Do not go into this holiday thinking you cannot enjoy some festive desserts while keeping up your momentum!
Try some of these delicious (and balanced) picks…
Baked Apples:
Core 8 medium apples without cutting all the way through to the bottom — leave about a ½-inch of uncut apple at the bottom — then cut away a little bit extra so there’s a well in each apple about ¾-inch thick. Put the apples on a lined baking sheet, then sprinkle each apple with cinnamon and 1 teaspoon brown sugar, and top with 1 teaspoon unsalted butter. Bake until the apple is very soft, 30–35 minutes. Serve warm, topped with whipped cream and sprinkled with your favorite maple granola.
Flourless Brownies- Warning: 3 ingredients ONLY
Ingredients:
3 medium, overripe bananas
1/2 cup smooth almond butter (or use any other nut/seed butter)
2 T- 1/4 cup cocoa powder (more=richer flavor)
Instructions:
Preheat the oven the 350 degrees, grease a small cake pan or loaf pan and set aside.
In a small microwave-safe bowl or stovetop, melt your nut butter. In a large mixing bowl, add the banana, nut butter and cocoa powder and mix very well.
Pour the mixture into the greased pan and bake for around 20 minutes or until cooked through. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before slicing into pieces.
Pomegranate Clusters
Makes: 20
Ingredients:
1 cup CHOCOLATE CHIPS (Enjoy Life® are gluten-free, dairy-free and soy-free)
1 POMEGRANATE (I used POM Wonderful®)
Directions:
- Slice pomegranate in half and then into quarters. Place in large bowl of water and soak 5 minutes. Begin to break pomegranate apart under water, allowing arils to fall to bottom of bowl. Remove rind and membranes. Remove seeds from bowl, picking out any debris. Place on a paper towel-lined plate and blot gently with more paper towels. Arils must be completely dry. Let me stress that again, completely dry. To ensure this, I leave them out to air dry further for a couple hours or place them on a plate in a barely heated oven (that has been turned off). Any residual moisture will prevent the chocolate from binding to the arils and the clusters will fall apart.
- Line a mini muffin pan with 20 mini muffin cups/liners.
- Pour chocolate chips into a heavy-duty zip top bag, shake down into one corner. Place in microwave and heat in 15-20 second intervals, removing each time to knead. Continue until chocolate is smooth and viscous. Squeeze chocolate down into one corner. Snip off a tiny corner to make a makeshift piping bag.
- Drizzle chocolate into bottom of cups. Add a layer of pomegranate arils to each cup. Drizzle with more chocolate. Repeat so that you have four layers of chocolate and three layers of arils.
- Allow to harden in a cool, dry place.
Not so sweet- but still a fun treat
Pita Hummus Trees
Ingredients:
Whole Wheat Pita (sliced into triangles)
Avocado Hummus
Sliced Tomato/red pepper
Pretzel sticks
Instructions:
Cut pita into triangles. Spread avocado hummus, sliced peppers/tomato and any other vegetables of choice. Stick a pretzel stick into pita.
Fruit snowman pops
Slice up banana, apple, and grapes. Assemble to make a cute snowman. The buttons can be made from dark chocolate chips or raisins. Enjoy!!
For nutrition facts, you can add recipes into myfitnesspal or email us at [email protected]. Happy Holidays!