Categories
General Weight Loss Tips

Sugar-Free Banana Chocolate Cheesecake

Guess what? I had dessert for lunch. Guess what else? There was no sugar or artificial sweeteners involved. And it was delicious. From one sweet tooth to another, make this recipe asap.

I’ve had this idea in my head since before I started my year without sugar and I finally got around to making it happen today. Here’s how you make it:

Sugar-free and naturally sweetened: Banana Chocolate Cheesecake

Ingredients:

Crust:

1/2 C. whole pitted dates

1/2 C. pecan halves (or any other nut)

splash of vanilla

1/2 t. water

! T. cocoa powder

optional: 1 T. unsweetened coconut flakes

Filling:

8 oz. cream cheese softened

1 very ripe banana, mine was black (I would use two next time)

1/4 C cocoa powder

3/4 C full-fat plain yogurt

1/2 C. Dates

1/2. C water

Optional topping: unsweetened coconut

What you will need: food processor, 9 inch pie plate, small saucepan, mixer, spoons

Directions:

Starting with your crust, dump all ingredients (dates, pecans, vanilla, water) into a food processor. Turn machine on for at least two minutes. Your crust is done when you can form a ball with your ingredients.

Press crust into a pie plate with your hands. Your crust will cover the bottom of the plate and a little on the sides. You can make it as thin or thick as you like. Set crust aside.

Use a stand-mixer or hand-mixer for the filling. Beat the cream cheese and banana together on low until smooth. Add the cocoa powder and vanilla and mix again until the ingredients are incorporated and smooth. Set mixture aside.

Put dates in your food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Add chopped dates to a small saucepan with 1/2 C. water. Turn heat to medium high and stir until the water begins to boil. Turn heat down and let simmer for five minutes. Take off heat and let cool to touch. Add dates to food processor, turn machine on for two minutes.

Add date puree to cream cheese mixture and beat until smooth. Pour filling over crust and refrigerate for at least one hour.

Makes 8 servings.

PS: I’ve been using the hamilton beach food processor for four years now and love it!

Categories
General Weight Loss Tips

Successful Sunday

If most days this year were spent like yesterday, it’s safe to say I would be in a very good place come 2012. And I want to make a note about it here as a reminder.

I woke up and ate a breakfast of an egg sandwich on whole wheat, flax toast. The egg was from a friends chicken farm and it was delicious with a little butter.

For a snack later I had a clementine. And a bit later a cup of chocolate chai tea, unsweetened.

I did close to an hour of Tae Bo Elite Bootcamp level 2 (my favorite ever!) with Billy Blanks.

And then our dinner was hosted by his mom and we had potato soup, bread, salmon, mashed butternut squash, and steamed brussel sprouts.

A couple of hours later I made a fruit salad (I was craving something sweet) with a mixture of apples, bananas, mandarine oranges, raspberries and chopped walnuts.

And now I’m off to make Monday just as good…

Staring with a similar breakfast (it keeps me full and satisfied), a date with Jillian this morning, a date with Billy later this evening with Josh, and then some nice shrimp pasta with creamy tomato sauce.

Let’s make an exercise date together! I’m promising to do Tae Bo this evening around 5:30pm, will you do some form of exercise with me? Let me know in the comments.

Categories
General Weight Loss Tips

I Spent the Day Making Cake

We made it through our first week of 2011!  I got caught up in being super productive (as usual this time of year) that by Wednesday I was totally burned out. There are only so many things that I can truly get done in a day. That said, I’m pleased with everything that I did manage to get done last week. I kept track of it all:

I took better care of my skin, I flossed daily, I didn’t eat sugar, I tackled the laundry, I finished a few freelance projects, I finished jewelry orders, I cleaned the house, I held the Floyd Creative Collective meeting at my house and set up a blog for that, I wrote articles, and updated my blog.

Things I didn’t do…exercise! I wrote that whole post about exercise excuses right in the midst of one big one: Josh was sick and I was trying to tackle a 100+ to-do list. The week before I was sick and no one was exercising. And this week was no different. And I’m feeling the results of it.

So this week, I’m scheduling exercise. And I’m starting today with a visit with Billy Blanks and continuing tomorrow morning with Julian.

I do think it’s funny that after my sugar video-which by the way- thank you for watching and leaving such encouraging/thoughtful/kind comments- I spent the day making this:

The hardest part about baking and not eating sugar is taste-testing. How would I know the cake wasn’t too dry or the icing was too buttery? I used my other senses. I felt the icing and it’s consistency and smelled the cake. It seemed to work.

This isn’t the best looking cake, but I’m proud of it nonetheless. Mainly because it speaks to my approach to life lately- just dive in. I have never (ever) made an iced cake or worked with fondant, but I knew I didn’t want to just put plastic figurines on the cake. I was up for the challenge. I marched right into Michaels, bought a cake decorating kit and white fondant.

There was a slight hesitation that it would be a total disaster, but I went in with gusto and pretty darn proud of the results. I guess the lesson here, if there is one, is that I can do anything if I put my mind to it. Even if it is daunting, new, uncomfortable and scary- and when I become fearless of the outcome- really good things can happen.

Finding life lessons in cake decorating? That’s what I do! Have you surprised yourself lately? I’d love to hear about it.