If you have an uncontrollable sweet tooth, then you know how difficult sticking to your diet can be. All that sugar, butter and chocolate make desserts anything but a health food. Giving up your favorite desserts can feel impossible, but what if you didn’t have to? Just switching out one ingredient in your recipe can transform your dessert from an indulgence to a healthy snack. Here are five ingredient swaps that will let you have your cake and eat it too.
1. Avocado Butter In Your Cupcakes
‘Soften butter to room temperature’ is usually the first line in any cupcake recipe and a big reason for why they’re so unhealthy. Butter is loaded with saturated fats which can add inches to your waistline. Avocados are a better alternative because they contain healthy monounsaturated fats. They even have a similar texture to butter, making them an ideal substitute. You might need to increase the ratio of your wet ingredients to prevent your cupcakes from becoming too dry. Experiment with your measurements until you get perfect results. Avocado cupcakes taste just like the real thing, the slight greenish tinge will be the only giveaway.
2. Greek Yogurt In Your Mousse
Most recipes for mousse require sugar and heavy cream to be whipped until they reach that fluffy mousse-consistency. Neither sugar nor heavy cream is good for your diet, but the good news is you can swap one of them out. Greek yogurt is a much healthier option and works in almost the same way heavy cream does. The only difference is Greek yogurt doesn’t have any of the high calories and saturated fats that heavy cream does. Instead, it’s full of protein and probiotics. You can substitute the same amount of Greek yogurt in place of how much heavy cream the recipe calls for.
3. Almond Milk In Brownies
Warm gooey brownies are the ultimate indulgence. No matter how much we try, we can’t really keep ourselves away from a plate of brownies. Brownies might taste like manna from heaven, but they aren’t doing any miracles for your waistline. Luckily, there are a number of ways you can make your brownies healthier. The biggest way to cut calories from brownies is by swapping cow’s milk for almond milk. Almond milk is much lower in calories and is especially great if you’re vegan or lactose intolerant. You can also choose unsweetened dark cocoa powder instead of melting chocolate bars to cut down on sugar. Add a handful of walnuts and almonds and your brownies will be practically a health food (although that might be pushing it a little).
4. Chia Seeds In Cookies
Chia seeds are another healthy butter substitute, and as an added advantage, they won’t turn your desserts green. Butter is full of saturated fats, but chia seeds contain omega-3 fatty acids. This means that chia seed cookies won’t clog your heart the way regular cookies do. Chia seeds are tasteless, so you won’t even know that your cookies are any different from usual. Soak chia seeds in adequate water until they form a gel. This gel will add moisture to your cookie dough and hold everything together. You can even mix milled chia seeds with some water to make it gel-like and bring out its natural oils.
5. Bananas In Muffins
Muffins are super-easy to make and are a great snack to have on-the-go. But no matter how much we love muffins, we can’t really deny that they’re by no means a diet-friendly food. The biggest reason why muffins are so unhealthy boils down to its sugar content. By eliminating sugar from your muffin recipe, you’re cutting down most of the calories as well. Instead of sugar, add mashed overripe bananas to your muffin batter. The bananas add natural sweetness to your muffins and are low in calories. Overripe bananas are easy to mash and are a lot sweeter, so you can use your blackened leftover bananas for this recipe.
