Healthy Lemon Cheesecake

Hi Everyone,

I am excited to show you my dessert for tonight!  It’s a wonderful, creamy little Lemon Cheesecake.  My Husband asked if I could make him cheesecake and of course I said YES, I’m not one to say no to dessert, but I had to keep it low-calorie.  How the heck am I going to make a low-calorie cheesecake?  Then I remembered going through the recipe section of Healthy Food for Living and there were individual cheesecakes.  So I took Lauren’s recipe and modified to what I had on hand, and to what I know my family and I would like and ta da, out came this wonderful cheesecake.

First the pictures do not give this little dessert justice.  For some reason a lot of my photo’s came out blurry so I took the best ones to show you.  For the crust I used a reduced fat vanilla wafer cookie.  It worked out perfect, almost fit the whole bottom of the cupcake liner.  For the cheesecake part I used fat-free cream cheese, Chobani Lemon Yogurt, an egg, vanilla extract and some sugar.  Than I added a little lemon zest to sprinkle on top.  That’s it!  Bake for 20 minutes or so and presto you have cheesecake.  It couldn’t be more easier!!

Now that I have the basics down, think of all the different kind of cheesecakes I could make.  I can’t believe how easy and fast this is, not to mention so tasty.  This is so perfect for portion control.  No more guilt of cutting into a cheesecake and wishing you could have more.  These little guys come in at under 60 calories a cake.  Yup, you read that right, creamy, delicious cheesecake for under 60 calories.  Now you can eat two or even three and not have any guilt.  I was shocked when I figured the calories out.

The only thing is, that it doesn’t peel out of the cupcake liner like a cupcake.  it sticks a little.  So if you serve these, I would serve them with a cocktail spoon right in the cups, that way you don’t have to worry about presentation, unless of course it’s your Husband.  He doesn’t care about looks, he just cares about the taste.

Lemon Cheesecake – Adapted from Healthy Foods for Living

Ingredients:

8 oz fat cream cheese, at room temperature

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

1 large egg, at room temperature

1/4 cup lemon greek yogurt

pinch of salt

9 reduced fat vanilla wafers

1 tsp lemon zest

Directions:

Preheat oven to 275

Line a standard muffin tin with 9 muffin papers and lightly spray with cooking spray.

In a small bowl add cream cheese and sugar and beat until creamy. Add vanilla extract, egg and salt, beat until combined. Beat in lemon yogurt.

Place a vanilla wafer to the bottom of each muffin liner and evenly spoon the batter on top  of the cookie wafer.

Bake, rotating pans halfway through, until filling is set, about 22-24 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack. Chill in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours, or up to overnight, before serving.

Makes 9 individual cheesecakes

Calories per cheesecake:  52.4,  Fat:  .08,  Cholesterol:  25,  Sodium:  193,  Carbs:  5.3,  Fiber:  0,  Sugar:  3,  Protein:  4.6

This was really one of the healthiest desserts I have made and above all its cheesecake!  You have to give this a try!  My whole family loved them, than when I told them the calories they just about fell over.   This cheesecake is very rich, full of lemon flavor and ever so creamy.  I am one happy camper and so is my family!!

So to end my post today, all I can say is try the cheesecakes, make them, eat them, enjoy them!!

Sorry, But I have to keep asking, please vote for Peanut Butter and Peppers!  Thank you!

Have a great day!  I’m off to have a piece of cheesecake!