Alternatives Basket Fillers* Whoppers’ malted milk balls: You can consume 18 and not surpass 190 calories.* Sugar-free gum.* Juice boxes.* 100-calorie snack packs* Sidewalk chalk.* Matchbox cars* Coloring books and crayons* Packs of stickers
When you were a kid, did you ever wonder why the candy the Easter Bunny brought you was always the same brands your parents liked?
When I had kids of my own, it’s a good thing they’d inherited my love for Reese’s peanut butter cups and robin’s egg malted milk balls. Calories were never a factor when filling my sons’ childhood baskets; but now they’re a big consideration in what my granddaughter will find in the basket I bring her Sunday.
Newsweek published a list of the eight most-fattening Easter candies two years ago, which I kept. I thought I’d pass it along, followed by alternative ideas for Easter basket stuffers.
1. Peeps. The calories multiply faster than rabbits when you run through a row of these fluffy marshmallow bunnies. A row of four rabbits has 130 calories. The good news is that sugar-free Peeps are available, which knocks off about 70 calories.
2. Jelly Beans. Actually a jelly bean’s calorie count is only 5 or 6 calories. But just like Pringles, who can eat just one? So it depends on your willpower how many calories you ingest.
3. Mini chocolate eggs. A great basket filler, but 12 little eggs equals 190 calories.
4. Cadbury Creme Egg. Is it any surprise that one of these chocolate eggs with the yummy, creamy filling will add 150 calories and 5 fat grams to your diet?
5. Reese’s Peanut Butter Egg. The bad news: The Reese’s egg has a calorie count of 180 and 10 fat grams, which is double the fat count of even a Cadbury Egg. The good news: The traditional peanut butter cup has only half the calories of the egg. Make the substitution.
6. Lindt Chocolate Carrots. The name might not ring a bell, but you’d recognize them in stores — they look like little orange foil umbrellas. Four carrots add up to a 210 calorie count.
7. Hershey’s Hollow Milk Chocolate Egg. Who would have thought a hollow egg with four surprise Hershey kisses inside could be this bad for you: 660 calories and 41 fat grams?
8. Large Chocolate Bunny. The chocolate bunny reigns over the basket and the calories: 1,050. A better alternative: one small chocolate bunny, 140 calories.