Today, calories be damned. Here are the real deal, classic egg nog, along with four wonderful flavored egg nog variations.

FULL STRENGTH EGG NOG RECIPES

If you’re not counting calories, take a look at these delicious recipes:

 
Here’s how to make flaming egg nog.

While it’s quite elegant, you don’t need a punch bowl and handled cups to serve egg nog. Use whatever glasses you have, and pour the nog from a pitcher.

MORE EGG NOG DELIGHTS

Egg nog doesn’t need to stay in a glass. Here are options from cookies to truffles:

 
THE HISTORY OF EGG NOG

Who invented egg nog? The facts aren’t clear, but here’s the egg nog history as we know it.

A kitchen scale can be a welcome gift.
Photo courtesy Eat Smart Products.

While you wouldn’t give one to just anybody, if you have loved ones who are always voicing their need to take off a few pounds, they’ll love you for hearing them and helping them achieve their goal.

A kitchen scale is not just a “diet scale”: It’s very useful for weighing recipe ingredients, not to mention calculating postage, for those of us who still use snail mail.

The EatSmart line offers economically priced multifunction home scales, perfect for everyday tasks. They include a Calorie Factors Book making it easy to achieve goals such as portion control and calorie counting.

The EatSmart Precision Pro Digital Kitchen Scale shown in the photo comes in black, burgundy chrome, white with a chrome top or all-white.

Check out the line at EatSmartProducts.com.

Delicious and addictive (you can’t help but want another cup…and another), there’s a good reason to steer clear of the egg nog bowl: the calories.

Our survey of five supermarket brands showed 190 to 230 calories per tiny four ounce portion. That’s without the rum and brandy, not to mention the vanilla ice cream added to many party egg nog recipes. Have a cup or two and you can easily consume 1000 calories.

So, you might want to taste just a spoonful (or none at all) of the real thing, and celebrate with one of our four diet egg nog recipes.

Diet egg nog is not the same richer-than-rich experience; but it’s a the first step toward a new years’ resolution to eat a healthier diet!

Tomorrow: Egg nog recipes with lots of calories.

Until then, here’s the history of egg nog.