Valentine’s Day is like the holiday of dessert. Candy, chocolates, romantic decadent dinners, all of it screams indulgence.
And there’s nothing wrong with a little indulgence!
My husband and I went on our second date ever on Valentine’s Day in 2004 (our first date was the week before, on February 7th, 2004 – when I was still in college). And how cute was my husband when, last night he gave me a hug and said, “happy 8 year anniversary of our first date.” 
!! So cute. Sometimes he can be really romantic, which I love.
Obviously, Valentine’s Day has a special meaning for us, like it probably does for many people. And for us, celebrating often has a grand finale of amazing desserts since we both have huge sweet tooths.
If we’re at a restaurant, I’ll take the evening to go a little crazy, and then I’ll detox a bit the next day. But if we’re at home, I’ll usually cook up one of my healthy desserts, because they are DELICIOUS, totally guilt-free, but they don’t taste like they’re healthy! Here are my five favorite healthy desserts, just in time for Valentine’s Day.
Guilt-Free Chocolate Cupcakes with Marshmallow Frosting
These cupcakes are full of chocolatey goodness, but are only ~120 calories per cupcake with 13g sugar and 2g fat. They really are guilt-free, but they’re moist and delicious, and the frosting is the best! Try the recipe here.
Secretly Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies
The secret swap in these cookies is the lentil flour, which adds a nice boost of protein and fiber to the cookies! You can also replace some of the fat by adding in applesauce for half the butter. Begin baking these cookies with the recipe here!
Chocolate Almond Date Balls
This recipe is 100% raw – there’s no baking at all, and these are so healthy they could even be used as a snack instead of dessert!
The Ingredients
- 20 medjool dates, pits removed
- 1/2 cup almond butter
- 1/4 cup coconut flour
- 2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 Tbsp cinnamon
- Finely shredded coconut flakes
These individual servings of apple pies are absolutely amazing. With a few healthy swaps and a minimal amount of added sugar, these treats have only ~110 calories per mini-pie! I like eating them with 1/2 cup of Dryer’s Slow Churned Vanilla Ice Cream, which puts this dessert at only 160 calories (with the ice cream!) Try the recipe here.
And now, for my last healthy dessert…
Healthy Chocolate Brownies
Each of these brownies is only 100 calories! How is that possible? Here is the recipe:
The Ingredients
- 15 oz can of black beans, rinsed and drained (yes, black beans!)
- 1/4 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 tsp espresso powder
- 3/4 cup of liquid egg substitute
- 3 Tbsp whole wheat pastry flour
- 3/4 cup of agave nectar
- 1 Tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- A couple tbsp chopped walnuts (for topping)
The Directions:
- Mix all the ingredients for a couple minutes in a food processor or blender, except the walnuts. Pour the mix into an 8×8 pan sprayed with cooking spray, and sprinkle the walnuts on top.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.
- Bake at 300 degrees for an additional 5 minutes. Let cool before cutting.
So that’s it! My five favorite decadent but healthy desserts. I hope you have fun making these recipes, and I hope they make your Valentine’s Day that much sweeter. Enjoy!
Hello! I'm Anjali. I'm a 20 something living in the SF Bay Area, with a passion for delicious food and a desire to make healthy eating easy, tasty, and fun! Try some of 
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Brownies made with black beans and a little agave? I’m saved! If I use rice flour instead of wheat, do you think that will work? Cutting down on sugar and staying relatively gluten-free (I’m not a perfectionist!)
Hehe yeah! And they taste amazing – you won’t believe black beans are the base of this recipe! As for using rice flour, I would think it would work, but I’ve never tried it myself. If you do end up using rice flour and it works well, definitely let me know!
Baked these brownies yesterday for my sons and their friends and used rice flour instead of wheat and 2 real eggs instead of an egg substitute (I keep chickens, so love the eggs).
It took almost no time to throw them together in a food processor and get them baked. They were incredibly delicious and didn’t last long. More like a velvety chocolate treat than a traditional brownie – none of the kids turned them down. Yum. We’ll definitely bake these again.
Not vegan, but dairy and gluten free, which is what our family needs. Thanks again for the recipe.
That’s awesome!! I’m so glad it turned out well using the rice flour and that your kids loved it! Thanks for letting me know
The mini pies win. Hands down! No one says no to apple pie. Nice, well rounded list of desserts.
Haha! That is totally true – I mean how can you turn it down? So glad you like the list!
All of these recipes look amazing especially those almond date balls. Yum!
Thanks!! And omg yes – the almond date balls are one of my favorite snacks (as well as desserts!)
i love adding black beans to brownies! though i must say i’m uber lazy and use a box mix…
Haha – sometimes I use a box mix too! But you can actually make a box mix super healthy by using 1 box of Chocolate Devil’s Food Cake Mix, and 1 15oz can of pure pumpkin. All you need is those two ingredients, combine them in a bowl, and evenly distribute into a 12 cup muffin pan lined with foil baking cups or sprayed with nonstick spray. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 min, until a toothpick inserted into a muffin comes out clean. Each brownie/muffin will only have 180 calories and 3.5g fat!
I am definitely making the brownies! They sound delicious. I use the black bean trick too but only with boxed mixes.
Yay! I’ve never used the black bean trick with boxed brownies, but I have used canned pumpkin with boxed brownies and it tastes delicious!
The Brownie recipe with the beans in it is very unusual to me
This is an absolutely amazing idea
Ill try it very soon
Thanks Aya! Enjoy!
Hi Anjali ,
I love your blog. Amazing. I am a picky eater too
I loved your Healthy Chocolate Brownies recipe. But I have a question for you. Instead of the black beans , would it make a difference if I use black eyed pea.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-eyed_pea
Awaiting your reply,
Thanks
Megha
Hi Megha! Thank you so much – it’s always fun to meet fellow Picky Eaters
So, for the brownies, I wouldn’t recommend using black eyed peas instead of black beans. Black beans are starchier and they are also black so they blend in well to the brownie batter. The black eyed peas are more watery and I’m worried that they might make the batter too runny. So stick to black beans if you can! Let me know how they turn out for you!
This information is great. Has made me realise that I don’t need to eat bad on Valentine ’s Day. I can still enjoy the desserts but they can still be good for me. I absolutely love the recipes you have posted and can’t wait to try them out. If you have any more healthy dessert recipes I would love to look at them as I am a “sweet tooth.”
Thanks so much Meika! I’m so happy you enjoyed this post – and yes! You absolutely can still enjoy sweet treats on Valentine’s Day without eating totally unhealthily. All of my dessert recipes are healthy/healthier than the original version – and you can find them all here: http://pickyeaterblog.com/recipes-and-health-archive/#dessert
Enjoy!
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