Healthy Desserts To Make At Home And Still Enjoy
While healthy desserts may seem not as easy to make than a box of regular cake mix, there are actually many ways to recreating your favorite desserts with less calories. It always seems like when we are done eating something savory or salty that we crave something sweet. Making dessert in your house can be fun, taste good and be healthy at the same time. Here’s some healthy desserts you can make at home and still enjoy!
1. Yogurt Bowls
A bowl of ice cream always sounds good, especially when you add toppings to it. While regular ice cream may be not be the best for you, greek yogurt can be one sweet alternative to eating a bowl of ice cream. Low-fat and no-added sugar yogurts in flavors you like can be made just as delicious, while adding a small amount of toppings you normally would on ice cream. Instead of vanilla ice cream, try vanilla greek yogurt – add crushed nuts, fruits, peanut butter, or a little bit of toppings that you like and it will make a healthier bowl of dessert!
2. Gluten Free Brownies
You do not have be totally gluten free to want to have gluten free brownies. In fact, you might not even really notice the difference between your standard brownie and a gluten free brownie. Brownies are delicious, and there are easy ways to make them taste just as good without the gluten. The key to making them gluten free? Using flour that does not contain gluten. If you do not want to make them from scratch, you can also buy gluten free brownie mix instead!
3. Avocado Mousse
Chocolate mousse might be amazing – but have you made it with avocado? Avocado mousse seems to be on the rise when it comes to healthy desserts. It has limited ingredients in comparison to making regular chocolate mousse, and is way better for you. There are different recipes out there for making avocado mousse – but its simplicity is in all of them. Once you decide what sweetener to use, your choice of cocoa powder and milk, you will just blend the avocados, drops of vanilla extract and the rest of the ingredients together – and you’re good to dive into the chocolate avocado goodness.
4. Halo Ice Cream Cones
Okay, so I know we said that yogurt bowls were a good alternative to having a bowl of ice cream – but if you are wanting ice cream, Halo is a good choice. What is so cool about Halo is how much variety the brand has to offer when it comes to flavors – blueberry crumble, lemon cake, red velvet, jelly donut (to name a few.) And, they have keto, dairy and dairy-free options all in pint size portions with no more than 380 calories. You could make your own Halo ice cream cones at home using a scoop of their ice cream and a sugar-free cone, making for a healthier dessert when you’re really wanting to go to an ice cream stand!
5. Chocolate Zucchini Bread
For people who love to bake, making sweet breads can be a treat. Chocolate zucchini bread can be a good alternative to chocolate pound cake or chocolate cake and be just as yummy while using vegetables in it. There are different recipes to making chocolate zucchini bread, some being richer depending on how much chocolate you use. You can also make chocolate zucchini bread even better for you by ditching the gluten when it comes to using flour. Though there will be shredded zucchini in the bread, you won’t be even thinking about it since all you’ll be able to taste is the warm chocolate bread!
6. Chocolate Dipped Fruit
Melting chocolate is simple, and dipping various fruits into chocolate can make for a healthier snack or dessert in comparison to eating a chocolate bar. We see a lot of chocolate dipped strawberries, but if you are not a fan of strawberries, you can try other fruits such as orange slices, bananas or apple slices.
7. Gluten-Free Scones
While you may think of them as just as a breakfast food, you can also have a scone as a dessert after dinner. Like you would at a restaurant with a cappuccino and tiramisu, you can substitute chocolate and coffee with tea and a scone of your choice for after your meal. Scones are not the healthiest choice of desserts you can make at home, but eating one is not the worst thing for you either. You can make scones from scratch using gluten-free and dairy-free ingredients if you wanted to, or you can also try a gluten-free mix. One brand of scones I really enjoy is Sticky Fingers Bakeries. They offer a few types of gluten-free scone mixes such as chocolate chip and blueberry, which they use rice flour in their mix.
8. Trader Joe’s Fudgy Chocolate Quinoa Loaf & Cake Mix
This might be the most simple, yet striking name for a cake mix. Usually we think of quinoa in a salad, or with grilled chicken, or you know – just not paired with chocolate. But, I am all for substituting certain ingredients to try something new, such as avocado in chocolate mousse. Trader Joe’s has a lot of wonderful frozen and dry snacks to offer, their fudgy chocolate quinoa loaf and cake mix being one of them. It is gluten-free and made with quinoa flour instead, so that’s where the quinoa name comes in! If you want to try a new kind of chocolate cake, without doing it entirely from scratch, already mixed ingredients is the way to go – but you will still need your own eggs, water and oil to add make the batter. This chocolate mix, turns out to be just as good as a piece of chocolate cake but definitely has a healthier idea behind the mix. Who knew that we could really substitute our usual bags of flours for so many other kinds?
