Yogurt and Cocoa

There are times when you want something sweet and tasty. When you are on a diet, limiting your sugar and calorie intake is an important part of being able to lose weight or maintain weight. If you don’t care about sugar or calories, then a bit of ice cream or some candy would be the way to go. These will definitely help your sweet tooth, but often a piece of candy simply isn’t enough to fill your need.

Candy and ice cream is really high in calories as it’s mostly sugar and other unhealthy fats. There is a reason that these are things that you desire - they are made to be addictive and bring you back for more. Candy bars are generally 150+ calories for a small serving that won’t fill you up and certainly won’t get you many of the positive macronutrients (namely protein) that your body really needs.

In the search for a replacement to candy bars and ice cream, there are a few options. If you have never had protein ice cream before, we’d highly recommend that you give it a try. It’s one of our favorite filling ways to fill in for regular ice cream. If you’re feeling like something a little less cold, but more creamy, then we’d recommend that you give this yogurt and cocoa recipe a try - you may be surprised how tasty it is.

Greek yogurt is one of those great foods to eat when you’re counting calories. It can easily replace many other milk based products in your recipes, all while having far less calories and a decent amount of protein per serving. For ¾ cup of greek yogurt (non-fat) you’re looking at 80 calories and 15 grams of protein. That’s an excellent ratio of calories to protein, and is a great way to reach your daily protein goal.

Of course, the bad side to greek yogurt is that it’s pretty boring in taste. While it’s not terrible, it’s also not something that you’re generally looking to eat on a consistent basis. However, adding a bit of flavor to the greek yogurt can make it taste really good and potentially make it even healthier (more protein). You can add most anything that you want, but below is one of our favorite recipes.

• One cup of nonfat greek yogurt
• 2 tablespoons cacao
• 2 tablespoons stevia (or other sweetener)

Put those items all together and mix for about a minute to get the mixture completely mixed together. If you want to use a mixer, then let it run for a couple of minutes - it will make the mixture just a little more fluffy and taste a little bit better. This snack has 100 calories and 15 grams of protein - a great way to fill your sweet tooth. If you want to add more protein, then adding a scoop of chocolate flavored protein powder will increase the protein (and calorie count) as well - you’ll be looking at 200 calories and 35 grams of protein depending on the protein powder that you use.

You don’t have to use cocoa in this recipe - you can use most anything else that you’d like, but make sure you calculate the calories accordingly. Fruit is a really popular choice for this mixture, but you could also use a low calorie sweetener (such as Mio) to make your mixture have a different flavor. For chocolate lovers, cocoa is a must.

If you’re in need of a simple and healthy treat, greek yogurt with cocoa or other mixin is a simple way to fill that need without killing your calorie needs.