Spoonful of Sugar Free

Registered Dietitian

2-Ingredient Macaroons

By

I swooned when I created this Macaroon, an I hope you do, too!

2-Ingredient Coconut Macaroons

~These macaroons are vegan, gluten-free, grain-free, dairy-free, and, of course, sugar-free!

  • Dried, Unsweetened Coconut Shavings
  • butternut squash puree (or another mild-tasting squash puree)

Take a spoonful of squash in a bowl, and mix with a whole lot of coconut! Mix together with your hands, and roll into balls. Add more coconut to the batter if it isn’t “coconutty” enough or if it doesn’t stick together.

These little gems taste extremely good, even if it lacks ingredients.

Health Benefits:

  • Coconut: Coconut is widely misunderstood because of it’s high fat content; however, coconut’s saturated fat is made up of medium-chain fatty acids. These medium-chains are easy to absorb and digest, and are converted quickly into energy. This means that the body has no opportunity to store the medium-chain as fat. Coconut is also a great source of dietary fiber with a whopping 5 grams per oz.!
  • Butternut Squash: Butternut Squash, like most squashes, is a great source of Vitamin A. With 457% of your daily value per cup, the butternut squash will help you form and maintain healthy teeth and skin. Vitamin A will help you keep go sugar od eyesight, too!
  • Also, these Macaroons are the perfect alternative to the sugar-loaded, artery-clogging macaroons we usually eat. These are a lot easier to make, and they can be thrown into a bag for a healthy afternoon treat.

Thought-provoking, mind-prodding question of the day:

I’m a little stuck on what to write or make. What recipe would you like to see “healthifed?” Are there any foods that you would like me to make and share with you?

Do you have any questions for me? Any health questions, personal questions, athletics questions, school questions, art questions? A lot of these are off-topic, but I love answering questions!

Do you have any challenges for me? I love a challenge!

Reader Interactions

Comments

  2. Oh my goll…I just bought a can of organic butternut squash puree and a whole bag of coconut because they were on clearance…now I just might know what to do with them!

    Can you make me a chicken pot pie?

  3. This recipe almost seems to simple to be real! Do you think canned pumpkin puree would work for this recipe too?

    Also, I’d love to see your take on making a healthy and tasty biscuit.

  6. You are seriously talented, omg! All your recipes are simple, healthy and soooo appetizing! (To me, at least!! Not sure about regular macaroon-loving people…) Anyway, I start school next week and WILL be making these to take as snacks 🙂

  9. Ooooh, you speak my language. Those macaroons look delicious! I love simple quick fix recipes like that. Genius!

    I would be interested to hear how you handle being sugar-free (at restaurants, with friends, etc). Do you find that something you think tastes super sweet is not sweet at all to others? If I had a nickel for everytime my husband said – “it’s good, but it could use more sugar.” I then proceed to add some sort of healthy sweetener for him, but it can be a little disheartening to make something that you think tastes great, only to hear “it needs sugar”. 🙂

  10. Did I hear you wanted a challenge? Do you think you could make a Pecan Pie? I love your recipes!!! Thank you for all of the hard time you put into them!! They are delicious!

  12. OK, I’m really going to make this. Once I had some kind of a squash soup which some how became spicy. It was good. And the coconut is a given, but thanks for the health info about it.

    ken

    • Well…..It totally depends. Anything with trans fat or hydrogenated oils is a no for me. Vegetable oils in general are not that great for you. I like real butter better. Raw butter is the best I think. Bu honestly, I don’t use either! I use virgin coconut oil (which solidifies at room temp) and olive oil (if you freeze oilive oil, it looks like butter). Instead of butter, though, I lather on the nutbutters!!! I can go more in depth in a post.

  14. Happy New Year 2011 !

    Can you think of anything to do with Cream of Wheat Instant cereal. I’ve been heating it with water in a cup, adding some rice milk and drinking it as an AM beverage along side my green tea with soy milk, all unsweetened of course. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the instant cream of wheat has 7 gm protein and 6 grams of fiber. Ideal ! It’s kind of creamy on it’s own, although somewhat grainy, not as creamy as polenta though. What do you think ?

    • Happy New Year, Anita!!1

      You drink cream of wheat? How does that work? Is it good? When I was a kid, I always used cream of wheat as a sort of oatmeal. I topped it with fruit and nuts. I would mix cocoa powder in it to make a coco wheats. You can always add it to bread and muffins and pancakes.

  15. mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, must try!

    I was not expecting squash to be the counter ingredient to coconut.

    creative you are!
    xo

  16. hi! did you then bake them? any heat involved in any way or do they just get eaten as is?
    would love to know
    thanks!

  21. How about sugar free rice pudding? I love ride pudding and would love to have a great sugar free recipe to eat as I can eat a whole LOT of it in one sitting!

  22. i swooned and drooled! I am trying to create a gluten free dumpling. Any thoughts on how to make it without getting the dough all sticky?

    • Well…if you add a little xantham gum, I find that the dough sticks to itself more than your hands. Or, wet your hands really well, and the dough won’t stick at all! Thats my best trick.

  24. Some quick and healthy homemade salad dressings! Salad dressings at the store aren’t very healthy at all!

  25. I would love it if you could make a muffin version of your sugar free monsters! I tried to myself, but it didn’t work out too well. I can’t eat wheat either, so spelt or kamut would be good. Any wheat free, sugar free muffin recipe would be fantastic!! I have no problem with dairy either.

    thanks
    Barb

  26. Yum! I love coconut. It’s funny, for the longest time I thought I didn’t like coconut, but I discovered that I’m just not a big fan of sweetened coconut. I love unsweetened!
    I think it would be interesting to see what you eat in a typical day, what you take to school for lunch, what the people around you think about your eating habits, stuff like that. I also what like to hear more about your tennis playing. When did you start? Do you plan to play in college?

  29. Oh and by the way, I’d love to know more about YOU! I agree with Ann-Claire: it’d be cool to see what you do/eat in a day, and I’d love to hear more about your tennis. I guess I just love knowing things about my bloggie friends. 🙂

  30. Hi, I am very new to your blog and love the sugar free ideas so please keep posting sugar free coconutty ideas. I have been obsessing for 3 days over coconut flakes. I was just eating them as is and wondering what can I make with them that’s light in sugar and added fats. So this idea couldn’t have been more on time.

  32. This is an awesome recipe! I would never have thought to just use these two ingredients together… interesting. Sounds really good though. Maybe a little Stevia and I’d be in dessert heaven! Thanks for the recipe.

  35. Hey Alex: I made these last night. They didn’t turn out as well as I had expected. Something was off about the flavor of the combination. It was a bit too sweet, but not in an appetizing way. Maybe I used too much coconut? I’m not sure. The coconut was unsweetened and I used organic butternut squash puree. I’m not sure what the problem was. Is there a particular brand of either, that I should be using?

    • Hi Beth,

      So sorry they didn’t turn out well! When I make them I use as much coconut as I can so that there is no squash left to taste. Sorry it didn’t turn out like you liked!

  36. Could you please try to make chocolate chip cookies? I haven’t actually tried this recipe yet but it sounds really easy and delicious!