This weekend I indulged my inner domestic goddess and made homemade chicken bone broth, veggie broth, tamales, and whipped up a few holiday treats.

Since I avoid refined sugars, but want to indulge a bit this holiday season, I’m so excited that there are some options for baked goodies without all of the guilt (they’re still made with real butter, so there’s some element of guilt). On Saturday I made a refined sugar and grain free version of gooey butter cake and refined sugar free chocolate chip cookies.

For the gooey butter cake, I used this recipe by Lil Luna and swapped out the traditional box cake mix with Birch Blenders keto cake mix and used Swerve brand confectioners sugar replacement. The only alteration I made to Lil Luna’s recipe was reducing the confectioners sugar from 3 1/2 cups down to 2 cups (it’s still plenty sweet!!).

The cookies were super easy and I still have loads of cookie dough in my fridge. I just followed the recipe that’s on the back of the Truvia Sweet Complete keto brown sugar package. I found some chocolate chips made with erythritol at Costco, by a brand I never tried before, but you could also use Lily’s brand (I LOVE their chocolate bars made with stevia).

The cookies didn’t turn out as sweet as traditional chocolate chip cookies, but they have the taste and consistency of a Chips Ahoy cookie (I’m not mad about it!).

My next treat will be making a dairy free, egg free, refined sugar free holiday nog. It’s not as sad as it sounds, trust me. I’ve made a version of this vegan eggnog by Minamalist Baker a few years ago, but used Swerve to sweeten it instead of maple syrup and it was quite tasty!

Would you consider making a healthier or lighter version of a holiday treat or do you prefer to indulge in the holiday season and get back on track at the New Year? This year, I decided I didn’t have to choose between my favorite flavors of the season and keeping in line with my health and fitness goals.