Everyone who has been on a weight loss or fitness journey would have experienced this feeling. The one with extreme guilt and shame, after binging on your favourite dessert. It’s worse if you gave into temptation and had planned on just trying one bite, and that ended with the dessert being polished off!
This is followed by the ‘self-debate’ between the tough choice of getting fitter or choosing to ‘live life’, after all ‘You only live once’ right?
Losing weight and getting fitter requires lifestyle changes. This does not mean alienating oneself from all good things in life, or sacrificing all the treats you always crave for! The key is to strike the right balance.
You can lose weight even with your occasional binges and treats. All you need to make are some simple tweaks, where you add nutrition and eliminate the harmful ingredients. Here are some delicious desserts with slight tweaks to make them guilt-free indulgences just for you!
Guilt-Free Snickers
Guilty of gobbling an entire bar of your favourite chocolate? Relish this ‘copycat’ recipe that retains all the taste minus the guilt.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cooking Time: 10 minutes
- Freezing Time: 30 minutes
- Serves: 6
- Calories: 140 calories per piece
Ingredients:
- Black Dates: 6 (deseeded)
- Peanut Butter: ½ cup
- Almonds: 6 (roasted)
- Compound chocolate (dark): ½ cup (melted)
Process:
- Open the date in a single vertical slit, inside the date’s empty space add a small quantity of peanut butter. Now take a roasted almond and place it in the bed of peanut butter. You can also add any healthy nut of your choice, like a hazelnut or a pecan nut.
- Gently close the date. Now melt the dark compound chocolate you can also opt for a sugar-free version of it. Dip each of the dates in a way that they are completely coated with the chocolate. Leave them on a grill tray to drip off any excess chocolate. Now place them on a tray lined with butter paper. Freeze them for 30 minutes.
- Remove the chocolate and enjoy them as a dessert whenever you please. The natural sweetness of the dates along with the crunch of the almonds and the fudgy texture of peanut butter will make you forget the real deal!
Banana Oats Chocolate Chip cookie
A weight loss journey also has moments when you crave something yummy to snack on. Craving a dessert or just something sweet because you feel bored, tired or need something to lift your spirits, is where the ‘Banana oats chocolate chip’ cookies come into play.
This guilt-free sweet goodness is indulgent and healthy at the same time! Snack on it during your evening cravings or pack one to enjoy on a busy day at work. Made with literally 3 ingredients, this is a gluten-free vegan snack that works for everyone!
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cooking Time: 15 minutes
- Servings: 12
- Calories: 63 calories per serving
Ingredients:
- Banana: 2 whole (preferably ripe ones)
- Oats: 1.5 cups (dry roasted)
- Dark Chocolate chips: ¼ cup
- Vanilla essence: 1-2 drops
Procedure:
- Take very ripe bananas for additional sweetness. Mash up the bananas to form a smooth paste. You can even use a blender to mash them up. Add the rolled oats and mix well. Add a drop or two of vanilla essence just to improve the flavour profile. Now finally add the chocolate chips to the mixture.
- Preheat the oven to 180F and keep ready. Now take a baking tray and layer it with a sheet of butter paper. Take a big spoonful of the cookie mix and make a small ball using your hands. Place each on the baking tray, and slightly flatten them to give a cookie-like appearance. Place all cookies apart from each other.
- Bake for about 15 minutes or until the cookies turn golden in colour.
- Remove from the baking tray and cool. Enjoy them as a quick snack or a dessert. These when stored in a refrigerator stay fresh for about 5 days.
Sweet Potato Halwa
When it comes to Indian desserts, we often assume them to be indulgent, fattening and something one must stay away from especially on a weight loss journey. Mostly coz Indian desserts are mostly fried, laden with ghee and sugar with little or no nutritional value.
But this sweet potato halwa is packed with potassium, calcium, fibre and much more without the fattening contents.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cooking Time: 10 minutes
- Serves: 4
- Calories: 262 cal
Ingredients:
- Sweet Potatoes: 3 pc
- Low-fat milk: ¾ cup
- Stevia: 1 spoon
- Cardamom powder: 1 pinch
- Kesar: few strands
- Mixed nuts: 2 spoonfuls
- Ghee: 1 tablespoon
Procedure:
- Pressure cook the sweet potatoes for 3-4 whistles. Cool and peel them and gently mash them in a bowl.
- Now heat a kadhai, add ghee and allow it to melt. Now add the mashed potatoes and cook for a few minutes. Add the low-fat milk, sugar substitute along with kesar strands (soaked in milk) along with the cardamom powder. Mix well and gently cook on low flame for a few minutes.
- Garnish with mixed nuts and serve warm.
Flourless Chocolate Protein Brownies
(For when you’re burning calories)
Brownies are a dessert that makes even the most resolute person go weak in the knees. The gooey fudgy rich chocolatey taste of brownies is unparalleled! They are in fact are one such dessert that derail most weight watchers!
But when you’re putting in all that effort at the gym to control ’em KGs, enjoying a couple of brownies every now and then should not equate with guilt and shame, not at least with our fabulous recipe. Relish these rich fudgy chocolate brownies packed with nutrients in place of fat! This recipe is flourless and can be termed vegan, keto-friendly, and Paleo-friendly as well!
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cooking Time: 15 minutes
- Serves: 12 pcs
- Calories: About 95 calories per brownie bite
Ingredients:
- Banana: 1 cup (mashed)
- Peanut Butter: ½ cup
- Cocoa Powder: ¼ cup
- Protein powder: 1-2 scoops
- Liquid Stevia: 1 serving
Procedure:
- In a mixing bowl, add the mashed banana along with cocoa powder, protein powder and peanut butter. Gently add the liquid stevia little by little, since bananas are already sweet in nature. Mix the ingredients well to make a smooth batter-like consistency. No baking powder is added to this recipe as the brownie batter is not meant to rise.
- Preheat an oven or a microwave in convection mode, at 180 F. Use a silicone muffin mould for the brownies to keep the portion size of each in check.
- Grease the muffin mould well and gently pour a small quantity of the brownie batter into each mould till they are just full.
- Bake the brownies for about 15 minutes. Check if they are fully cooked by inserting a toothpick inside it. If it comes out clean means the brownies are fully baked.
- Once fully cooked, de-mould them and serve while they are warm or even cool if you like. These when stored in a cool place can be stored for about 5 days.
- Enjoy them when you crave something sweet, without being off track on your fitness journey.
Lovely recipes! The cravings of a sweet tooth!