Mia Lane
Who doesn’t know it, reaching for the chocolate bar in the evening, which is destroyed before the feature film is over? If you don’t want to do without sweets, we have something for you here.
Snacking without regrets – healthy sweets
Did you know that a piece of chocolate has about as many calories as a whole banana? Let’s not even talk about vitamins or fat content. If you don’t want to do without sweets, we have something for you: let’s talk about healthy sweets!
Homemade power chocolates
Chocolates can also be healthy, it just depends on the content. The basic dough for our little power packs consists of dates and nuts. Dates are naturally very sweet and have a high fructose content. That doesn’t really make the small fruits, also called the bread of the desert, low in calories. The fact that they are still healthy is due to the high concentration of vitamins and trace elements. In addition, the sweet taste of dates curbs cravings for unhealthy sweets. Nuts naturally provide many unsaturated fatty acids, proteins, and other trace elements.
The fructose in the dates and the healthy fats in the nuts make our little energy balls not lightweights when it comes to calorie intake. However, they are more filling than, for example, milk chocolate or other sweets and score points with many nutrients.
Recipe for homemade energy balls
Ingredients
- 100 g dried dates (Medjoul)
- 45 grams of almonds
- 2 teaspoons and some baking cocoa (unsweetened)
Preparation
Place the dates, almonds, and 2 teaspoons of baking cocoa in a blender and blend into a smooth dough. For each ball, take a tablespoon of the dough and roll it into a ball with your palms. Roll the ball in baking cocoa until the entire surface is covered. Finished!
By the way: The recipe for energy balls can be modified with various dried fruits and nuts. Combine walnuts with apricots and coconut flakes or hazelnuts with cranberries.
Healthy Ice Cream
Chocolate ice cream doesn’t just taste good when you’re heartbroken. But classic ice cream consists mainly of milk, cream, and sugar. If you still want to let ice-cold something melt in your mouth, we have three healthier alternatives to ice cream here.
Cottage cheese and frozen fruit
Another tip for those who really need to satisfy their cravings for ice cream quickly. You only need the following things: low-fat quark, frozen fruit, a little honey, and a good hand blender. Mix the ingredients well and enjoy a delicious, ice-cold quark dish in no time.
You don’t have to limit yourself to just frozen berries. You can buy frozen mango, ice-cold rhubarb, or deep-frozen peaches in stores. Is your favorite fruit not included? No problem! If you freeze the chopped fruit yourself in a fresh storage bag, then you are prepared for the next attack of ice cream cravings.
Frozen yogurt
Frozen yogurt comes from the USA and has long been considered a low-calorie alternative to traditional ice cream. There are numerous recipes for the refreshing FroYo, the simplest and lightest consists of low-fat yogurt and a little powdered sugar. Frozen yogurt is often garnished with other ingredients, the so-called “toppings”. Figure-conscious people should rely on fresh fruit here. If you like to garnish your frozen yogurt with fruit sauces, you can simply puree any berries.
Sherbet
A sorbet consists largely of fresh fruit and fruit juice. It is therefore usually a low-calorie alternative to milk ice cream. When buying ready-made sorbets, pay attention to the ingredients, because they often use a lot of sugar and little fruit. Ideally, you make your sorbet yourself. Simply puree the fruit with the fruit juice, mix it with a little powdered sugar, and place it in the freezer. The sugar not only adds flavor but also creates a creamy texture. Lemon sorbet is a classic, but sorbet can be prepared with any type of fruit.
Not just for horses: delicious treats made from oats
Oatmeal, also known as porridge or oatmeal, is a classic healthy breakfast. Oats are full of dietary fiber, protein, vitamins, and minerals and are therefore much healthier than plain wheat. A lot more can be made from oats than porridge, for example, healthy biscuits without fat and sugar. All you need is tender rolled oats and some fruit pulp or very ripe bananas. Why fruit pulp? In contrast to applesauce, for example, no sugar is added to this.
Ingredients
- 100 grams of rolled oats
- about 175 g fruit pulp or 1 ripe banana
Preparation
Preheat your oven to 170°C (top/bottom heat). Mix the oat flakes and the fruit pulp well. Instead of the fruit pulp, you can finely mash a very ripe banana with a fork. Using two teaspoons, form small biscuits on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Then bake the cookies in the oven for 15 minutes. If you like, you can spice up the recipe with a tablespoon of nut butter or a few chopped dried fruits.
By the way: According to the basic recipe, the oat biscuits are also a good, healthy introduction to the world of nibbling and snacking for babies from around 11 months.
Healthy mug cakes
A recent trend in quick kitchens is small mug cakes from the microwave, the so-called mug cakes. These are now even available as a finished product that only needs to be mixed with milk and baked in the microwave. The small cakes are stirred together quickly. And if you swing the fork in the cup yourself, you determine the sugar content and the aroma of your mug cake.
Ingredients
- 1 ripe banana
- 1 tablespoon milk (also plant-based substitutes such as almond milk)
- 1 tbsp honey (or maple syrup, or agave syrup)
- 1 egg (vegans use 80 g apple puree)
- 1 pinch of baking powder
- Optional: 2 tbsp nuts, dried fruit, or baking cocoa
Preparation
Mash the banana finely with a fork and use a fork to mix the banana puree with the egg, honey, and milk in a tall cup. Add the other ingredients and finally the baking powder and mix. Microwave the mug at 750 watts for 90 seconds. Finished!
Be careful: the cup gets very hot! Let them cool down a bit in the microwave.
