About a year ago, my neighbor gave me two giant bags of beef gelatin.  She was moving out, cleaning out her pantry, and of course, beef gelatin isn’t something you really want to port to your new house.  So this random item has been hanging out in my cupboard for upwards of year and I finally decided it was time to use it or lose it.  Enter – homemade marshmallows!

Now, I’m not especially a big fan of marshmallows, s’more though? Um, yes.  Nothing is more iconic of summertime and family time then s’mores.  But, you say,  s’mores have…shhhh [whisper] chocolate.Chocolate never shows up on the “Do Have” renal diet list, due to its high phos content.  A classic s’more with two graham crackers, 1/2 bar chocolate, and one large marshmallow has 97 mg phosphorus, 128 mg potassium, and 151 mg sodium. This does not mean that s’mores are out though.

Non-chocolate s’mores are fancy, trendy, and super yummy.  We experimented with 3 different non-chocolate s’more variations to keep the dietary phosphorus at bay.

Butterscotch Chip S’mores

Move over chocolate chips!  Butterscotch chips + toasty marshmallow on honey graham crackers makes a rich, but tasty low phosphorus treat. With 56 mg phosphorus, 55 mg potassium, and 144 mg sodium these s’mores are more then welcome to take a place at my campfire.

Cookie Butter S’mores

Did you know that cookie butter/Speculoos is low phosphorus and low potassium?   With most spreads not especially kidney-friendly, we love using cookie butter as a substitute.  Combining the cookie butter with a roasted marshmallow is incredible.  A cookie butter s’more made with 2 teaspoons of cookie butter, 2 graham cracker squares and 1 large marshmallow has 60 mg phosphorus, 66 mg potassium, and 156 mg sodium.

Lemon Curd S’more

Now for my favorite.  THIS is incredible.  Reminds me exactly of lemon meringue pie. Instead of graham crackers we opted for Pepperidge Farm Chessman® Cookies.  I love these cookies because they don’t have phosphorus-heavy baking powder like many cookies.

As far as nutrition, lemon curd s’mores are the lowest in phosphorus and potassium of all of our alternative s’mores.  They have 21 mg phosphorus, 32 potassium, and 68 mg sodium.  I loved these!  The other two, while delicious, were quite rich, but these had a good flavor balance with the sour lemon curd.

While we didn’t try this today, I think  this actually would have been incredible with a dab of whipped cream cheese.  I foresee cheesecake s’mores in the future…

If you’re still craving a bit of chocolate for  your s’mores, check out our 3 hacks for making kidney-friendly s’mores with chocolate.