8.2.18 | Photo Credit: Elizabeth Finch

Over here at The Southern Well Being, we believe in living a lifestyle that FEELS good. It feels good to us to choose healthy foods most of the time, but it also feels good to include some favorite foods and treats each day. We aren’t into restriction.

We also aren’t into highly processed snacks and treats that ultimately don’t end up making our bodies feel as good as possible, and might even negatively affect our blood sugar, our mood, our energy levels, our digestion and our overall health and well being.

So we’re spreading the word that there are healthier dessert and treat options out there that are actually full of nutrition, not devoid of it. Empty calories come from those foods that are high in calories and have no nutritional value (think processed sugars, unhealthy fats, artificial sweeteners and chemicals). When you choose these foods, you’re adding calories into your body but there is zero nutritional benefit, or the ingredients might even be harmful to your body if they’re highly processed. We believe that living a healthy lifestyle means choosing more foods that are nutrient dense for the body, most of the time.

At our Intuitive Wellness Workshops, we teach guests how to make healthier treats to enjoy on a daily basis. We take them into the kitchen so they can get hands on and create these foods themselves. The recipes we show them all utilize natural forms of sugar like fresh fruits, dried fruits, honey and pure maple syrup, and other health promoting ingredients like cacao and nut butters. These foods all have powerful nutritional benefits, and they taste great, too.

Below are some of the clean and healthy treats that we show guests at our workshops how to make, and are ones that we love to enjoy on a daily basis as well:

1. ALMOND BUTTER DATES | Make a slit lengthwise in a medjool date and remove the pit. Stuff the date with almond butter or other favorite nut butter and top with a sprinkle of cacao nibs and a pinch of sea salt.

2. HEALTHY BANANA SPLIT | Slice fresh banana in a bowl and add fresh or frozen sweet cherries, pits removed. Top with sliced almonds, cacao nibs and a drizzle of raw honey. 

3. BERRIES WITH CHOC DRIZZLE | Make the choc drizzle by combining 3 tablespoons of cacao powder, 3 tablespoons of coconut oil and 1 tablespoon of maple syrup in a small saucepan. Heat until the coconut oil is melted and whisk to combine. Pour the drizzle over fresh strawberries or other fruit, and top with chopped pistachios.

4. BANANA NICE CREAM | Add a frozen ripe banana to a Vitamix or other high speed blender and add 2 tablespoons of unsweetened almond milk or other non-dairy milk. Blend until it reaches an ice cream consistency, adding more almond milk one tablespoon at a time if needed.