I'll confess: I'm addicted to ice cream. Not as a once in a while treat, not just in the summertime. I eat it nearly every day, often twice a day. Lately I've been trying to swap out some of those sweet treats with something healthier, and I've found such a delicious substitute that I'm not missing the real deal (much).
It's cherry frozen yogurt, and it's so much tastier than the sugary, goodness-knows-what-sort-of-ingredients type of frozen yogurt you get from the store and those self-serve places. I am no kind of health nut, and I do not subscribe to any kind of diet or restrictive eating plan (other than being a vegetarian, but that's not really for health reasons).
But I try to eat mostly healthy, most of the time.
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| Chunky, yummy, guilt-free frozen yogurt |
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| Just two ingredients for all this luciousness |
I try to eat a lot of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and lighter dairy products. This frozen yogurt fits in delightfully.
You do not need any special equipment, just any food processor or blender that can handle frozen items. I do have a high-end blender, a Vitamix, which I love. But I don't blend this frozen yogurt all the way to smooth, because I like it a little bit chunky. So you don't need to have a top of the line blender. The froyo is thick, so I use this spatula to get every yummy bit out.
I don't follow a strict recipe, I'm more of a handful of this, a dollop of that kind of cook. But I'll do the best I can to quantify this recipe. Of course, you can adjust for taste.
2 Ingredient Cherry Frozen Yogurt
1 1/2 cups frozen dark sweet cherries (no additives, just plain cherries from the freezer section)
1/3 cup nonfat greek yogurt, plain or vanilla
(Optional - if using plain yogurt, you may want a tiny splash of sweetener like this or honey)
Blend until ingredients are incorporated, do not overblend. There should still be chunks of cherry. Enjoy!
That's it. It's a very generous portion, and it's under 200 calories!
You can eat it straight out of the blender for a soft-serve consistency. I usually put it in a mug (this double-walled is my favorite as it slows down melting) and stick it in the freezer to firm up just slightly while I clean the blender and the rest of the kitchen. We're talking five to ten minutes. Don't leave it in the freezer much longer than that, as it becomes hard as a rock. Yes, you can freeze it solid and thaw it a bit before eating, but the texture is never quite right again so I don't recommend it.
Feel free to try this with other fruits, I know cherries are naturally high in sugar and a low-sugar berry would be healthier. If you you're feeling extra daring, you can even toss in a little handful of high quality dark chocolate chips at the very end of blending (because you want visible chocolate chunks, not specks) for a "Cherry Garcia" sort of vibe. My photos show the cherries-only version.
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| Enjoying froyo out on the deck |
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| The lovely color is even more vivid in the sunlight |
