Curing Cravings

Oh winter... The snow is pretty and I love Christmas, but I'm over you.  And I'm over these cravings for comfort foods and sweets.  What it is about cold, snowy days that makes you race to bake cookies and sip hot chocolate?  Okay, stupid question, but seriously, the winter time cravings are on the verge of affecting my progress, so it's time to do something about it.  In the spirit of not denying myself and not going too extreme with my diet changes, I've decided to find healthy alternatives that will satisfy these cravings.  I've been able to find some healthy comfort food options, but until yesterday, I haven't been impressed with the recipes I've found to cure a sweet tooth, without consuming massive amounts of calories.  

I LOVE Banana Chocolate Chip bread.  I made it way too often at the beginning of my pregnancy with Audrey, but I haven't made it (or pumpkin bread, another favorite) for over a year.  I found this recipe a few days ago through Pinterest and while I was skeptical, I was also hoping it would do the trick.  I was very pleasantly surprised!  They are super easy to make (all in a blender!), and filled with protein from the greek yogurt.  If you like banana bread, I'm pretty confident you will like these.  The only adjustment I made was I used a little less brown sugar than the recipe called for and replaced it with some drizzles of honey.  They are delicious.  And at about 125 calories per muffin, they've made a great snack and a sweet addition to my typical eggs in the morning.  The calories are still a little higher than I'd like, but they are made with good stuff, so it's definitely better than its sugar, flour and oil filled counterpart.  Some comments on the recipe also suggested substituting blueberries or another fruit for the chocolate chips.  I think I'll try that next!

Mug can be found here :).

Here's the link in case the one above passed you by ;).

I will share any other good finds, so that hopefully we can make it to the grilling/fresh fruit and veggie season without going backwards!