Hi all,

I’ve had some extra time over the summer to cook/experiment with new recipes, so I thought I’d post a couple that turned out well! In particular, I made a cheesecake I really enjoyed, so I’m posting that recipe here! I also had two friends that don’t eat gluten free (thanks Tom & Val!) try it, and they also enjoyed it as a dessert!

I’ve also included how people following Trim Healthy Momma (THM) can alter the recipe to stay on plan.

So I made the filling from this No Bake Sugar Free Cheese Cake Recipe: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/19073/no-bake-sugar-free-cheese-cake/

For the filling I used:

1 (6 oz.) package of sugar free lemon flavored Jello dissolved in 1 cup of boiling water (For THM use gelatin and lemon flavoring instead).

1 (8 oz) package of cream cheese.

1 small tub (8 oz) of lite whipped cream (this does have 1 g sugar. You could make your own if you want it to be completely sugar free or are following THM).

2 teaspoons of vanilla extract.

Directions for filling:

Dissolve the lemon flavored Jello (or gelatin) in the cup of boiling water, and then cool in fridge.

Mix cream cheese and vanilla until smooth. It’s best to use some type of hand mixer for this if possible.

Once Jello has cooled, but not set, mix in with cream cheese and vanilla.

Mix the tub of lite whipped cream in to the mix.

Put the filling into a small pan, I used a 8″ round pan, and place in the fridge to cool. Mine took about 3 hours to completely cool, but some recipes recommend leaving in the fridge over night.

Note: this makes a pretty light/fluffy cheesecake. If you’d like a denser cheesecake, try using 1/2 a tub of lite whipped cream and an additional 1/2 package of cream cheese (so 1 1/2 packages total) instead of the full tub of whipped cream.

Toppings/Crust:

1/2 cup of chopped walnuts.

1/4 of unsweetened coconut flakes.

1/4 of dark chocolate chips (I used the Nestle Toll House brand because they had the least amount of sugar – 6 g. For THM make sure the chocolates chips are on plan).

1/4 cup of butter.

Directions:

Mix walnuts, coconut flakes, and chocolate chips together. Once they are mixed, add the butter and try to coat all of topping.

Bake for 8-10 minutes at 350 degrees, or until lightly browned. This may vary depending on your oven.

Let the topping cool down. Once it has cooled, put it over the cheesecake filling then leave in fridge. You can put it on while the filling is still cooling or after it has cooled, just make sure the topping is cool enough that it won’t melt the filling.

Note: you may have to alter the amount based on how much topping you want and if you want to try it as a crust instead. For me, it was too crumbly for a crust, so I decided to just use it as a topping. I really like using it in that way!

*The reason it’s “low sugar” instead of sugar free is because the chocolate chips had about 6 g of sugar per serving. You could use sugar free chocolate chips or leave the chocolate chips out if you want completely sugar free cheesecake! Also, the lite whipped cream had 1 g of sugar as well, if you made your own whipped cream it would element this sugar as well.

Variations: you could also use sugar free cherries as the crust or an additional topping. Also, you could add other fruits, such as blueberries and strawberries, either to the filling or as a topping. Any of those would taste great!