I have a long list of desserts that catch my eye (well, really, my tastebuds). Here are three new favourites.

Cooking Light’s Roasted Banana Bars with Browned Butter–Pecan Frosting

(370 calories/slice for my version, the Cooking Light version is 220 calories/slice) 

SOOO GOOD. Because you have to roast the bananas (with brown sugar and butter, yum) for 35 minutes before you add them the batter, these bars take longer to make than your typical banana bread, but are well worth it. The brown butter flavour to the cream cheese frosting is pretty damn delicious, and compliments the toasted pecans and roasted banana really well. I made half the batter (and think that cake flour is a must for keeping these fluffy), but kept the frosting at the original amount, using regular cream cheese and doubling the pecans.

Picky Palate’s Double White Chocolate, Pretzel and Peanut Butter Cookies

(150 calories/cookie)

Pretzels in a cookie? This is a combination of flavours and textures that works, if you like a slight salty to your sweet. The crunchy salt-encrusted pretzels, combined with the sweetness of white chocolate, and perfection of peanut butter cookies. I used half the amount of white chocolate chips they called for though (½ cup melted with peanut butter, ½ cup stirred into the batter), and baked them for 10-12 minutes to keep them really moist).

Cooking Light’s Chocolate-Cherry Heart Smart Cookies

(110 calories/cookie, original recipe is 95 calories/cookie - no walnuts)

These make you feel a bit less guilty about eating cookies. I added ⅓ cup chopped dried cherries, ⅓ cup dark chocolate chips and ⅓ cup chopped walnuts. MMM.