Trader Joe's Reduced Guilt Fat Free Brownies

A great alternative to regular brownie-mix brownies

Mmm, brownies: those little fudge bombs of delight are hard to pass up when you’re trying to eat low fat. But if you want to have your cake (sorry, brownie) and eat it, try Trader Joe's Reduced Guilt Brownies. Trader Joe's brownie mix makes a batch of 12 or 16 brownies, depending on how you cut them. All you need to add is some fat-free vanilla yogurt – I used Oikos 0% fat vanilla yogurt – that's it. It takes a little patience to combine the dry mix with the yogurt, but stay with it and you will get a smooth batter, albeit a slightly stiff one.

The list of ingredients is mercifully short, and obviously lacking the partially hydrogenated oils in most commercial brands. Still, the leading ingredient is sugar, and indeed, the brownies may be a little too sweet for some tastes, and in my view masks the cocoa flavor somewhat. The texture of the finished brownie is very good, however, something that is often lacking in fat-free baked goods. So if you’re looking for a quick chocolate fix with relatively few calories and zero fat, then these brownies will do the trick.

Here's the nutritional breakdown, assuming you cut 12 squares: Calories per brownie: 130, Fat calories 0g, Cholesterol 0mg, Sodium 120mg, Carbohydrate 26g, Fiber 1g, Protein 3g