to high.

Place the meat in a bowl. Cut the onion in half. Grate half the onion into the meat using the small grate on a box grater. Chop and reserve the other half onion. Add Worcestershire, chipotles and sauce and grill seasoning to burgers. Drizzle a little extra-virgin olive oil over the bowl and mix meat. Score the meat into 4 sections. Make 3 mini-burgers, each 3 inches wide, 1-inch thick, from each half-pound of meat.

Heat a small sauce pot over medium heat. Add extra-virgin olive oil and garlic. Cook garlic 2 to 3 minutes then add sugar and vinegar, cook 2 minutes more and stir in tomatoes. Season sauce with salt and pepper and allow it to reduce 5 to 6 minutes more.

Grill meat 2 to 3 minutes on each side and top with cheese, if you like.

Place burgers on buns and top with raw chopped onions and warm fire roasted ketchup and serve. G8N84F5MBPKU

Recipe from Rachael Ray