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It’s finally time to step outside and enjoy the sunshine with friends, family, and lots of grilled food! You’re in charge of dessert, but you want to bring something relatively healthy to balance out the rest of the memorial day festivities. What to do?

Photo by Vincent Keiman on Unsplash
Here’s a list of several healthy and easy to make desserts that are bound to please. Plus, they are great for serving a crowd!

These Memorial Day dessert recipes range from sundaes and homemade popsicles to simple grilled fruits and classic bars and crips. You’re sure to find something that meets your needs on this list.

These recipes will also accommodate those with dietary restrictions. All of these desserts are gluten-free, most are Paleo and dairy free, and several are vegan, whole 30 friendly, or nut-free.

Healthy Dessert Recipes for Memorial Day

These healthy Memorial Day treats are separated into four categories, so scroll to whichever recipe group speaks to you.

• Frozen Treats
• Cookies and Bars
• Crisps, Cakes, and Tarts
• Sumptuous Grilled Fruits

Frozen Treats

Berry Sundae with Homemade Chocolate PB Shell Drizzle

A classic sundae always brings smiles to kids faces… and adults for that matter. This is a great option if you have a range of people with different affinities to dessert and you don’t want to have leftovers. It also allows you to accommodate both the dairy free and the dairy-loving crowds by just providing two ice-cream options.

For the super healthy, they can skip the cream and just enjoy the delicious toppings and fruit.

I made this originally with SoDelicious Ice Cream, but now I might make it with the new Oh My Gelato that is dairy free and only has 5 ingredients (read: no fillers).

The best part is the toppings. Use real fruit, seeds and coconut instead of candy and make your own chocolate PB sauce to up the flavor and avoid harmful additives. Bonus: it’s as easy as melting PB and chocolate together.

Rhubarb Cashew Ice Cream Cake

Stepping up the game a little, this dessert requires planning ahead, but will surely win over hearts and minds.

Again, you can choose your favorite ice cream for this concoction. I used cashew based ice cream from So Delicious, but Oh My Gelato, Brightside Vegan ice cream, or any other dairy-free ice cream will work as well.

This is made in a springform pan by layering almond cake crust, frozen ice cream, and a rhubarb puree.

Then you can make it absolutely gorgeous decorating with a homemade rhubarb drizzle and lots of fresh fruit.

It’s delicious!

Rhubarb Coconut Popsicles – Paleo

Another classic that brings you back to youth: popsicles! You might be tempted to by those red, white and blue pops at the store, but those have the unpleasant side cargo of heaps of refined white sugar, artificial flavors and colors, and other additives. Making your own keeps them clean, and that is good for everyone!

Plus, they are fun to make so you can get the kids or your girlfriends involved ahead of time.

These popsicles have two layers. You will create the first layer, freeze, add the second layer, and freeze again. The layers mix fruity rhubarb and creamy coconut.

Optionally at the end, you can decorate them with a drizzle of rhubarb reduction and desiccated coconut.

They freeze well so no worries if there are leftovers!

Cookies + Bars

Paleo Lemon Bars

Is it a even Bar-B-Que without a lemon bar? Some might argue no.

Well, luckily for you I have a paleo recipe for lemon bars that uses turmeric instead of yellow food coloring for that bright yellow color.

That turmeric also works behind the scenes as an anti-inflammatory agent, serving up health benefits instead of a sugar hangover.

This dessert recipe is easy to make and easy to serve!

Healthy Indoor S’mores Cookie Bars

If you have a fire pit, by all means, make the real deal this holiday weekend. But if you want to celebrate the oncoming camping season sans real fire, these smores cookies are the next best thing.

A delicious and oaty gluten-free cookie base is topped with a thick 1 inch square of dark chocolate and a homemade marshmallow.

There are two steps to this cookie before assembly: bake the cookie bars + make the homemade marshmallows.

Before you back away, know that marshmallows are made by boiling honey and water and then mixing them with gelatin. It’s totally doable and they taste really good!

Cakes + Crisps

Apple Tart with Drop Cookie Crust

As American as apple tart?

This Memorial Day recipe takes an apple pie and mixes it with the classic drop cookie or no-bake cookie. Can you get more nostalgic or American spirit than apple pies and drop cookies?

Enough said, right?

Except it also is gluten free, dairy free, refined sugar-free, and you’d never know it!

GF Classic Apple Crisp with Cinnamon and Clove

For the classic lovers, this recipe is easy to make and reminds you of summers long ago. The cinnamon and clove dusted apples melt in with the gluten free crumble crust.

This is great for pot lucks because everyone can grab as much or as little as they like! It is also relatively low on labor so great for fitting into a busy weekend.

Vegan Sweet Potato Chocolate Cake

A cake with hidden vegetables?! Amazing!

This delicious cake gets fiber, starch, and nutrients from sweet potatoes. Plus it has a scrumptious coconut cream frosting on top. The light whipped coconut cream pairs nicely with the dense chocolate cake.

You can decorate it with blueberries, strawberries, and raspberries for a patriotic vibe.

Grilled Desserts

Cinnamon Pineapple Skewers

Simple, sweet, and a little exotic with dusted cinnamon.

These pineapples are tied for the easiest dish with the grilled peaches (one recipe below). They drip with sweetness and give a warm caramelized flavor around the crisped edges.

You can throw these on the grill after everyone’s loaded up on burgers, brats, and grilled veggies and the dessert skewers will be ready as soon as guests are ready for dessert.

Grilled Peaches

Summer is the best season mostly because it is peach season, so there’s no reason to wait! Get started celebrating the best fruit with these grilled peaches.

Simply de-pit and slice the peaches in half, dust with cinnamon, and grill flesh down until the peaches are warm and have grill marks.

This, just like the pineapple skewers above, is an easy and super healthy memorial day dessert recipe.

Grilled Banana Boats

Bananas, peanut butter, and chocolate were born to be together.

This grilled dessert recipe requires mixing them all together and roasting on the grill until the bananas turn into a delicate whipped pastry-like texture and the chocolate and peanut butter are completely intertwined into a delicious melty goo.

You can make this peanut or nut free by using any nut or seed butter that works for you.

Choose chocolate chips without soy lecithin or dairy for a healthier option. Choose dark chocolate to reduce unneeded sugar.