After Dinner Snacks.
This may come as a shock, but there is not an endless supply of cookies, cakes and treats in this house. Trust me, you would be disappointed. Most people are.
This is probably a good thing since there is a lot of one thing in this house: snacking. You might think I’m exaggerating when I tell you that Mr. How Sweet eats 8 or 10 meals a day… but I’m not. I wish I was. Oh… I so wish I was. But that guy never stops eating.
Unless we eat a very filling dinner, there is always room for dessert or a snack. For Mr. How Sweet, this usually happens precisely 7 seconds after he has taken his last bite of steak. And his snacks are boring. They usually consist of a few handfuls of these:
Because according to Mr. How Sweet, pretzels are “like air and don’t have calories.” Fair enough. I also think that snack is quite age appropriate for him, since my dad snacks on them too.
Pretzels are not my snack of choice. In fact, I really don’t ever eat pretzels because they are dry and plain and not my thing unless doused in chocolate and toffee bits. Then I’ll fight you for them.
So when it comes to after-dinner snacks for me, I need something fun. I really am not the kind of girl who likes to eat one small square of chocolate and go on my merry way. Â I prefer something with more texture and flavor, even if it means adding a piece of fruit. Â Something like… a big banana blizzard.
This is the one blog trend where I jumped on the bandwagon and absolutely refuse to get off. Perhaps it’s my love for bananas. Or my love for making Mr. How Sweet clean the ginormous food processor each night.
But I love banana soft serve. This is odd, because I don’t like ice cream. I mean, it’s okay. It’s far down on the list of desserts I’d choose. I don’t like ice cream from a carton at all. I like it freshly scooped, but even then I need it to have tons of goodies swirled throughout with lots of chunks and crunchiness. And I also don’t like foods at extreme temperatures. Except for this. Oh, and mudslides and margaritas.
I get bored pretty quickly, but have been eating this for over a year and am not sick of it yet. Hallelujah!
For my favorite combination, all of this goes into the food processor:
- frozen bananas, obviously
- chocolate chips
- peanut butter chips
- coconut
- sea salt
- vanilla extract
- salted pecans
And I chop the heck out of it so everything is in small bits, but still crunchy.
Doesn’t it look good?
And doesn’t this look better?
Yes, I cover it with melted White Chocolate Wonderful (and more chocolate chips) and go to town. It’s filling and I get to eat a lot. And it’s fruit, which means it’s super healthy. Sort of like chocolate-covered strawberries or apple pie.
That is just a peek at what goes on after dinner most nights. And in case you’re wondering, tonight we had stromboli that exploded in the oven and it was fabulous.
What are your go-to after dinner snacks? And if it includes vegetables, I don’t want to know.
76 Comments on “After Dinner Snacks.”
Banana soft serve is the best!! I can eat two bowls without feeling guilty! :)
I love soft serve, it’s one of my favs.
I tend to go for sweets after dinner, especially this time of year! But if I’ve had too many sweets that day, I try to go for healthier versions like greek yogurt with honey, graham crackers and strawberries or an apple with some yummy nut butter.
My husband lives off of pretzels! We must have them in our house at all times!
Cereal for me!
Tony loves pretzels, but now he can’t have them since he has celiac. Yes they make gluten free, but they are 8 bucks a bag and that is a small bag! This looks so good! My go to snack is some oatmeal with loads of toppings! Kind of like a hot version of your ice cream.
Oh yum! I haven’t tried this yet and ice cream is my fav food! I just had an apple, in addition to some mini marshmallows and some frosting from a can… random!
That sounds like a snack of mine too. :)
I wish we had a food processor. I’m pretty sure that’s what I would have A LOT. After lunch AND dinner! I love bananas. And toppings. :)
And it is healthy, which is a plus to the deliciousness!
I love bananas SO much!
ohhhhh thanks for sharing this!!! I haven’t tried this yet (although I do remember seeing a recipe for it a while back and then forgot all about it)! I am going to make it tonight!!
Let me know if you like it!
I grab a handful (ok, maybe two) of almonds and mini chocolate chips. My very favorite.
I am totally with you on this one.
I had a banana soft serve after my dinner tonight.
I even though I shiver as I eat it and am too cold to
hold the bowl, I eat it anyways, cause it’s that darn good!
