Desserts, while delicious, can also be incredibly fattening and unhealthy. However, there is an alternative. Here are a few recipes for healthier, and equally tasty, desserts to make the search a little less difficult.
Homemade Sherbet
1 ripe cantaloupe, peeled and chopped
1/3 cup of sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons unflavored gelatin
1/4 cup cold water
8 ounces vanilla yogurt
Nutritional information: 93 calories for about three scoops
Cut the cantaloupe in half and remove the seeds. Cut the cantaloupe into eighths, after removing the seeds, and chop the cantaloupe into smaller sections. A melon baller works too. Chop the rind off and chop up the cantaloupe.
Place the sugar, lemon juice and cantaloupe in the blender and let ’em have it until the mixture is smooth. Put the water and unflavored gelatin in a small saucepan and heat for about four minutes until the gelatin dissolves. Pour the mixture into the blender along with the yogurt and give it a whirl. Pour the blender’s content into an eight inch square pan and freeze it until it’s almost firm. Take it out and put it in a mixing bowl.
Next, get beaters or a mixing spoon and beat the mixture until its fluffy. Then, it’s back to the freezer until it’s completely firm. Remove from freezer and enjoy. I would give this recipe 3 out of 5 stars. It’s not that it tastes bad, but the waiting time kills the easiness of making it.
If sherbet is not your thing, or if freezing the recipe twice is too much work and wait time, don’t worry. There are other recipes.
Interesting Parfait
The Interesting Parfait was another recipe I found that might make others’ taste buds water. The moniker “interesting” definitely suits this recipe, as even though I made it wrong, it still turned out rather tasty.
1 cup plain yogurt
2 3.5 ounce containers vanilla pudding
2 tablespoons of lemon curd
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons honey
zest of one lemon
1 tablespoon lemon juice
3 cups mixed berries (I used strawberries and raspberries but any berry mixture works)
Nutritional information: 176 calories, 153 milligrams calcium, 2 grams fat
The first step is mixing the yogurt, pudding, lemon curd and vanilla extract together. Remember how I said I did it wrong? Well, instead of pudding I used instant pudding mix instead of actual pudding. The parfait part of the berry parfait didn’t come out as thick as the actual recipe was supposed to, but it still worked. It came out on the sweet side, so you might want to stick to the recipe. The instant pudding mix by itself works, though.
Next, make a little syrup for the berries. In a separate bowl, combine the honey, lemon zest and lemon juice. Lemon zest is the yellow part of the lemon peel. To remove the zest, use a zester or cheese grater and grind away, but stop when the yellow part of the peel is gone. After mixing all of those ingredients together, add the berries. Be careful not to mash the berries up when stirring them with the syrup.
To finish, just layer the components into a cup. First parfait, then berries, then parfait again and berries on top. The recipe makes enough for four servings. I give this recipe five out of five stars. It’s a recipe one can’t really mess up, but even if or when you do mess it up, it still tastes wonderful.
Here is my favorite recipe of the three:
Pears and Homemade Apple Sauce
2 large pears
2 teaspoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup dried cranberries or dried mixed fruit
1/4 granola
1/4 cup apple juice or apple juice concentrate
Nutritional information: 176 calories, 2 grams fat, 78 milligrams calcium
Peel the pears and chop them in half. Remove the core and seeds. Put the halves so they are like cups into a glass pie plate. Then mix the sugar and cinnamon before dusting the mixture over the pears.
Combine the cranberries (or mixed fruit) and granola into the hollows of the pears. Pour the apple juice into and around the pears. I just used a can of concentrate, it brings the flavor out better. Cover with a paper plate and cook on high in the microwave for six to eight minutes.
After microwaving, the pears are nice and tender, and the apple juice jumps out with the cinnamon twist. This dish can be served with a side scoop of ice cream or frozen yogurt, but it’s also fine by itself. Plus, this is a great way to get granola into your day. I would highly recommend this recipe with a strong five out of five star rating.