We’ve all been there, right? We all want something at the end of the day to reward us for a job well done. Relax, unwind and satisfy that sweet tooth. It seems like after things have been going well for a while clients want to know how to stay on track at the end of the night.
If snacking at night even though you aren’t hungry is something you need to work on, check out this post – How I quit late night snacking and you can too!
The 52 Weeks to 52 Healthy Habits challenge is about building healthy habits one week at a time. Therefore, if you are simply looking to replace things like ice cream, chips, or cookies with healthier options then read on!
Most people want dessert to be easy. I think part of the appeal of ice cream is you scoop it out of the container and enjoy it immediately. No mess, no fuss, just bliss. The problem with ice cream and other traditional desserts is that they are extremely calorie dense with minimal nutrient value. 1/2 cup clocks in around 300 calories, and who eats 1/2 cup of ice cream only? Think about that 4 spoonfuls of ice cream could cancel out your 30-minute run you were so proud of getting in. #beenthere I like to make sure my dessert has a sweet component as well as protein and/ or healthy fat to help keep me on track.
Many of you know my story with counting calories. I don’t actively count calories anymore, but I glad that it taught me to be mindful of high-calorie foods. I’ll still get down on a full fat full sugar awesome cookie, a piece of cake, a bowl of ice cream etc on special occasions.
However, for the most part, I keep those foods out of the house. Let’s be honest, I could qualify any day for a special occasion if I wanted to. That doesn’t mean dessert isn’t a regular thing for me, I just like to make sure my everyday dessert has a sweet component as well as protein and/ or healthy fat to help keep me on track.
That doesn’t mean dessert isn’t a regular thing for me, I just like to make sure my dessert has a sweet component as well as protein and/ or healthy fat to help keep me on track.
The challenge for this week is to start planning desserts into your weekly meal plan, like you would anything else.
20 Healthy Dessert Ideas
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Fruit Based:
1. Berries with Nut Butter
Nuke for 20-30 seconds and it’s like pie filling, top with homemade granola if you need a crunch.
2. Coconut Cream Berries
Berries or other fruit topped with a spoonful of canned coconut cream.
3. Baked Nut Butter Apples
Core an apple, plug the whole with oatmeal, spoon in your favorite nut or seed butter (peanut, sunbutter, nutella almond, etc…), place on a sprayed baking sheet and bake on 350 until tender (30-40 minutes).
4. Nutella Stuffed Strawberries
Stuff cored strawberries with Nutella and enjoy! I’ve also stuffed them with peanut butter yogurt dip, which is delicious!
5. Magic Shell Banana Bites
Freeze banana in pieces, mix melted coconut oil (1-2T) with 1T chocolate powder, roll frozen banana in chocolate it will freeze immediately so you can enjoy!
Chocolate:
6. Dark Chocolate Pieces
70% or higher is how you get the most health benefits!
7. Plain Yogurt With Vanilla Stevia topped with Dark Chocolate
Yogurt based desserts are a great way to get a ton of nutrients and stay on track. Stir in a teaspoon of cocoa powder with your yogurt to make it chocolatey or top with chocolate chips. I generally buy low sugar yogurts like plain, chobani naturals or siggis. Sometimes though I splurge for higher sugar varieties and eat them for a dessert. One of my favorites is Trader Joe’s coconut yogurt.
8. Dark Chocolate covered almonds handful
or any flavored nut, there are a million options out there for cinnamon, chocolate or honey roasted nuts!
9. Peanut Butter Chocolate Bites
I’m not a huge fan of energy bites throughout the day. To me they are too sweet I will eat them ALL for a snack, but I do like them for a sweet satisfying dessert that is on the healthier side!
10. Peanut Butter Swirl Breakfast Brownies
There are so many recipes out there for healthy brownies made from healthy ingredients like sweet potatoes, beans, bananas and minimal sugar. You just have to be adventurous and find one you really dig!