In my mix tonight went the bananas, along with frozen
blueberries, cinnamon and cocoa powder. Perfection!
Chocolate. Obviously. Is that a vegetable?
If I’m feeling especially virtuous, I’ll melt some Scharffen Berger bittersweet chocolate and mix it in with greek yogurt. And layer it with banana softserve with Scharffen Berger cocoa powder mixed in. And crumble a reduced fat pumpkin muffin on top.
At which point, I would have been far better off simply eating an entire bar of dark chocolate. Woops.
I know you said you didn’t want to know, but every night at exactly 10:00 I eat four parsley sprigs.
Shoot me…. I’m kidding.
Your night time snack almost has me putting on my tennies and running to the store for bananas.
Hahahahaha…. I knew it couldn’t be true!
I love this :) Just another reason I need to get a food processor. I cannot tell you how many times I have a huge dinner fair… sigh. Such is life!!
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YUUUUUM! Waiting for my Dad to get here to start dinner (if you wanna see what, just click over)… seeing this isn’t helping ;P Looks SO good Jessica.
that banana blizzard looks AMAZING. that is my idea of a great after dinner snack! i always crave sweets after dinner.
That looks delicious! I’ve only had banana softserve a handful of times and I thought it was pretty good.
I NEED a pre-bed/psot-dinner snack or I wake up in the middle of the night hungry. Its usually either dark chocolate and nuts, cereal, or a bowl of oat bran.
Haha this is great! My sweet tooth ALWAYS calls after dinner. Or lunch. Maybe even after breakfast. When that happens I usually whip up a batch of homemade brownies or cookies. Most box snacks just won’t do!
Love the looks of that softserve!
When I have them, Trader Joe’s PB Pretzels. Otherwise, apple with PB or something I baked that day… always have to have something sweet!
I love banana soft serve! It’s such an easy (kinda) healthy dessert. My husband eats salsa and chips. EVERY. NIGHT. Seriously. I don’t know how he’s not completely sick of it!
Yum Yum………DELICIOUS AND NUTRITIOUS!!!!!!!!
Dark chocolate, cookies, whatever baked good I make for the week.
I usually have cereal at night – and when I say cereal, I don’t really mean cereal because there are no cereals in a 25 mile radius that I can eat. So, I make my own with nuts, fruit, and some sort of baked good.
While I *DO* love ice cream (and would probably eat it every single day if I had my way), we are also snacky people after dinner. One of my favorite things (that I started doing when I was pregnant the first time, and haven’t stopped making since) is to take cereal – ideally Golden Grahams, but it can be anything really, even plain old corn flakes! – and microwave them with some mini marshmallows and chopped up dark chocolate! Mmmm! S’mores in a bowl :) I think I need to go make some now (I’m putting your banana blizzard on my list to make SOON — I need to pick up a few things at the store first….like bananas!)
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I love ice cream. And snacks in general. The boy calls me a “sugar baby” because I’m constantly wanting/eating something sweet. I’m sure you can relate.
I don’t know if I necessarily have a “go-to” snack though. It really just depends on what’s in the house. Currently it’s Thin Mints. Sometimes it’s ice cream (usually covered in Hershey’s syrup, chocolate sprinkles, and chopped Reese’s pieces or M&M’s). Sometimes it’s cookies and sometimes it’s candy. I haven’t been doing the grocery shopping lately so I haven’t been doing as much snacking though.
*Runs off to grab Thin Mints out of the freezer*
I like to eat fruit because I can’t trust myself with snacks… they escalate into meals, and then binges, and then I explode. Heh. I like banana soft serve though!
It gets better with each picture! My go to snacks are toffee covered peanuts. Sweet & nutritious too!
I like to drink hot tea. My current faves for fall are Tazo Sweet Cinnamon Spice and Allegro Rooibos Red Spice Tea. They are both caffeine free. I like to add either a bit of honey or agave nectar if I need an extra kick of sweetness. Hot tea is super filling for me so that’s another reason I go for it in the evenings. :)
I wish I liked tea. Not a fan.
