Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake

So its my puppy's first birthday and I wanted to make him a beautiful birthday cake for us adults to enjoy :o) but its ok, my baby got some treats and presents to enjoy. So I decided to make a cheesecake since it seems to be the cake of choice in my family. I thought at first, how about Hershey's website for a cake recipe? I LOVE chocolate. I wanted to make a chocolate cheesecake. There was one, bit it looked a lil' too simple so I thought: GODIVA! And that's where I found a beautiful chocolate cheesecake recipe. Well, my family members have some dietary restrictions so I decided that I would take the liberty to adapt this recipe to my family's needs. For instance I made a few changes to the crust, I used Splenda (R) instead of sugar and a few other minor changes. In the end, I got a beautiful, HEALTHY version of the Godiva Cheesecake.

Godiva Cheesecake
Crust:
1 cup dates
8 Enjoy Life Double Chocolate cookies
Cake:
2 packages of fat free cream cheese
1/2 cup coffee
1 cup Splenda
11.5 oz Godiva Milk Chocolate chips melted
1 cup egg whites
2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt


Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Greese a springform cake pan (mine is 10") and wrap the bottom in aluminum foil. In a food processor, mix the dates and cookies into a paste and then pat into the bottom of the cake pan and refridgerate. In the processor beat the cream cheese. Slowly add the sugar while mixing. Add the egg whites. Dissolve the salt into the coffee and then add the coffee to the cream cheese mixture and mix again. Add the vanilla and melted chocolate and mix well. Pour the cream cheese chocolate mixture into the cake pan and place the cake pan into a roasting pan. Fill the roasting pan with boiling water so that its half way up the cake pan and then bake 60-70 mins (when cake is set). Turn the oven off, hinge open the door and leave the cake alone for an hour. Remove the cake from the oven and cool. Once cooled, cover the cake with foil and refridgerate at least 6 hours.

Cranberry Chocolate Cheesecake

Yes, that's right. I made a cranberry chocolate cheesecake. Simply, I used the recipe for the Pumpkin Chocolate Swirl Cheesecake from Vegetarian Times and replaced the can of pumpkin with a can of cranberries and instead of 3 eggs I used 3/4 cup silken tofu, and dark chocolate instead of bittersweet. For the crust I used one package of chocolate GoldFish graham crackers and I used Earth Balance instead of butter. Oh, I used fat free cream cheese and cottage cheese as well.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake- Veganized!

So my friend N sent me this email for a chocolate chip cookie dough cheesecake. Well, it was fabulous, but as I've decided to give this vegan diet a try, I was now faced with the challenge: How to make this cake vegan... and taste good? Oh, and I had to make it healthy because I am on this never ending quest to lose 5 lbs (the same 5 lbs I've been trying to lose my 27 years of life). Hahahaha, Lulu is the next Iron Chef! Well I did it and I'm going to show you how.

Chocolate Chip Cookie dough Cheesecake

Ingredients:

Filling-

Vanilla extract

Mori-Nu soft silken tofu

1/3 cup agave nectar

2 T flour

32 oz Tofutti "cream cheese"

Crust-

1 pgk of Joseph's Sugar free Pecan Walnut Brownies (bite size)

2 T Earth Balance "butter"

Truffles-

1/4 cup agave nectar

4 T Earth Balance "butter"

2 cups flour

1/2 cup Sunspire non-dairy chocolate chips

1/4 cup soymilk

1/4 cup Mori-Nu silken tofu

1. Make the truffles but combining all ingredients in the food processor and MIX WELL. Put the dough in an air tight container and let it sit in the fridge for 3 hours. After 3 hours roll the batter in mini balls and lightly roll in flour so they're not too sticky.

2. Preheat your oven at 350 and combine the brownie bites and Earth Balance together in the food processor to make the crust. Press the mix tightly on the bottom of a spring-form pan (preferably 9") and bake for 10 minutes.

3. While the crust is baking, mix the filling ingredients in a mixer or food processor (I just find it easier to rinse to food processor each time instead of using so many bulky appliances). Drop in 3/4 of your truffles and stir into your batter. Then your batter into the cake pan and drop the oth

er truffles in.

4. Bake 45- 60 minutes (the original cake is for 90 minutes, but vegan cream cheese cooks faster so keep an eye on it and watch for cracking).

5. Cool overnight.

So I like to slice my cake into 16 slices because it is sweet and creamy so a small piece definitely goes a long way.

I hope you enjoy!

Thanksgiving @ Lulu's

So I hope everyone had a fabulous time yesterday filled with good food, football, holiday movies, family, friends, and WINE :o) There's nothing like a glass of red wine to go with that turkey. So like I promised, here are the yummy goodies that were set at my table. First I'm going to start with what I believe was the best part- THE CHEESECAKE. Mmm really what's better than dessert? I found this recipe for pumpkin-chocolate swirl cheesecake from vegetariantimes.com.

The ingredients were pretty easy to find:

I love using Libby's Pumpkin filling because there are no preservatives or added sugar. Just pumpkin.

The crust was graham cracker crust with melted butter. I couldn't find chocolate graham crackers like the recipe asked, but hey, regular ones are just fine. I baked the crust for 10 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

I mixed the remaining ingredients (minus the chocolate) in the Kitchen-Aid. I used fat free cottage cheese and cream

cheese because I knew there would be people at the table (myself included) that'd be like, "oh no, calories I can't eat dessert. At least not a whole slice". So I tried to take care of that problem. I also used brown sugar rather than white.

I took about a cup of the batter and mixed it with chocolate, which I melted in the microwave. After that I poured the non-chocolate mixture over the crust and then the chocolate mix was spooned onto and swirled around with a knife.

And the finished product was FANTASTIC and DELICIOUS and just a party of itself in the tummy of me and my guests :o)

Ok, so what else did we eat? Well I saw this broccoli with pecan brown butter recipe on Down Home With the Neely's and decided to make this as one of the sides.

So I couldn't get a picture of the turkey because it was torn up and inside people's belly before I could pull my camera out. So the other sides? Because broccoli isn't enough. I made stuffed acorn squash. Kima actually emailed me this recipe. Stuffed Acorn Squash:

In a 350 degree oven bake a squash cut in half (pulp and seeds removed) for 30 minutes in a baking dish filled with 1/4" water cut side down

In a bowl mixed 1-2 chopped apples (skin removed) with 1/2 cup dried cranberries, some cinnamon, salt and pepper to taste and two tbsp butter (chopped up in pieces makes it easier to mix).

Remove the squash and fill each half with the apple mixture then bake for another 30 minutes or until cooked.

Et voila...

We also had steamed asparagus, green beans with fresh cranberries and potato wedges. And in the end, it was one of the tastiest Thanksgivings I've ever had. I hope you guys give these recipes a try, and I can't wait to see what Kima had on her table yesterday.

xox Lulu!