"Healthy" Reeses Chocolate Frosting

This post goes with the Healthy Chocolate Cake recipe that I posted yesterday. However, because I often get asked for a healthier frosting recipe when kids birthday's roll around and cupcakes are baked, I decided I should make this its own post.



So what exactly makes this recipe healthy, you may ask? Definitely the fact that it uses peanut butter as its base, for one. This step is only as healthy as you make it. We use organic, all natural peanut butter in this house (meaning very little sugar is added) instead of something like Jif or Skippy which can be very sugary, so I'll let you come to your own conclusions about which you should use. The point is to make this frosting healthier, after all. You can also use almond butter, although it will have a different taste. Secondly, no bad fats are added. Typically frosting starts with large amounts of butter. Here? No added fat. Cocoa powder is added for the chocolate, a smidge of maple syrup is used to sweeten (along with some Stevia, which doesn't count) vanilla extract and unsweetened vanilla almond milk finish it up, and what you are left with tastes like you melted a bunch of Reeses Pieces and frosted it thickly on a cupcake. Except this is less sweet. And I mean that in the very best of ways. You can always add more sweetener.

This frosting is thinned a bit extra with milk. It can be thicker though.


Like I said, you can use this frosting for any little thing your heart desires, but I used it on my Healthy Chocolate Cake and am in love. I mentioned this in the other post too, but for whatever reason, the combination of this frosting with my cake tastes a lot like my Cracker Barrel Coca Cola Cake. A healthier version anyway. Try it out! Let me know what you think!

In the rest of my life, I have officially entered into my third trimester of pregnancy. Week 28! Feeling good despite some muscle discomfort and back pain when I move around or stand a lot. I know that sounds pathetic like I'm a beached whale but I promise it's not that bad. I still do everything I normally do. I just can't take up running or anything. Which is fine by me because I would hate to take up running. And because I always state my opinions on this blog and then change them to the complete opposite a few years later, I will probably be a marathon runner come 2015. Check back for updates on that. True story- on one of my earliest blog posts I wrote about how I can't stand vegetarians. Although I have just started eating meat every now and then, I have been a vegetarian and many times eaten like a vegan for three years now. So...I'm not very solid? Or maybe I continue to grow and change? I'd like to think it's the latter. Lets go with that one. And then eat this vegan frosting. Yum!



Healthy Reeses Chocolate Frosting
adapted from Chocolate Covered Katie

makes 1/2 cup

• 1/4 cup peanut butter (or other nut butter)
• 4-8 tsp pure maple syrup (I used 4 teaspoons, plus a pinch of stevia)
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 4 tsp milk of choice (or more for thinner frosting- I used unsweetened vanilla almond milk)
• 3/4 tsp pure vanilla extract 

Blend everything together with a fork in a bowl. Best to store uneaten frosting in the fridge, covered.

I'm in Austin, TX this week on vacation (and a bike race for the husband) with new friends this week! Yay for us. NO kids! Also, we get to meet up with some of our favorite people, Craig and Sally in Dallas! I am super excited!