Valentine’s Day is a time to show someone you love them and most people do that through sweet treats. Food is basically a love language of its own (reference to the 5 Love Languages book). If you’ve never read that book then here’s a quick summary – People show and receive love in different ways.. some show love by buying gifts, spending quality time, doing acts of service, etc.. But a 6th love language that almost everyone can relate to is preparing and sharing food with others. Being the foodies we are, we love this quality because we love preparing food, eating food, sharing food, and learning about food!
Something we’ve noticed over the years is that people generally like to spread love by preparing and sharing sugar, fat, and calorie-loaded foods (cupcakes, brownies, fudge, etc). As dietitians we knew there had to be some better options. We put our heads together and brainstormed some equally delicious yet relatively healthy Valentine’s Day desserts. The best option we came up with is an already popular V-Day dessert (and my favorite dessert year round) and is also so simple, easy, and romantic – Dark chocolate covered fruit
Dark chocolate covered fruit is not only a more healthy V-Day dessert, but it’ also super easy to make and it doesn’t take a culinary expert to make it look fancy and elegant. Observe Example A… I dipped all of these bananas and strawberries in chocolate and rolled them in nuts and coconut. I don’t want to brag or anything but… they look prettyyy fancy. I can also attest that they taste equaling amazing as there are zero left.
Another great thing about dark chocolate covered fruit is you can decide how dark you want the chocolate. The darker the chocolate, the less sugar it will contain and hence the healthier it will be. 100% Cacao Baker’s Chocolate is as dark as it gets and there’s zero sweetness other than the natural sugar in the fruit. Natalie and I tested this out and wouldn’t recommend it for the majority of chocolate connoisseurs unless you are a unique soul that enjoys intense, dark chocolate. We like to combine the 100% Cacao Baker’s Chocolate with another dairy-free dark chocolate to make a super dark, yet slightly sweetened, chocolate concoction. Remember- the strawberries and bananas provide quite a bit of sweetness so you can get away with using a darker chocolate than you would normally prefer.
Delectable Dark Chocolate Covered Fruit
Ingredients
- 1 lb Strawberries washed
- 3 Bananas
- 18 oz Dark Chocolate dairy-free
- 1/3 cup nuts of choice almonds, walnuts, pecans, peanuts, etc.
- 1/3 cup shaved coconut
Instructions
- Chop up nuts into small/fine pieces.
- Toast shaved coconut in the oven at 300'F for 3 to 5 minutes. Check the coconut regularly as it will quickly burn.
Chocolate Covered Strawberries
- Melt chocolate in a double boiler or in a microwave-safe bowl. If melting in the microwave, heat for 45 seconds and then stir. Do this continuously until chocolate is melted and smooth.
- Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- Place a toothpick in the top of the strawberry. This gives you something to hold on to when dipping your berries in chocolate. Dip each strawberry in chocolate, letting excess chocolate drip off. Roll strawberry in chopped nuts or toasted coconut (if desired) and place each strawberry on the cookie sheet.
- Place cookie sheet in the refrigerator until chocolate has hardened. Remove strawberries from cookie sheet and store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Chocolate Covered Bananas
- Remove skin from bananas and cut each in half. Place a popsicle stick in the cut end of each banana. Place the bananas on a cookie sheet and sit in the freezer for 1 to 2 hours, or until they are firmly frozen.
- Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- Melt chocolate in a double boiler or in a microwave-safe bowl. If melting in the microwave, heat for 45 seconds and then stir. Do this continuously until chocolate is melted and smooth.
- Holding the end of each popsicle stick, dip each banana in chocolate. If your bowl or double boiler is not deep enough, use a spoon to pour the chocolate over the bananas. Let the excess chocolate drip off. Roll the banana in chopped nuts or toasted coconut (if desired) and place on the cookie sheet.
- Place the cookie sheet in the freezer until chocolate has hardened.
- Remove bananas from cookie sheet and store in a freezer-safe airtight container in the freezer for up to 2 weeks.
Notes
- Green & Black’s
- Trader Joe’s semi-sweet chocolate chips
- Enjoy Life semi-sweet chocolate
- 70% and up of Lindt products (70%, 85%, 90% and 99% bars)
Nutrition