I spent several days baking and eating cookies and fudge over Christmas. Now that I have stopped eating that stuff, I am having mini breakdowns every so often throughout the day, craving sugar and flipping out, pacing the house wanting candy and cookies. It sucks. I'm mostly ignoring it and drinking hot tea with agave nectar for sweetness. Or fresh fruit. I've been craving crunch, so I ate salad and lots of pomegranate seeds today.

Tonight after my healthy dinner all I craved was thin crispy cookies. I mean they were in my HEAD!! I even went so far as to look up a recipe online and sit and stare at the cookie pictures for about 15 minutes, telling myself not to bake them. I want them so bad, I would walk a mile to get a couple of cookies right now. But I didn't BAKE them because I knew I only want 3 or 4 cookies but I would end up with dozens, ruining my life for a week.

SO here I am sitting, dying for a sweet crispy cookie or snack. I really would like some ideas for a healthy snack that is crispy and sweet (besides the obvious apple slices). I am pretty desperate and dipping carrot sticks in honey sounds kinda good right now.

I don't know about crispy, but a good alternative to an ice cream sandwich is:

mix some cool whip with a teaspoon of chocolate chips, place between two gram crackers, freeze and eat later

cold grapes, pineapple chunks

wholewheat wheat toast sprinkled with cinnamon & sugar

you cannot eat it this minute but I am LOVING my sugar free jello today.

My staple for those times are chocolate chip rice cakes and toffee crunch rice cakes. SO sweet, crunchy and 60 calories each.

My best weapon if I really crave dessert is to have a square (or two) of dark chocolate. It's rich and indulgent, but I just don't have the impulse to overdo like I do with, say, cookies. I even find it a bit filling. And it's actually health food in a small quantity.

Ohhh yeah I do have sf jello cups in the fridge!! I forgot about them. And I also forgot about rice cakes! I used to buy them all the time and have one for a crunchy sweet snack with peanut butter or apple butter on top. I knew you guys would come through for me!! Thank you!

Keep the ideas coming

I just got these Edy's No Sugar Added Fruit Bars today. They're like popsicles. They are delicious and only 30 cals. And, I thought they were just sweet enough. I tend to crave sweet things at night and they really did the trick for me!

Have you tried combining a protein with your carb? For instance, 1 tbs of natural peanut butter on some apple slices, a few almonds while you're drinking your agave sweetened tea. Honestly, this is a Southbeach/Atkins/Low carb idea, but it definitely works. When I eat fruit alone or any kind of starch or sugar, I notice that my cravings and hunger for sugary starchy foods is higher.

I love Larabars - they are sweet and chewy, and you can make them at home!

Just grind up dates (the nonsugared ones), grind up any kind of nut and mix together. They have the most wonderful texture. I think if you toasted the nuts and left some bigger pieces - it would be a bit crunchier, not crisp - but good mouthfeel. I have been playing around with my own versions of these for a couple days and have been very happy with the results.

My favorite standby is plain non fat yogurt with blueberries, strawberries and some stevia, it's sweet but good for you too. I like the sugar free cheesecake jello pudding, it only takes five minutes to set up in the fridge. I get the no sugar added cherry pie filling to put on top. It has some after taste from the sweeteners, but it helps with the cravings.

They don't actually get too crunchy, but how about frozen grapes or blueberries?
If you mix them in some yogurt, you can put a little crunchy granola or nuts on top.

I like 94% fat-free Kettle Korn. For me, something lovely and sweet leads to more lovely and sweet things. Kettle Korn is just lightly sweetened and salty so I don't have that rebound of "okay, how about something salty now..."

I don't actually have a snack idea to add, but just want to throw an idea out there. There is an amino acid, available as a supplement, called L-glutamine that does a fabulous job of curbing cravings for sweets. It does lots of other good things too.

I didn't see the SB stand-by: LF ricotta with artificial sweetener & cocoa powder.