I've become accustomed to eating dessert every night now as a little treat to myself. Its most always a Jello 60 calorie pudding with a spoonful or two of fat free coolwhip mixed in. Does anyone have any desserts that are good sources of protein though? I know it sounds funny but I just thought I'd ask!

anything with peanut butter, or nuts (almonds), yogurt, cottage cheese, cheese sticks, hard boiled egg (not really a dessert)

Frozen yogurt with protein powder mixed in. It sounds odd, but it's not too bad.

Here are a couple ideas:

We make that fat free jell-o pudding too, but we stir in a scoop of protein powder! (Have you tried the white chocolate jell-o pudding???!!!)

My husband makes these shakes (as the 6th small meal for the day - it might be too filling for dessert...) that we found in Oxygen magazine: banana, peanut butter, cocoa powder, skim milk, protein powder, ice -- blended! I don't like it, but he loves it!

My sister-in-law has cottage cheese all the time for dessert with fruity yogurt and fresh fruit.

Here are some options, depending on what you find appealing...

Easy No-Bake Thumbprint Cookies
3 1/2 cups rolled oats
8 medjool dates, pitted and chopped
1 1/3 cups unsweetened soy milk
1 1/2 cups raw almond butter
3/4 cup coconut, reserving 1/4 cup (optional)
100% all-fruit preserves
Grind oats slightly in a high-powered blender. Pour into a bowl and mix with dates, soy milk, almond butter, and coconut. Form into balls and press down in middle with thumb and place a small amount of fruit preserves in the indentation or roll in reserved coconut. Refrigerate before eating.

Almond Fudge
1/2 cup dates, pitted
1/4 cup plain soy milk
1 cup raw almond butter
1/2 cup raw cocoa powder
1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
In a food processor, chop dates and raisins until very fine. Mix the remaining ingredients with the dates and raisins. Press into an 8" X 8" glass baking dish and refrigerate. Serves 8.

Tropical Rice Pudding Parfaits
Pudding
1 cup short grain brown rice (preferably brown sweet rice*)
2 cups water
2 cups unsweetened soy milk, divided
1/2 cup canned unsweetened light coconut milk*
1 cup date sugar*
4 tablespoons arrowroot powder
1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut, lightly toasted, reserving 1 tablespoon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Fruit Layer
2 cups chopped fresh pineapple, drained
2 cups chopped fresh organic strawberries
1 tablespoon date sugar
Instructions
Cook rice in water according to package directions. Bring 1 cup soy milk, coconut milk, and 1 cup date sugar to boil in medium saucepan and simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Whisk arrowroot powder into remaining soy milk and add to boiling mixture. Simmer and whisk until thickened. Remove from heat. Toast coconut over medium heat until lightly browned, shaking pan occasionally. Fold in cooked rice, coconut, and vanilla. Pour into bowl, cover and refrigerate until cold, about 4 hours. Mix chopped pineapple and strawberries with 1 tablespoon date sugar.
Assemble
Spoon a layer of rice pudding into each of 6 clear parfait glasses. Top each with a layer of the fruit mixture. Repeat layers with remaining pudding and fruit mixture. Sprinkle reserved lightly toasted coconut on top. Serves 6

Almond Chocolate Dip
1 1/3 cups raw almonds (or 2/3 cup raw almond butter)
1 cup soy milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon natural cocoa powder, not Dutch processed
2/3 cup dates, pitted
Blend nuts, soy milk, vanilla, cocoa powder and dates. Add more soy milk if necessary. Use as a dipping sauce for fresh strawberries and fruit slices. Serves 10.

Mango-Pineapple Shazaam Dip
1 mango
4 ounces canned unsweetened pineapple
2 teaspoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons red raspberry vinegar
3 ounces silken tofu
Blend all ingredients together. Serves 8.

