One thing that many people seem to have a hard time with when it comes to dieting is desserts, more and more people end up cheating on their diets because they simply carve some kind of a dessert and in some cases the desserts are not approved for the diet. But the good news is that there are plenty of low calorie desserts out there that are easy to make, not to mention you can make your favorite desserts by simply substituting the higher calorie ingredients for some of the same lower calorie ingredients.

Here is a list of commonly called for foods, their calories and fat grams, and what you can substitute them with.

• Heavy Cream - 410 calories, 45 grams of fat; Evaporated Skimmed Milk ½ cup - 100 calories, 0 grams of fat
• Cream cheese 1 ounce - 100 calories, 10 grams of fat; Lite cream cheese 1 ounce - 60 calories, 5 grams of fat
• 4% fat cottage cheese 1 cup - 217 calories, 9.5 grams of fat; 1% fat cottage cheese ½ cup - 90 calories, 1 gram of fat
• Whole milk 1 cup - 150 calories, 8 grams of fat; Skim Milk 1 cup - 86 calories, .4 grams of fat
• Whole egg - 75 calories, 5 grams of fat; egg white - 17 calories, 0 grams of fat
• Fudge Topping 2 tablespoons - 130 calories, 6 grams of fat; Chocolate Syrup 2 tablespoons - 103 calories, .4 grams of fat
• Unsweetened Baking Chocolate 1 ounce - 140 calories, 15 grams of fat; Unsweetened Cocoa Powder - 80 calories, 5 grams of fat

Here are some recipes for low calorie desserts.

Marble Angel Food Cake

• Makes 12 servings
• Prep time: 50 minutes
• Bake time: 40 minutes
• Cool: 2 hours

Ingredients

• 1 ½ cups egg whites (10 to 12 large eggs)
• 1 ½ cups sifted powdered sugar
• 1 cup sifted cake flour or sifted all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 ½ teaspoons cream of tartar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 recipe Chocolate Powder Sugar Icing (optional with recipe to follow)
• Sweetened whipped cream (optional)
• Fresh fruit (optional)

Directions:

• In an extra large mixing bowl place put in the egg whites and allow them to stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. While they are standing sift the powdered sugar and flour together into another mixing bowl 3 times.
• In another mixing bowl measure 1 cup of the flour mixture and sift together with the cocoa powder. Place all of the mixtures to one side.
• Add cream of tartar and vanilla to the egg whites. Beat the mixture with an electric mixer on medium speed until soft peaks (tips curl). Then slowly add the granulated sugar, about 2 tablespoons at a stime, and continue mixing until stiff peaks form (tips stand straight).
• Place one-third of this mixture into another bowl and set aside.
• Over the larger portion of the beaten egg whites sift about one-fourth of the plain flour mixture and gently fold in. Continue folding in the rest of the plain flour mixture, using one-fourth of the mixture at a time.
• Sift the flour-cocoa mixture, one-third of the mixture at atime, over the smaller portion of the beaten egg whites, using the same folding procedure as above.
• Spoon one-third of the white batter evenly in an ungreased 10 inch tube pan. Then spoon half of the chocolate batter over white batter in pan. Repeat this process until all the batter is gone; make sure you top with white batter.
• Marble the batter. To marble the batter you are going to need to use a folding motion. To accomplish this simply bring a narrow spatula down through the batter and up the other side. Make sure that you go completely around the pan, turning the pan as you fold.
• Bake on the lowest rack in a 350 degree oven for 40 to 45 minutes. You want the top to spring back lightly when touched.
• Once the cake is done you want to immediately invert the cake while leaving it in the pan.
• Cool completely.
• Using a narrow metal spatula loosen the sides of the cake from the pan and remove the entire cake from the pan.
• After cooling you can drizzle the cake with powdered sugar icing, chocolate or white, and serve with sweetened whipped cream or fresh fruit.

Pumpkin Cheesecake

• Prep time: 25 minutes
• Freeze time: 4 hours

Ingredients:

• cup finely crushed graham crackers
• 2 tablespoons margarine or butter, melted
• 1 15 ounce carton low fat ricotta cheese
• 1 8 ounce tub fat free cream cheese
• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• ½ cup skim milk
• 1 envelope unflavored gelatin
• 2 teaspoons finely shredded orange peel
• ½ orange juice
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• Light whipped dessert topping (optional)
• Pumpkin pie spice (optional)

Directions:

• In a medium mixing bowl stir together the crushed graham crackers and melted margarine or butter until crackers are moistened.
• Press the cracker mixture onto the bottom of a 9 inch spring form pan.
• Put crust into the refrigerator while preparing the filling.
• In a food processor bowl or blender container combine half of the ricotta cheese, half of the cream cheese, half of the pumpkin, and half the milk.
• Cover and process or blend until the mixture is smooth. Then place into a large mixing bowl.
• Repeat the same process for the remaining ricotta, cream cheese, pumpkin and milk. Put the mixture into the same large mixing bowl as the other half of the mixture.
• In a small saucepan sprinkle the gelatin over orange juice and let stand for 5 minutes.
• Cook and stir the orange juice and gelatin over low heat until the gelatin is dissolved.
• Stir this mixture into the pumpkin mixture.
• Stir in the orange peel, granulated sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, and the pumpkin pie spice.
• Pour the entire mixture into chilled crust.
• Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or until firm.
• To serve loosen crust from sides of pan; remove sides of pan.
• Cut into wedges
• Can garnish with whipped topping and sprinkle with additional pumpkin pie spice.

Low Calorie Layered Dessert

Ingredients

• ¼ cup diet butter
• cup flour
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 package diet chocolate pudding
• 2 bananas
• Cool Whip
• 1 1/3 cup diet cream cheese
• 10 packages artificial sweetener
• ½ teaspoon vanilla
• 8 teaspoons coconut

Directions:

• Mix butter, flour, and salt with pastry blender.
• Press into an 8 inch pie pan
• Bake at 375 degrees for 15 minutes and allow to cool
• Mix cream cheese, vanilla, and sweetener until smooth and then add coconut
• Mix chocolate pudding per package directions
• Put cream cheese mixture on crust
• Slice bananas on top of cream cheese
• Spread pudding on top of bananas
• Top with ½ cups of Cool Whip and refrigerate

Here are some tips on making low calorie desserts a regular part of your lifestyle.

• Count your calories ahead of time. Doing this can help you figure out if you are going to need to save room for a special dessert or if you are going to need to munch on a fruit salad for dessert instead. This is also a great way for keeping your diet on track.
• Share your dessert with somebody else. This is probably the best way that you can fit a regular dessert, meaning full sugar and full fat dessert, into your normal; daily diet because you are only getting half of those calories and fat or less.
• If you are simply craving a sweet dessert simply have one or two bites. Many times those one or two bites is more than enough to satisfy the carving and not ruin your diet.
• Make sure you are the only one making your desserts. This will give you full control over what ingredients are being used, and you can substitute certain foods in your recipes without sacrificing the flavor. But this also allows you to figure out the calories ahead of time so you can stick to your diet.
• Use Splenda and Stevia freely. The reason for this is that these two sweeteners are the two healthier alternatives for sweeteners that are currently on the market.
• Make sure that you avoid most milk and cream-based desserts. The reason for this is that these desserts are usually loaded with sugar and extra fat, so you need to avoid them unless they are a special low fat version, which means they are made with skim milk and are usually diary free.