5-minute frozen yogurt -- no ice cream maker needed!

image and recipe from justataste.com

Made this tonight for a li'l somethin' sweet after dinner. It's SO easy, and pretty guilt-free! I used sweet cherries because they were half off at Fresh Market today. (The original used strawberries.) And so I changed some of the other ingredients, too.

Here is the original recipe.

Here is my variation (half recipe, compared to the original, because my food processor is 7 qts.):

Recipe: quick cherry-almond frozen yogurt

2 cups frozen sweet cherries (pitted)
1.5 Tablespoons honey (was a little weird; might try maple syrup instead)
1/4 cup plain Greek non-fat yogurt (If you use full-fat, leave out the cream.)
1 Tablespoon cream
1/8 teaspoon almond extract (amaretto or Disaronna would probably be lovely, too!)

UPDATED: I just made it a second time and much prefer this version...

2 cups frozen sweet cherries (pitted)
2 Tablespoons Disaronna or Amaretto
1/2 cup plain Greek non-fat yogurt (If you use full-fat, leave out the cream.)
2 Tablespoons cream
optional: additional sugar or sweetener, to taste

I put just the cherries in the processor first, and let them just get a little chopped up, till most pieces are halves or smaller. Then I added everything else and let it run. It clumped up on one side for a while, but eventually it all smoothed out. Taste and see if you want additional sweetness. I added less than half a packet of Splenda.

You might have to scrape the sides down once. But it only needed a minute or two to get smooth -- nowhere near the five minutes listed in the original recipe.

And this half recipe makes 4-5 servings, in my house. Your mileage may vary. Even if you double up, a serving of Version 1 is still under 100 calories, and less than 20 g of carbs! (The alcohol in Version 2 adds quite a few calories and carbs.)

Nutrition Facts Per Serving (version 1)
Calories 49
Total Fat 2 g
Trans Fat 0 g
Total Carbohydrate 9 g
Sugars 7 g

Protein 1 g
(Nutrition facts via myfitnesspal.com)

Recipe review: Coffee Heath Bar Ice Cream

For me, living a low carb life means that the majority of the time, I stay away from sugary foods. But it also means that it's okay to splurge once in a while. If "once in a while" turns into "pretty much every day," then it's not working! Also, if I'm going to compromise my healthy habit by eating something sugary, I will only do it for things I really, really love! Grocery store cake or cookies? Nah. Homemade carrot cake or cinnamon rolls? Worth it!

 This ice cream is one of those things that's worth it.

This ice cream recipe from Simply Recipes originally caught my eye as something to make for my husband. He LOVES coffee, and his favorite candy bar is Heath or Skor. But once I tasted it, it became one of my favorites, too!

 We served it at Christmas dinner. It goes great with pumpkin or pecan pie!

 By the way, we don't have an ice cream freezer. (Well, we have a vintage hand-crank one, but that only gets used if there are young children around, eager to take their turn at cranking!) We just put it in a shallow container in the freezer, and stir it every 30-60 minutes. I'm sure it would be even more amazing made in an ice cream freezer, but if you don't have one, don't let that stop you from enjoying this totally-worth-it treat!

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Peanut Butter Pie
No-bake Raspberry Lemon Cheesecake