A Cheater’s Guide to Giving Up Sweets

When you have a sweet tooth like I do, it’s only natural to choose to give up sweets for Lent. The only thing that could be harder would be pizza, but that’s impossible since pizza consists of 95% of my weekly diet and I would probably starve without it.

Anyway, this means no cookies/cake/cupcakes/icecream/chocolate/candy/etc. of any kind for me for the next 6 weeks. So NATURALLY, I had to think of an alternative. (Mind you, it’s currently only day 5, clearly we’re standing strong here.)

So what, you may ask, did I do to fix the predicament that I find myself in? Well I turned to two of my most trusted sources, Better Homes & Gardens and Womanista, for some much needed recipe inspiration. What I found was a dessert pizza with banana ice cream, and frozen blueberry yogurt bits. With the inability to make a decision plaguing me since childhood, I decided to make both, and here’s how you can too. Bite into the goodness that is clean eating. …and secretly wish the entire time you were eating a king size Kit Kat!

DESSERT PIZZA RECIPE (via BHG)

You will need: 5 medium sized bananas, 1/4 cup coconut milk, 2 tbsp coconut oil, 2 tbsp honey, 2 tsp vanilla, assorted fruit, 2 cups coco crisp rice cereal (note: the original recipe called for regular crisp rice cereal & added coco, but I cheated to save time)

For the ice cream:

1. Peel, slice and freeze 4 bananas, leaving the 5th for toppings. The bananas will take awhile to freeze, so I recommend doing this part first.

2. Once bananas have frozen, combine these with 1/4 coconut milk into a blender. Blend until smooth. Voila, you’re done! You may now eat your tasty treat on its own, or wait to use for your dessert pizza!

For the pizza:

1. Combine crisp rice cereal, melted oil and honey in a bowl. Stir until evenly coated.

2. Pour crisp rice onto parchment paper in the shape of a pizza pie. Freeze until firm (this took me about 20 minutes).

3. After crust has formed, pour your banana ice cream over the top.

4. Here comes the fun part: add your fruit toppings!! I chose blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, bananas and grapes but you can really use whatever! Peaches and apples would also be good options.

FROZEN BLUEBERRY YOGURT BITS RECIPE (via Womanista)

You will need: 1 pckg blueberries, 1 cup vanilla yogurt, 1 tsp sweetener (I used Sugar in the Raw)

Note: This recipe is great for an everyday snack- SUPER quick and easy to make!!

1. Measure 1 cup vanilla yogurt into a bowl

2. Pour in package of blueberries

3. Mix blueberries in yogurt until evenly coated, making sure to fold over to keep berries from being crushed

4. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper

5. Pick berries individually out from bowl and place on parchment paper (making sure they don’t touch!)

6. Freeze for about an hour and enjoy!

#sweettoothhealthydessertrecipediy