“Healthy” means so many different things to different people, but nobody associates it with dessert. If you aren’t off the homemade sweets completely, what are some ways you adapt them for whatever health/dietary reason?
(Beyond just reducing the sugar or substituting identical health/diet-conscious versions of the usual ingredients)
To avoid debate on whether a given recipe/ingredient adjustment is actually “healthier”, it might be good to begin with the benefit or your reason for making the dessert this way. And if it doesn’t sound like a winner to you, please don’t “yuck” someone else’s “yum”.
Example:
Melted Root Beer Freeze: Dairy-free, lower sugar, fat, calories and cholesterol
Instead of ice cream, I mix one part root beer with four parts unsweetened soy milk (make sure the soy milk has vanilla in it). All well-chilled, of course! Almond and rice milk’s flavors stand out too much in this concoction, IMO, but there is always the option of using less. Start with mainly root beer and increase the proportion of soy milk in your future cups.
Have you ever made a nutritious sort of power ball recipe? They can be made very basic with just dates and ground nuts or you can add in all sorts of extra ingredients for flavour or supportive purposes.
Shopping is tough right now but I plan on making a batch of Zoom Balls soon to keep us from eating jumk. Stuck in the house = not the best habits. I try not to keep snacks around but if somebody has a craving, sometimes we end up going out to the corner store and there is nothing but garbage to be had in a place like that, lol.
Yes, I love those! I also started making raw brownies when I need a strong chocolate fix: equal parts cashews and non-leathery dried fruit plus some cocoa powder in the food processor. That’s not to say I don’t do many other things with chocolate. Though I ran out of cocoa powder and am subbing carob powder for it now - lacks the caffeine, still tastes good, though it’s not exactly the same taste.
One of my favorite dessert recipes! And I love that it’s individual portions- I can just have one when I’ve got a craving and I don’t have a whole cake sitting on the counter tempting me. Really good with a little peppermint extract (tiny bit!) and whipped cream!!!
Traders Joe’s (in the US) has great freeze dried fruit - I use those as sweet snacks regularly. A whole bag of mangos is less the 200 calories. low cal and still sweet.
the daughter loves to make power balls…she made some FANTASTIC choco date thing not too long afo…will have to find the recipe for that, but yes. shopping is so LESS THAN right now. super happy we are stocked up.
love this thread!!! because healthy desserts!! what’s not to love?
One thing I’m planning to make a lot this summer is strawberry sorbet icecream! We have a strawberry patch now and the plants are doing well. The only thing that goes in homemade sorbet is water, fruit, sugar and a bit of lemon juice, and you can control the amount of sugar you put in. I don’t expect the sweet strawberries from my garden to need a lot of additional sweetening.
Also my fave “sugar free” cookie recipe
1 cup smooth peanut butter
1 egg
1 cup artificial sweetener (I’m partial to Splenda if I have to go sugar free)
Mix, roll into 2 inch balls, cross press with a fork and bake at 350 for 8 minutes
I also do chia seed puddings BUT I do unsweetened nut milks (cashew, almond or even hemp or coconut) and a sugar alcohol for sweetness. I will keep in fridge then add as I please could be chocolate, an extract for flavor, berries etc
I make also what started as a brunch idea but its like drinking cake batter! It fills me and satisfies a sweet cravy
2 eggs
1/4 cup cold water
ice
2 TBS coconut oil melted
2TBS cream cheese melted
2 TBS Torani SF flavoring (can also do a sugar alcohol and an extract for flavor)
Blend and drink!
Yes the eggs are raw lol but I have served to friends who didn’t eat my way and this was the tipping point to bring them to the dark side muhahahaha
We are eating the best breakfast and dessert every day now! We call it strawberry milkshake, but it’s actually yoghurt. Put a handful of fresh strawberries in the blender, add yoghurt, add icecubes, blend, done!
We use the cheap thin yoghurt that can be poured (not sure what that’s called in English) that’s a bit more sour because we like the contrasting taste with the strawberries. Of course you can add any other type of fruit as well, and adding a few leaves of basil is also delicious. We have so many strawberries in the garden that we don’t even know what do with them anymore.
Too many strawberries is the best kind of problem! It sounds really good, especially with the basil. I’m still hoping the basil I started from seed will grow, it’s been just a few small leaves for a month now.
I tried the avocado chocolate mousse recipe and it was the most decadent tasting thing, almost too much! But that helped with pacing myself and making it last.
One of my favorites I had this morning was pseudo cookie dough: chickpeas/garbanzos, rolled oats, peanut butter, sugar, vanilla extract, and a pinch of baking soda and salt in the food processor, plus chocolate chips or whatever spices you like in cookies. Eat it right out of the food processor, or mix it in to some other dessert that calls for chunks of cookie dough. I’ve tried many varieties but still think the regular chocolate chip cookie dough version tastes best.
Though I never measure anything, it always turn out yummy! Not to mention, it is very filling and satisfying.
I guess this person’s version is more like a dessert hummus, while I make mine thicker, like the energy balls we discussed previously.
Thanks! I’m the same with measuring but it’s good to have a rough idea where to start. I’ll have to try these today! Do you make a whole batch? It seems easy enough to roll into snack sizes balls and put in the fridge.
If you aren’t off the homemade sweets completely, what are some ways you adapt them for whatever health/dietary reason?
Though I ran out of cocoa powder and am subbing carob powder for it now - lacks the caffeine, still tastes good, though it’s not exactly the same taste.