Filling:
If you are legitimately hungry at night, you may want to go with a higher protein option.
11. Cottage Cheese with fruit
Add a drizzle of honey if you would like it to be a little sweeter!
12. Coconut Peanut Butter Fudge
Like brownies, they are a thousand freezer fudge recipes. I make some sort of variety of this every week and eat a small piece after dinner.
13. Mini Protein Shake (other than chocolate flavor)
Just avoid protein shakes with a ton of added vitamins. A high dose of B-Vitamins that are in many post workout protein shakes could keep you up.
14. Chia Pudding or Chia Protein Pudding
Often when I put up a chia pudding recipe I put in the breakfast category. What really ends up happening is I eat half of it for breakfast and half of it for dessert. (Chocolate coconut chia pudding, chia protein pudding, sunbutter chia pudding, Butterfinger chia pudding)
15. Protein cookies
I really love sun butter sweet potato protein cookies for dessert, but again, there are many protein cookie recipes out there. Be adventurous and find the recipe that you love the most! 
16. Pumpkin Protein Pudding
I made this several times last fall and never documented it. Mix your favorite sweet protein powder with 1/2 cup of pumpkin, it will give you a delicious sweet pudding consistency.
Other:
17. Coconut Milk Ice Cream
Freeze canned coconut milk into ice cubes, process in a food processor with stevia drops until ice cream consistency
18. Glass of wine
Skipping the glass of wine with dinner avoid adding excess calories by haivng wine and dessert at the same time.
19. Low Sugar Kind Bars or Protein Bars
Remember what you chose at night highly depends on your current goals. If you are trying to manage certain health conditions or lose weight certain options may be better than others. If you feel like you need some direction with this please check out my nutrition services website.
20. Paleo Breads
Paleo bread recipes often use ingredients like coconut or almond flour which are high in protein and healthy fat. I often make paleo bread and eat it for dessert instead of breakfast. They are delicious hot or cold, but I love to heat mine for 20 seconds and top with a sliver of salty Kerrygold butter. A few of my favorites: chocolate cranberry pumpkin mini loaves, coconut almond paleo bread and cinnamon raisin paleo bread.
52 Healthy Habits E-Course
Did you miss this series or wish you could repeat it? No problem! I’ve put all the posts together in an e-course that directly corresponds with the healthy habits series! By focusing on one healthy habit per week you’ll be able to master the skills needed to successfully improve your health, increase your energy, and drop those unwanted pounds. The best part is, you’ll do it while barely even realizing it. These 52 habits are the habits I review with almost every single Hungry Hobby RD client. These habits are the backbone of getting off the diet train and getting the results you wanted! What are you waiting for??????
The e-course will provide supportive information such as tips and tricks to help you ingrain each healthy habit as part of your permanent lifestyle.
Cost of the automated series is $26 dollars (just 50 cents per week) for the whole year, which helps me cover the cost of automating the emails through my server. Thanks!
( Want to really plan to succeed and save money? What To Eat? Meal Plan subscriptions also come with this E-Course as part of the subscription! They also come with a supportive facebook group and a ton more goodies, check them out!)
52 Healthy Habits E-Course
Did you miss this series or wish you could repeat it? No problem! I’ve put all the posts together in an e-course that directly corresponds with the healthy habits series! By focusing on one healthy habit per week you’ll be able to master the skills needed to successfully improve your health, increase your energy, and drop those unwanted pounds. The best part is, you’ll do it while barely even realizing it. These 52 habits are the habits I review with almost every single Hungry Hobby RD client. These habits are the backbone of getting off the diet train and getting the results you wanted! What are you waiting for??????
The e-course will provide supportive information such as tips and tricks to help you ingrain each healthy habit as part of your permanent lifestyle.
Cost of the automated series is $26 dollars (just 50 cents per week) for the whole year, which helps me cover the cost of automating the emails through my server. Thanks!
