Cutting Calories in BLT's

Daily Diet Makeover

Bacon while dieting?  Are we nuts?  Not at all!  A couple of slices of most brands of bacon contains about 60 calories when nuked in the microwave.  And a little goes a long way.

BLT's are one of our favorite foods for using bacon.  Here are the hot spots when it comes to homemade BLT calories:

- BLT is drowned in Mayo;

- Bacon on BLT registers T-I-L-T;

- Bread often contains mega calories per slice;

- Buns toasted with butter or margarine.

Now a BLT is not a BLT unless it contains Mayo in our humble Diet Opinion.  Opting for LIGHT Miracle Whip over full-blown Mayo can slash those calories down to about 45 calories.

When preparing bacon in microwave, be sure to blot away excess oil with a paper towel before placing onto toasted bread. And be sure to toast the bread in the toaster - without the butter or margarine.  If you really like the buttery flavor, spray the bread lightly with no calorie butter spray before loading it into the toaster.

Use two slices of bacon per sandwich.  Bacon should be long enough so that it can be broken in two, thus creating four small slices that fit almost perfectly into the sandwich.

Stick to bread that contains reasonable calories (70 or less). Sunbeam makes a delicious sandwich bread that contains about 50 calories per slice.  As a note, choosing wheat bread will add a healthy benefit to your BLT.

When using Sunbeam bread, our BLT is now registering about 225 calories.  What a Diet Deal!