5/02/2014

Choco Nutter Yogurt Dip

"What's better than peanut butter, chocolate and banana?"
-Stuart Rasch

That sounds like a wonderful combination to me!  I've been trying to follow a Weight Watchers guided healthy eating lifestyle since September.  I initially lost about 10 pounds over the first three months, and I was so happy.  But, when I reached my goal weight, WW automatically raised my daily Points Plus value by 3 points.  That doesn't sound like a lot, but where I had been avoiding using my "extra" points each week, I was not only consuming my extra 3 points per day, but also consuming all my 49 "extra" points each week.  It did not take me long to put on half the weight I had lost *sigh*.  I realized that I really couldn't eat much more than I ate the first few months if I even wanted to maintain my weight, which is what WW had raised my values to - maintenance level.  Since then my weight has gone up and down by about 2 pounds every couple of weeks, and it is so frustrating!  I work hard to try to eat healthy - I have the same breakfast every morning, I eat mainly raw vegetables with my Ranch Veggie Dip for lunch, and I try to limit myself to only one form of dessert a day...which is tragically difficult...and nearly impossible for someone who loves dessert as much as I do.  So, that leads me to this little recipe.  I am a huge fan of Pinterest (amandamelton83), so I searched out WW recipes with Points Plus values attached.  I mostly searched for desserts, and I found a chocolate yogurt recipe that used my favorite: Fage Total 0% Greek Yogurt.  I buy it by the quart...3 at a time.  Yes, I love yogurt!  At any rate, I tried the chocolate yogurt recipe, but it called for artificial sweetener, which I avoid, and even using slightly more real sugar than it called for the bitterness of the cocoa powder overpowered my tastebuds.  Don't get me wrong, I like dark chocolate, but this was too much.  Yesterday I had a brainstorm and came up with this recipe - now I didn't have any bananas on hand, but I use bananas as sweetener in yogurt all the time - I also use bananas as spread for toast, but that will be another post sometime - and I would have done that here if I'd had one.  I may do a recipe version 2 once I have some bananas.  I hope you love this as much as I do!

Choco-Nutter Yogurt Dip



Serves:  4
Weight Watchers Points Plus:  1

1 tb creamy peanut butter
2 tsp cocoa powder
1 tsp packed light brown sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2-2/3 cup Fage Total 0%

This is what I did, my note follows

1.  Place first 4 ingredients in a bowl and mix to a paste-like consistency.




2.  Add yogurt.  Stir to combine.  Serve with fruit of your choice:  bananas, strawberries, etc.


NOTE:
Do not, I repeat DO NOT make a paste with the first four ingredients!  You will have lumps in your yogurt, unless you use a blender to mix it up.  Instead...

1.  Place yogurt in 2 cup capacity bowl (mine was 1 cup and much too small to stir).
2.  Stir in sugar, vanilla, and peanut butter until well combined.
3.  Stir in cocoa powder.