Two weeks ago I gushed about my brother and fiance, and now it’s time to focus on another two very important people in my life – Mom & Dad. My parents have been absolutely amazing throughout this whole wedding-planning process. My mom is an obsessive shopper who will visit 5 different HomeGoods in one week looking for a specific decorative box and my Dad has been a great sport about everything and is really helpful with anything computer related. But besides working together to plan the wedding, they’ve also taken it upon themselves to start having fun taking care of themselves physically. In the past 10 months since my engagement, they’ve both lost about 30 pounds (!!!!) each. Neither of them really exercised before, and now they’re at the gym almost every day, sometimes double sessions. They’ve caught the exercise bug and I couldn’t be more proud. I love that I can go spinning with them, do a step class with my Mom, and cook healthier meals together. They look fantastic, but I know they also feel a lot better and their hearts and muscles are better off too. So to celebrate, I’m dedicating this post to them and featuring a relatively healthy treat too :)
Now I’m pretty sure they didn’t lose all of that weight eating these truffles, but indulging in a few of these for a treat is much better than most of the other goodies I post here. They are insanely easy to make, and by using fiber cereal you’re getting a lot of good carbs and the banana and some peanut butter don’t hurt either. The chocolate coating obviously doesn’t scream health food, but I opted for a semisweet/bittersweet blend that is lower in sugar and might just have some health benefits. I topped some with chocolate sprinkles and some with crumbled up PB banana mixture and I really like the overall look. You can definitely fool someone into thinking they’re not as healthy as they actually are! Like all things made with banana, they definitely have a banana flavor to them, but I think that goes wonderfully with peanut butter and chocolate so I loved them. With a little over a month until the wedding, I’m trying to avoid sweets as much as I can resist, but with something like this I don’t have to feel badly! Here we are below before heading out to a gym class together last week, seeing us all together (looking so good, if I may say) in workout clothes would have been unheard of a year ago and it makes me so happy to see now.
So if you’re looking to shed a few pounds for wedding season and/or bikini season, but can’t resist sweets every now and then like me, I definitely suggest these truffles to curb your sweet tooth. And I’m not trying to trick you into thinking they’re delicious like my suspicions with recipes like black bean brownies or chickpea cookie dough balls . I’m thinking the people who claim those types of recipe to be yummy really just haven’t had a real brownie or cookie in awhile. So you can trust me, I’ve had plenty of brownies and cookies, and these are still pretty irresistible. I’ve lost a few pounds myself but still have found plenty of room for a good dose of chocolate here and there. It’s good for the soul!
Healthy Peanut Butter Banana Truffles
Recipe adapted from Back for Seconds
Yield: about 24 truffles
Ingredients:
1 cup fiber cereal, finely ground (I used Nature's Path Flax Plus Flakes)
1/3 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1 ripe banana
1 package (6 oz) Baker's melting chocolate (I actually used half a package bittersweet and half semisweet)
Sprinkles for decoration
Directions:
In a food processor, grind the cereal into fine crumbs. Add the sugar, peanut butter, and banana and pulse for a few times until the dough comes together.
Roll the dough into balls and place them on a wax-paper lined cookie sheet. Transfer to the fridge for about an hour.
Melt chocolate according to package's directions and submerge each truffle in the chocolate, using a spoon to scoop out each truffle and tapping the spoon side of the dish to get off any excess chocolate. Transfer dipped truffles to a wax-paper lined cookie sheet and sprinkle with chocolate sprinkles or excess truffle dough. Store in the fridge to allow chocolate to set completely and serve within a few days for best results.
I love the look of them. Yummy!!
Cereal as a base! That’s so smart! I can’t wait to try these!
my husband is the biggest fan of flax cereal, pb and chocolate! I think I’ll make this for him soon as midterms have passed by…
A family that works out together stays together! Love these healthy truffles too.
These look great and I love how they’re less guilty than typical truffles! ;)
First of all, your truffles are perfect. So round!!! I wish I could do that. I love the peanut butter banana combo too!
Congrats to your parents for losing weight. You all look great! I agree you need a sweet treat every now and then. These truffles look perfect!
Great job Barbara and Joe. You guys look wonderful!
These Truffles look super delicious, and pretty,too!
Uhh, YUM! Will definitely be making these, thanks for sharing the recipe!
Wow, those look delicious.
Peanut butter and banana are a great combination.
Is the 1cup measurement of the cereal before it is ground or after?
Erica — June 24th, 2013 @ 12:09 am
After :)
:o! i have some overripe bananas, i know what to do with them now! :p