Healthful Holiday Treats

Published December 3, 2014 01:21PM

If you have a sweet tooth to satisfy over the holidays, opt for one of these five healthful desserts.

Mary’s Gone Crackers Ginger Snaps Cookies

Satisfy your sweet tooth in good conscience with these vegan, gluten-free ginger snap cookies, made with healthful ingredients like chia seeds and ginger root. Their wholesome makeup doesn’t detract from their flavor—each crunchy cookie has a rich, almost spicy ginger flavor we loved (and it limits how many we ate at once!). In each three-cookie serving are 140 calories, 23 grams of carbs and 1 gram of protein.

Justin’s Organic White Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups

Justin’s Nut Butter fans will enjoy the company’s newest peanut butter cups—white chocolate. The USDA-certified organic cups are not syrup-y, hurt-your-teeth sweet like other white chocolates, and the chocolate is balanced by the creamy high-quality peanut butter (you can taste the better quality of the PB). In each two-cup package are 180 calories, 4 grams of protein and 19 grams of carbs.

Caveman Cookies

Even Paleo eaters can eat something sweet this holiday season with either the North Pole (seasonal) or New World (year-round) flavors of Caveman Cookies. The North Pole flavor is peppermint and chocolate, and it has a mild peppermint flavor and stronger cacao flavor, as well as a chewy, almost seedy texture. The New World flavor is pumpkin, maple and cranberry, and you could taste both the syrup and honey flavors (the first two ingredients). The individually wrapped all-natural cookies are made with all whole-food ingredients such as honey, pumpkin seeds and almond meal. In each cookie are 65-70 calories, 8 grams of carbs and 1-1.5 grams of protein.

Ginnybakes Dreamy Vegan Delight Cookies

These vegan, gluten-free cookies are a tasty mix of coconut and vanilla flavors in a very crunchy cookie, which tastes similar to a molasses cookie. They’re sweet and salty, and they’re made with organic ingredients, such as shredded coconut, coconut oil and pure vanilla extract. In each cookie 50 calories and 8 grams of carbs (4 grams of sugar).

AlterEco Organic Truffles

The Triathlete staffers devoured these new organic dark chocolate truffles, combined with either caramel or sea salt. The individually wrapped (in compostable wrappers!) confections are made with whole-food ingredients, including Ecuadorian cacao and pure coconut oil. Each has a dark chocolate shell with a creamy, melt-in-your-mouth center. The truffles are USDA-certified organic and Fair Trade. Each three-piece serving contains 224-226 calories, 15 grams of carbs and 1-2 grams of protein.