I went to a party today at the home of one of my good friends. I LOVE parties. All kinds of parties. One of my favorites was an "Anti-versary" party I had last year. But that is another post for another day.
I think weekends are usually a source of temptation to stray from your health and fitness goals, and then you throw a party on top of it?? How does one resist such temptation? I suppose you could just not go. Lock yourself at home surrounded by workout DVDs and celery sticks. This just doesn't work for me as evidenced by the above paragraph..... I love parties!
Honestly I wasn't too worried about this party because my friend hosting the party is also a member of one of my challenge groups and is working on her health and fitness goals too. I knew there would be some healthy choices there. I wanted to go, have fun, and support my friend as well so I offered to bring a healthy dessert. I found a recipe for "Healthy Cookie Dough Dip" from this website: http://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/2011/05/23/want-to-eat-an-entire-bowl-of-cookie-dough/
I have to warn you though, every time I go to that website I just want to eat chocolate, lots of chocolate. I actually made the "No Sugar" version of the dip: http://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/2011/09/27/new-recipe-sugar-free-cookie-dough-dip/
This is what I used:
- 1 1/2 cups chickpeas/garbanzo beans (1 can, drained and rinsed really well)
- heaping 1/8 tsp salt
- tiny bit over 1/8 tsp baking soda
- 1 tbsp plus 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup natural peanut butter
- 1 and 1/4 cups pitted dates (I used SunMaid, in the red bag)
- 1/3 cup dark chocolate chips
- 2 tbsp oats
A few things I noticed while making this recipe - you really do want to use a food processor. The blender just doesn't cut it. It took FOREVER to blend. Also, the cookie dough has a slight peanut butter taste and don't forget to let people know there is peanut butter in the dip before they try it. The recipe makes about 2 cups and it is very rich.
I took sliced apples (several different varieties) to use for dipping. There were also pretzel crisps available, these were great if you like a little salty with your sweet. I told people it was a healthy dip. Some of the comments were: "there is no way that is healthy" and "you have to give me this recipe". I think it was a hit! Everyone was surprised by the ingredients - especially my mother who wouldn't have even helped me carry it in the house if she knew there were chickpeas in there.
Usually nutrition information is included with the recipes from that website, but I couldn't find it for this recipe. Nutrition information includes a lot more than just a calorie count, but since there was nothing on the website and I was curious, I did a quick calculation based on calories only. I just added all the calories of each item together and divided it by the number of servings (I made a serving 2 TBSPs). I did this for both the "no sugar" version and the "regular" version. The results were very interesting:
No Sugar Cookie Dough Dip: 100 cal/ 2TB
Regular Cookie Dough Dip: 80 cal/ 2TB
What?? How can the no sugar dip be higher calorie? The difference is the dates. There are twice as many calories in the amount of dates as there are in the amount of brown sugar. Remember though, sugar is empty calories, it won't fill you up and usually leaves you craving more. So what nutritional value do you get from those extra calories in the dates? You get fiber, protein, potassium, iron, and calcium. Often we are very focused on the calorie count when trying to lose weight and forget that there is more to healthy eating, good nutrition, and weight loss than just calories. I chose to take the dip made with the dates, I felt it was a better choice for me nutritionally - and you know what, I didn't miss the sugar at all.
So what do you think? Which dip would you choose and why?
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