Turning my Cravings to Healthier Alternatives

The other day my friend told me she was cutting sugar out for her skin, and I was telling her all these crazy recipes I’ve made since last year. Whenever I crave something unhealthy, I try to make something to take its place that is still pretty good. So I figured I would make a chart to show what are my main food alternative.

Chocolate

I am a guilty chocoholic. I love the taste, especially dark chocolate! So in order to replace it, I use chocolate flavored PB2, Hershey’s Unsweetened Cocoa Powder, Water, and Agave to make a chocolate spread that is thinner than Nutella (and a HECK of lot less calories / sugar). Sometimes I replace the Agave with a Banana. And if I’m really feeling myself I mix it with roasted unsalted almonds and bananas and it tastes delicious! Sometimes I even prefer it over real chocolate (mainly the cheaper stuff). Rating: 9.5

Pasta

This may sound strange, but I actually like zucchini noodles more than regular carb noodles. But in general, I like colder pasta absorbed into sauce, so zucchini has that extra juice and absorbing texture that I don’t get with typical pasta. I mix it with pesto and it taste great! Fancy people may also add some fried shrimp. Otherwise I also think its pretty good with Greek dressing, feta cheese, olives, and sun-dried tomatoes. Rating: 9 mainly because it’s not as filling as the carb counterpart.

Cake

Honestly, this is not that tasty, so I would shy away from it unless you really like cake / bread texture. I only like cake or bread if it is warm and has a crispy outside soft inside, so depending sometimes this alternative can taste anything like chalk to weird squishy bread. Mushy brown banana, protein powder, and eggs mixed and put in a sheet or pan. It is best to use as tiny pancakes. Rating: 5 (aka, not worth it)

Sour Cream

Non-fat greek yogurt. Honestly it kinda looks and tastes the same to me, sometimes I am tempted to bring it to Chipotle because I love having extra sour cream / sauces. Rating: 7.5

Sauces

This is my guilty pleasure. In addition to crunchy foods. I could have soup completely dedicated to sauces. When I eat at Pollo Tropical, my bowl usually leaks from all the sauce I put. So what do I do instead? I have to suck it up and put lemon juice or apple cider vinegar on my food. If I had a food processor and more patience, I would probably make my own sauces, but I will save that for another day. Right now I’m still taking sauces left and right, I just choose the “lite” versions. Rating: 4

Crunchy Food

As I mentioned before, I LOVE crunchy food, but most are deep fried, carb-loaded, etc. So I go for roasted unsalted almonds, or passion fruit because the crunchy seeds are delicious! Otherwise I go for baby carrots, which is a different kind of crunch but still something. Rating: 7.75

This post was originally from misselizabethtran.wordpress.com and transferred over to Lashes and Sashes