Healthier Chocolate Cheesecake Squares

christy — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 17:39:00 GMT

Are you tired of turkey? Crying over cranberries? Disgusted with dressing? Well so am I! I am so glad that the chaotic Thanksgiving frenzy is over. Ok, maybe the frenzy was only at our holiday table. What with all the turkey, potatoes, corn, cranberry sauce, dressing, and gravy it's any wonder someone didn't blow a gasket. Thankfully we all survived, bloated, but happy. And with it all being over I can now concentrate on Christmas and the chaotic frenzy that is going to entail. But before I get there I need to take off some of this extra gravy off my hips. So I am going to start incorporating more healthy items into my diet. More veggies and fruit, chicken and pork, and less red meat, fats and sugars. I'm not saying I am going to forgo bacon fat forever, God forbid, but I am making a conscious decision to substitute healthy for unhealthy and make smarter choices.

So starting today is the first recipe I am going to try. I found it on Martha Stewart's website (long live our queen). And what better way to start eating healthier than to start with chocolate! Yes, you can have chocolate and not pack on the pounds.

These cheesecake squares are made healthier by replacing some of the calories with reduce fat cream cheese and reduce fat sour cream. I also used Dark Chocolate cocoa powder instead of just the regular Hershey variety. And dark chocolate has some heart healthy benefits as well. So while these indulgent treats won't be considered "good for you" they are at least better than the full fat version. So lets get started and you'll see how easy, and delicious they are.

Here's the ingredients. Mini semi-sweet chocolate chips, eggs, reduce fat cream cheese, sugar, chocolate wafers (not oreo's), dark cocoa powder, corn starch and reduce fat sour cream.

To start I greased a 8 x 8 inch pan and then crisscrossed two rectangles of parchment paper and greased them as well. Then I processed the chocolate wafers in my food processor till they were fine crumbs. I put them in the bottom of the pan then pressed them into the bottom evenly. The recipe calls for 8 wafers, but I used 14.

Then add the softened cream cheese and sour cream to the processer bowl and blend till smooth and mixed.

Then I added the cocoa powder, sugar, and eggs. Actually my big girl added them, it was her turn to help momma "cooker" something. And she actually pushed the button on the food processor, which to you may not seem like such a big deal but to her (a girl who HATES loud sounds) it was a milestone achievement! Anyway, just blend those ingredients till throughly mixed. Then pour into the pan on top of the crumbs.

To make it look purty, you sprinkle some chocolate chips on top. I used mini so that you could get some in every bite and they would kinda melt a little. And it was all I had on hand.
After you pop them in the oven for 35-40 min (mine took 35 min) ya gotta let them cool for about an hour. Then I put them in the fridge for about 1 1/2 hours to set completely. It also makes them easier to cut. This is after it has set up in the fridge.

See how beautiful they are? And my goodness were they good. Just one was enough to need a large glass of milk. Skim, of'course!

Chocolate Cheescake Squares

Ingredients:
Makes 9

Nonstick cooking spray
8 chocolate wafer cookies
1 bar (8 ounces) reduced-fat cream cheese
1 cup reduced-fat sour cream
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tablespoons cornstarch
3/4 cup sugar
1 large whole egg plus 1 large egg white
1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Coat an 8-inch square baking pan with cooking spray. Line with two crisscrossed pieces of parchment or wax paper, spraying between sheets. Spray lined pan; set aside.
Process cookies in a food processor until finely ground. Gently press crumbs into bottom of prepared pan (do not rinse processor bowl).
Blend cream cheese and sour cream in food processor until smooth, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Add cocoa, cornstarch, sugar, egg, and egg white; process until smooth. Pour into pan; sprinkle with chocolate chips.
Bake until just set, 35 to 40 minutes; cool completely in pan. Refrigerate at least 1 hour. Invert onto a tray; peel off paper, and reinvert crust side down. Cut into squares.

Avocado Cream and Guacamole

christy — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 01:36:00 GMT

I love avocado's. I never used to like them at all. However, while we were living in Jacksonville, Florida some friends of ours tuned us into the joys of that ugly little fruit. Yes, I said "fruit". The name "avocado" refers to the fruit (really a berry) of the avocado tree that contains an egg-shaped pit. Odd, I know. But it is. And like other odd things in the hortoculture arena (tomatoes are fruits too) it makes me feel like there is one more thing in this big wide world I can't possibly understand. So I don't. I leave it up to the experts to decide what is and isn't fruit and I just eat'em. And I love to eat avocado's. Did I say that already? No? Okay, good. Here is a recipe for an avocado cream which can be used in many different ways. It would be good on fish or burgers. Or if thinned out with a little milk would be good as a salad dressing. Use your imagination and find your own ways to use this delicious cream.

Avocado cream
1/2 cup sour cream
2 ripe avocados, peeled,pitted and diced
1 Tbls Roasted Garlic
juice from 1 lime
salt and pepper to taste

In a medium bowl, combine roasted garlic, sour cream and avocado. Mash with a fork until blended and smooth. Add lime juice and season, to taste, with salt and black pepper.

The Ingredients. Avocado, Lime, Sour Cream, Roasted Garlic.

Add all ingredients and mash. I use a potato masher. Add Salt and Pepper to taste.

Your done. Now how easy is that? I used it on my hamburger. It definately gives it a deeper flavor. Oh, and please ignore that spoon laying there. It um...I'm not sure how that got there?

Guacamole
1 Avocado Cream recipe, above
1 medium tomato
1 shallot, finely minced

Peel and dice tomato. Place on several layers of paper towels and salt. After several minutes, press with more paper towels to remove excess juice. Add with shallot to avocado cream and serve with pita or tortilla chips.

I actually used onion, instead of shallot. But here is the salt, pepper, tomato and avocado cream mix.

Dice the onion really fine. Sometimes I even use a microplane to shred the onion, because I am not a fan of raw onion.

Dice the tomato really small. Then place them on a paper towel and press to get out the juice. The last thing you want is runny guacamole.

Now add it all to the avocado cream mix, salt and pepper to taste and enjoy with some chips and a beer.

Search results matching tag 'sour cream'

Healthier Chocolate Cheesecake Squares

Avocado Cream and Guacamole