I really, really love chocolate. And candy. And cupcakes. And every other food that is bad for you.
Oh, and doughnuts. I really like doughnuts. And It doesn’t help that there are 5 doughnut shops within a block of my office. (Curse you nutulla and cookie butter filled doughnuts!)
As you might predict, my love of all things unhealthy does not necessarily make it easy to live a healthy and nutritious lifestyle all of the time. Even when I am full and satisfied I feel as though I can always make room for a chocolate bar.
So... what is a girl to do when faced with this dilemma? Eat healthy or give in to the incessant cravings for sweets?
Obviously the answer is eat healthy! If you answered give in than you are officially banned from my blog starting now...
Wait.. come back! I didn’t mean it!
Lucky for you I have found a few fantastic solutions! Today I will post just one and then there will be a few more posted in the upcoming weeks.
I hereby give you my top go-to treat when I just NEED some dessert. You’re welcome in advance.
Protein pudding
If you have not discovered Jello brand fat-free, sugar-free instant pudding mix yet then I feel bad for you, son. You have 99 problems and the lack of pudding is one. (I apologize- I really tried to not add that but I couldn’t help myself) It the past few weeks this has been my go-to snack when I can’t go one more minute without some kind of delicious treat. I seriously could write an entire novel on my love affair with this pudding but I’ll try and keep it brief.
Step 1: Buy which ever flavor of pudding mix you desire (Vanilla, Chocolate, Cheesecake, Chocolate Fudge, Butterscotch or my personal favorite, Banana Creme)
Step 2 (optional): Happily skip home from the grocery store in anticipation of the glorious gift your taste buds are about to receive.
Step 3: Choose your flavor protein. I have been putting vanilla protein in the Banana Creme pudding but really the possibilities are endless. (Ex: Mocha protein in chocolate pudding, Chocolate Peanut butter protein in Fudge pudding, etc.) Go crazy with it.
Step 4: Mix your dry pudding mix and your protein powder in a bowl. I have been doing two big scoops of protein per box but I haven’t really experimented with it so play around and see what turns out well.
Step 5: Add your milk. Because you are adding the protein powder you will have to use a little bit more of the milk than the package says to use. Skim milk, almond milk, lactose free milk- use whatever you want EXCEPT soy milk. Don’t make the same mistake as me- your pudding will not set if you use soy milk. And then you will be sad and end up looking silly while drinking your pudding through a straw.
Step 6: Toppings. Once your pudding has set (the 5 longest minutes of your life) you can scoop out how much you want at one sitting and really get fancy with your toppings. When I’m feeling like I deserve an extra special treat I cut up slices of banana for my banana cream pudding and then top it with Special K cornflakes and a dollop of fat-free cool whip. How yummy does that sound? It tastes even better than it sounds.
There you have it! A (relatively) healthy, high protein dessert option! I have calculated the nutrition facts for a serving of pudding (1/2 cup) using a skim milk base and the kind of protein I have been using (Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard Whey) just to give you an idea. If you end up getting distracted and consuming the entire batch of pudding in one sitting (which I totally haven’t done or anything), you should multiply the nutrition info by 4. But my suggestion would be to not do that in the first place- just because this is high protein doesn’t mean eating giant servings would be healthy.
Nutrition Facts for one serving of protein pudding:
Calories: 125
Fat: 0.5 g
Carbohydrates: 13.5g
Protein: 16g
*The majority of the flavors have this nutrition fact breakdown except for Chocolate Fudge
Hope you guys enjoy this little treat! Let me know in the comments section how it turns out for you and some of the interesting combinations you come up with- I’m looking for some good ones to try!
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