Healthy and Delicious 2 Ingredient Cherry Frozen Yogurt

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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.

Chunky, yummy, guilt-free frozen yogurt

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.

Enjoying froyo out on the deck

The lovely color is even more vivid in the sunlight

Healthy and Delicious and Possibly Green Smoothie Recipe

I have struggled with my weight since high school. I love to eat, and I have a major sweet tooth. But lately, I have stopped struggling and just calmed down about the whole thing. I exercise, I eat a lot of healthy foods, and I still eat some not-so-healthy foods - a girl's gotta have her chocolate (every day). I try to follow two very basic premises: eat when you're hungry (and don't eat when you're not); and fuel your body primarily with real food. And my weight has settled in a comfortable place. Not skinny, not fat, but I am fitter than I was in my 20s. And I can live with that.

So I wanted to share a recipe I made up. It's nothing revolutionary, just a basic smoothie that can be whipped up in a few minutes for a quick and healthy meal or snack. I don't really measure the ingredients; I only did so for the purposes of writing it out here. Every ingredient can be changed to suit your tastes, but this is a good jumping off point if you're looking to get into smoothies.

This recipe makes a BIG smoothie, plenty enough to hold me until lunch. I drink it out of a 24 oz tumbler myself; it won't fit into anything smaller in one pour. I really don't count calories, but I did a rough count here and if you follow it as written originally, it'll be under 300 calories. And it tastes like a delicious, sweet treat.

Possibly Green Smoothie:
1/2 cup unflavored non-fat Greek yogurt (If you want it sweeter, use flavored yogurt of your choice. But try to stick to Greek; just a half cup has about 11 grams of protein. Use more yogurt if you want more protein or if you like a yogurt-y taste. At this amount, you can hardly tell there is yogurt in the smoothie.)
1/2 cup blueberries (Or literally any fruit you like. Blueberries and other dark berries make the smoothie purple. If you want your smoothie to be an attractive bright GREEN, then use a yellowish fruit, like pineapple, pear, peach, mango, apple, cantaloupe, honeydew, or mandarin oranges. Those little individual fruit cups they sell for kids' lunches are perfectly sized; I buy the no-added-sugar-or-sweetener kind and throw the whole cup in, juice and all.)
1/2 banana (Even if you're not a huge banana fan - I'm not - but half a banana is just enough to add sweetness and creaminess.)
1-2 cups fresh kale - (Do not pack it in. If you use frozen, which is already condensed, I'd use a lot less; maybe half a cup. You can also use any other sort of green: spinach, chard, or whatever floats your boat.)
1/2 cup seedless grapes (You may want to use red if your other fruit is a berry of some kind - they tend to be sweeter and offset the berries' tartness. You can use green grapes if you're going for a really green smoothie.)
1/2 cup ice and/or water (If you're using all frozen fruit, you can use little to no ice; if you're using fresh, then make it all ice.)
Have water (or milk/juice of your choice) handy to pour in if your smoothie is too thick.

Put all the ingredients in a blender and blend at high speed. I like my Vitamix but you certainly don't need such an expensive blender for a smoothie. I like that it totally pulverizes the ice, makes the kale invisible (I don't find green flecks appealing) and gives me a really smooth texture.

The green version, with mango instead of berries

Sorry, I'm not a food photographer - this does taste better than it looks!

I drink this for breakfast all year round, even in the winter. I alternate with sips of coffee (I know, I know - but it really does taste fine) to avoid getting chilled. Ha!
Enjoy!

Edited to add: A friend pointed out that the latest research indicates that eating too much raw kale may interfere with thyroid function. Just in case, I've stopped using raw kale every day. I generally either cook the kale first, or use another green like spinach.

Do you have any favorite, tried and true, healthy and totally delicious recipes?