( Want to really plan to succeed and save money? What To Eat? Meal Plan subscriptions also come with this E-Course as part of the subscription! They also come with a supportive facebook group and a ton more goodies, check them out!)
52 HEALTHY HABITS IN 52 WEEKS SERIES:
The 52 Healthy Habits Series is about ditching the diet mindset and making small changes to improve health overall naturally leading to a healthy body composition, increased energy and improved health. Please follow along and check out the past weeks!
- Week 52: Healthy Habits Wrap Up
- Week 51: Nightly Reflection
- Week 50: Limit Harmful Chemicals
- Week 49: Find Your Tribe
- Week 48: Cultivating Positivity
- Week 47: Healthy Thanksgiving Tips
- Week 46: Check In
- Week 45: Mobility – Foam Rolling
- Week 44: HIIT Training
- Week 43: LISS or Steady State Cardio
- Week 42: Limit Alcohol
- Week 41: Eat White, Wait What?
- Week 40: Eat Blue & Purple
- Week 39: Eat Green
- Week 38: Eat Yellow/Orange
- Week 37: Eat Red
- Week 36: Learn Which Foods to Purchase Organic
- Week 35: Read the Ingredient List!
- Week 34: Focus.
- Week 33: Chew Your Food!
- Week 32: Meditation
- Week 31: Gratitude Journaling
- Week 30: Plan & Revamp Dessert- 20 Healthy Ideas
- Week 29: Two fistfuls of veggies per meal
- Week 28: Get In Veggies At Breakfast
- Week 27: Healthy Veggie Snacks
- Week 26: Nourishing Fats for the Gut (Healthy Digestion Part 4)
- Week 25: Keeping Regular – The Other Fiber (Healthy Digestion Part 3)
- Week 24: Feed The Probiotics With Prebiotic Fiber (Healthy Digestion Part 2)
- Week 23: Amazing Health Benefits of Probiotics (Healthy Digestion Part 1)
- Week 22: Check In
- Week 21: What You Will Learn From Recording Your Meals (Intuitive Eating Series Part 4)
- Week 20: Eat Until 80% Full (Hara Hachi Bu) (Intuitive Eating Series Part 3)
- Week 19: Limit Distractions While Eating (Intuitive Eating Series Part 2)
- Week 18: Gaging Your Hunger Cues (Intuitive Eating Series Part 1)
- Week 17: 10,000 Steps Per Day
- Week 16: Assess Your Caffeine Intake
- Week 15: Decrease Sugar Intake
- Week 14: Healthy Coffee Creamers (upgrade yours)
- Week 13: 3 Month Check In
- Week 12: Sleep Enough & Sleep Better
- Week 11: Schedule Your Workouts
- Week 10: Pack A Healthy Lunch (5 Ways to Create Endless Combinations)
- Week 9: Prioritizing Protein
- Week 8: How and What to Meal Prep
- Week 7: Create & Stick To Your Healthy Meal Plan
- Week 6: Get Enough Omega-3’s (Fight Inflammation)
- Week 5: What Is A Healthy Fat & How To Get Enough (Include Healthy Fats)
- Week 4: How to Spot A Healthy Carbohydrate (Upgrade Your Carbs)
- Week 3: Tips to Increase Veggie Intake (Eat Veggies)
- Week 2: 15 Healthy On the Go Breakfast Ideas (Eat BF Challenge)
- Week 1: Tips to Drink More Water
I haven’t been a big chia pudding person, but after you posted that coconut one last week I have to try it. And seeing as SOMEONE is telling me to eat more protein, I now have an excuse to try it! 😉
Ha ha I literally been laughing about this all day but haven’t had time to reply. Coconut chia pudding is better than another chicken breast!
I like to have coconut-covered dates as a quick and healthy dessert during the week. But the weekend? Well cheesecake is where it’s at! 🙂 Great list, Kelli!
Oooooo coconut covered dates sound delicious!!!!