If you mean dessert as a stand alone, a couple of hours after a meal, then all the suggestions here are awesome... if it's something you have right after a meal, if there was protein in your meal, you probably won't benefit TOO much from trying to find something packed with protein since our bodies can only handle so much at a time, the excess usually literally gets pissed away (if you ever eat a whole can of tuna in one sitting, it has the "asparagus" effect for that reason).

20-30g of protein per "sitting" is how much your body will actually retain for the average person, so if you're getting that much out of your entree, focus on just enjoying your dessert instead of trying to find something to boost your protein intake. Having extra protein from something like one of Lilly's desserts won't hurt you, by any means, and they sound tasty, so enjoying them doesn't sound too hard there, but I wouldn't trade a post meal treat for something that's only OK but rich in protein

That being said, personally, I plan on trying each and every one of Lillys recipes.

yogurt, milk, fruit + blender... that's around 16g of protein.

wow, these are all great suggestions, and I may use them when i get sick of my night-time protein shake or cottage cheese

Fruit & low-fat (NOT NO FAT!!) cottage cheese- a perfect low calorie balance of protein, carbs, and fat!

Lilly, I am now dying to try this stuff. That sounds sooo incredibly delicious! Yummy!! Thanks for the great recipes!!

8oz Steak covered with low-fat low-sugar ice-cream. Sorted

You're most welcome...that's just the tip of the iceberg of what I have, too! lol...just didn't want to bog down the forum w/recipes.

@Elicia: I know a lot of people are recommending yogurt & cottage cheese as a protein source, and they ARE very good sources of protein. But, I just wanted to mention that for some people, dairy causes bloating and retards weight loss. (Usually just us lactose-intolerant people, sad to say...) As an alternative, soy products are good, if you don't mind the taste. ALSO, consider that greens have very high protein as well. I make chocolate smoothies w/a bit of spinach tossed in (you really don't notice the flavour) that are very yummy. (Would've posted those recipes too, but could just imagine the response!! "ewww...chocolate & spinach?" lol)

Nice response, C.

(Tangent: Another reason why folks concerned about glycemic loads should consider if the food in question is being ingested solely or not.)

I'm kind of partial to Colins idea!!

Thanks for all the great ideas guys! I love cottage cheese and I eat it every morning for breakfast, it's just so hard to see it as a dessert food, but I'm going to try
Laura - they make white chocolate pudding??? i LOVE white chocolate. right now my fridge is full of the banana chocolate, regular chocolate/vanilla, and the dulce de leche which is out of this world. I also really like the mint chocolate one. Sometimes I'll swirl in some PB for added protein and fat.
And thanks for all the recipes Lilly! I"m not really a date person and you said its just the tip of the iceberg of what you have so anything more chocolatey feel free to send to me!!!
Sorry Colin, I'm a vegetarian so I can't do the ice cream on steak thing

Elicia, I never really liked dates either until I tried medjool dates. They seem to taste better, and for the most part, they're so "blended in" that I don't notice them. You can substitute other sweeteners/dried fruits for the dates, if you like. And I'll be happy to send you more chocolately stuff

Here's a link for the chocolate recipes: Healthy Chocolate Recipes

Didn't have too many w/chocolate, but I know I have more desserts...The banana split smoothie & two of the chocolate smoothies don't have dates at all...I'll try to weed out the rest of the dessert recipes tomorrow

Lilly, I think you have just changed the lives of my daughters and me forever. Thank you!!!! for the recipies and link!!

Oh my gosh, Susan, you are so very welcome! I'm sorry I didn't have time to weed thru the rest of the recipes (have over 77 pgs in a Word document to sort thru), but I'll try to get them all together soon & post a link.

Desserts and Breakfast-y Items

Well, I separated out all the desserts & breakfast type items. It's long...something like 26 pages. I tried to do a table of contents, but it didn't convert well to google docs. If I still had my website, I'd post the doc for you, but I guess this will work well enough. All of the recipes are from Dr. Joel Fuhrman's website. He's the author of Eat to Live and advocates a nutrient dense diet. All of the recipes should be vegetarian and/or vegan with around 10% or less calories from fat. Enjoy!!