Hey Jessica, I’ve tried the banana soft serve and it is AWESOME but I have one question. How do you usually freeze your bananas? In a tupperware? In baggies? When I’ve frozen multiple pieces they all get clumped together and it’s just a mess :/ But I’m sure there’s a really easy solution…
Thank you! I love your site + recipes by the way! I think this is my first time commenting :)
I always have a ton of frozen bananas on hand because I use them in shakes. I used to freeze them in halves, but now freeze them in slices, and I do use a big ziplock bag. They do somewhat freeze together but I just break them apart like ice!
Oh yum! Sea salt in there is a bit of genius. I love banana soft serve so much. I’m not sure what it is about it, its just so amazing.
Mmm! My favorite, other than soft serve, is just a spoonful of nutella! YUM! Uh, I think I’ll be having some of that right now!
i am so surprised that you don’t like ice cream! i made the banana soft serve once and loved it, but i never did it again because i really don’t like cleaning the food processor. your mix-ins make it seem worth it though…
I know, I’m strange.
Wow, love this! I just bookmarked this page because I must try soon! This sounds exactly like something I’d eat after dinner… or ice cream. Unlike you, I’m an ice cream fanatic!
Also, I wanted to let you know I’m making your Autumn Mac & Cheese on Thanksgiving :) I found it on Jenna’s site, tried it last week, and it was fabulous!
Oh good! I hope everyone enjoys it. :)
I have been eating cereal almost every night before bed.
My usual after-dinner snacks made me pack on the pounds. I’m trying to drink herbal tea at night instead.
Men are ALWAYS hungry I swear! My fav snack is soft serve fro yo or microwave kettle korn :-)
That is a genius dessert… I would never have thought of it!! We usually have lots of cookies and cake around here. THAT I NEVER LET ANYONE EAT!!! I am terrible. No dessert around here! :)
Banana soft serve was the mainstay of my diet during the summer. I’m at college now without a food processor but when I go home for thanksgiving (in 4 days, but who’s counting?) I get to have it again! =D
I put in tons of different toppings.
– ALWAYS, ALWAYS a tablespoon of vanilla extract no matter what other toppings!
– Melted peanut butter and jelly (fruit preserves) swirled in
– Peanut butter and semi-sweet chocolate chips
– Frozen strawberries
– Cocoa powder
– Cinnamon
– various nuts – almonds, pecans
Also, I’d often have it with avocado chocolate mousse… which is amazing. Just food-process 2 avocados, 1/3 cup cocoa powder, and 1/4 cup or more agave nectar to taste, and some vanilla extract (let’s say a tablespoon). It tastes nothing like avocado and all like chocolate mousse!
We eat dinner kind of late (around 7:00p.m.), so I don’t snack afterwards. My husband does, though! He can polish off a whole bag of pistachios an hour after complaning about how “stuffed” he is! ;-)
We eat dinner at 8 or 8:30… now I feel like a piggy. Haha!
I definitely need a food processor again. Ours broke MONTHS ago and my blender just doesn’t do the same job with the bananas.
One of my favorite evening snacks is popcorn drizzled with olive oil + salt. Yum!
Hmmm, after dinner snacks. More dinner. Cheese. Wine. Beer. Lindt Dark Chocolate with Sea Salt (a whole bar usually). Those types of things :)
Love that Lindt bar.
Now THAT is a decadent banana soft serve… and I want it now ;).
The banana soft serve looks deeelish! Though my husband is not a sweets eater at all, I always need a lil’ something sweet after dinner. It ranges from leftover baked goods to a scoop of ice cream, or even a spoonful of whipped cream – yum!
We are such snackers. We usually have something out while we are making dinner – like pita chips and hummus. It’s an appetizer, right? And we both usually have a treat (husband calls it a snack) after dinner. I call it a treat because it’s usually sweet! Ice cream, cookies, candy…just a little bit. I did get on a banana soft serve kick this summer but need to get back into that habit instead of the real stuff.
I would personally put Mr. Sweet’s post-dinner snack into one hand. Then I would put your dish of delicious banana peanut-buttery goodness into the other. COMBINE the two and indulge in a sweet/savory dipping masterpiece. I’m drooling just thinking about it.
You are brilliant.
I want to make this but I don’t have a food processor! Alternatives?
You can try a blender, it will probably work to an extent!
Oh duh, I didn’t even think of a blender! I will give that a try.
I love banana soft serve! I just started making it last month (after months of seeing it all over the blog world) and I’m completely hooked! I make it at least a couple times a week :)