Welcome to Monday – the day of endless meetings + errands, too many cups of coffee to count, nursing sore muscles from your long runs over the weekend and, let’s face it, after such a hectic day, you know you want your cake and eat it too…

…but sometimes you need to settle for a healthy alternative and still get your chocolate fix

Banana + Chocolate + Coconut + Cinnamon = Healthy Dessert

What you’ll need for this treat..

• 1 Ripe banana – I cut mine into 1 inch pieces / bite size
• 2 Tbsps of chopped or shredded coconut – I used the organic unsweetened – be careful of sweetened coconut — lots of add’l sugar hiding in there
• 1 Tbsp of chocolate syrup
• 1 tsp of Cinnamon

Place chopped banana in the bottom of a bowl, sprinkle shredded coconut, drizzle chocolate syrup and top with cinnamon – in 2 min you have a tasty treat with some serious health benefits.

For you serious WebMD and fun-fact folks, here are some health benefits:

• Cinnamon – helps lower inflammation (great for recovery days!), lowers cholesterol, and helps fight pesky bacteria (another added bonus during cold/flu season)
• Coconut – a great source of fiber (not that most runners need it right? have you seen the lines at the port-a-pots?) and great way to boost your immunity (another winning trait during cold/flu season)
• Banana – excellent source of potassium (hooray for those aching muscles + no-brainer to athletes across the spectrum of sports), B9/folate which helps boost your happiness meter by allowing serotonin to enter your brain more efficiently, and 3 types of carotenoids which break down and are converted into Vitamin A (a powerhouse for helping to stave off certain cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular disease)
  • Quite possibly the world’s most perfect fruit

Nutritional Facts