Summer is here and baking is something that I try to avoid in the hot summer months. That is why I came up with these No-Bake Strawberry Lemonade Cheesecakes which are perfect when you just don’t want to turn on your oven. No bake, easy to make, and delicious. I just made a batch and my family is already asking to have them again next week–they are that good!

What I love about these no-bake cheesecakes is that they only require a few ingredients and come together in minutes. And the best part is that for this recipe you don’t have to turn on your oven. How great is that?

The recipe filling is made from a mixture of sweetened condensed milk, cream cheese and Florida’s Natural^® Brand Lemonade, which makes the filling very creamy and silky. If you would like to use maple syrup or honey instead of the condensed milk, you could. I wanted to try with something that was more of a creamy, silky consistency, and sweetened condensed milk was the perfect ingredient to achieve this texture.

These individual cheesecakes can be put into any size serving dish you like. How many servings you get will depend on the size of the jars you use. I had old glass yogurt containers, so I used them for these individual cheesecakes, but you can use any type of jars you like.

I normally make this type of dessert at night and ahead of time so that they can sit in the fridge overnight and be nice and cold the next day.

These individual cheesecakes are perfect for a summer BBQ, a family gathering or even for any 4^th of July parties you may be hosting. These no-bake cheesecakes are sweet, bright and have a fabulous, tangy flavor.

To get this flavor, I used Florida’s Natural Brand Lemonade. Florida’s Natural Lemonades are a family favorite of ours: delicious and refreshing on their own, or used in marinades, salad dressings or desserts, like these cheesecakes! They come in five tasty flavors to play around with in whatever recipe you make, including traditional Lemonade, Lemonade with Strawberry, Lemonade with Raspberry and Peach, Lemonade with Blackberry, and Zero Sugar Lemonade.

These No-Bake Strawberry Lemonade Cheesecakes are a breeze to put together. You just need just a few ingredients and the fact that they are no bake makes them even more convenient. This is the perfect individual dessert to serve your guests this upcoming holiday. 

Enjoy!

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No-bake strawberry lemonade cheesecake

Miryam's original recipe

Yield: 10 servings

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Total Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

For the Crust:

• 1 cup graham cracker crumbs

For the Cheesecake:

• 16 oz cream cheese, room temperature
• 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk
• 1/2 cup Florida’s Natural® Brand Lemonade
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 cups hulled and chopped strawberries

For the Garnish:

• whipped cream
• strawberries

Directions:

Evenly divide the crumbs between 6 individual serving dishes, this will be the bottom crust layer.

In a large bowl with a hand mixer, beat cream cheese for 2-3 minutes. Add in sweetened condensed milk mix until smooth.

Add in Florida’s Natural® Brand Lemonade and vanilla and beat for an additional 2-3 minutes until smooth and creamy.

Evenly spoon cream cheese mixture into prepared serving dishes. Add chopped strawberries and repeat layer. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours.

Before serving, top with whipped cream and strawberries.

The post No-bake strawberry lemonade cheesecake appeared first on Eat Good 4 Life.

I know cheesecake is not one of the healthiest desserts to consume but to be honest, since I don’t eat full fat desserts too often I am ok with eating such desserts once in a while. I don’t get to over eat any type of food so when the time comes I like to enjoy and indulge.

I must say, this is by far one of the best cheesecakes I have made thus far. Granted I haven’t made a cheesecake in forever but the combo of the ricotta cheese and cream cheese was just sensational. It gave the cheesecake a very creamy consistency.

I don’t know, I think you just have to try it for yourself. I mean…look at the pictures, doesn’t this lemon cheesecake look the bomb? I promise, you won’t be disappointed, and yes it is the best cheesecake I have ever made.

One word of caution, do not try to use half fat or reduced fat cream cheese or ricotta cheese, the cheesecake will not turn out the same. For starters, it will crack on the top and the taste will not be the same so I suggest you just eat a smaller piece and call it a day.

I plan of making different versions of this lemon cheesecake. Now that I found my favorite batter for cheesecake the sky is the limit. Maybe a vanilla raspberry version would be just perfect.

On another note, sorry I haven’t been to active posting recipes in the blog. It turns out that I am on my third rotation of PA school, emergency medicine to be exact, which is actually one of the hardest rotations. I have been studying most of the time when I am not in the hospital to be able to pass my exam but the minute it is over in 2 weeks I should be up and running like normal.

Wish me luck!

Well, I leave you with this super awesome lemon cheesecake recipe that I hope you get to try soon. You are not going to be disappointed.

Enjoy!

Lemon Cheesecake

Miryam's original recipe

Yield: 8 servings

Total Time: 2 hours

Ingredients:

• 16 oz cream cheese, full fat
• 15 oz ricotta cheese, full fat
• 3/4 cup unrefined sugar
• 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
• 3 eggs
• 1 tsp arrowroot powder, or cornstarch

Base

• 1 tbs coconut oil, melted
• 4-5 oz Graham crackers, pulverized

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 300 degrees fahrenheit.

On a removable 9 inch by 3 bottom cheesecake pan place the graham crackers and melted coconut oil (this is actually the cheesecake pan that I used) Combine the crackers and coconut oil to obtain a semi moist mixture and with your fingers spread it and cover the bottom of the pan. Set aside.

Combine cream cheese, ricotta cheese and sugar in a stand mixer. Add the eggs one at a time and combine in between adding each egg. Add arrowroot powder, and lemon juice. Combine. Do not over mix trying to make the batter smooth, this prevents cracking when baking.

Bake for 1h and 30 min, depending on the oven. I normally bake mine for about 1h and 40 minutes.

After turning off the oven leave the cheesecake inside for at least another  30-45 minutes to cool. Cool at room temperature and chill in fridge for at least 6-8 hours before serving. Best to chill over night.

Before taking the cake out of the baking pan, loosely run a sharp knife around the edges. Serve.

The post Lemon Cheesecake appeared first on Eat Good 4 Life.

Anyways, these individual no bake lime cheesecakes where just plain sensational. Since the weather is getting warmer I am trying to avoid turning on the oven and sticking with no bake desserts and things of that nature.

It also saves me time since normally desserts that need to be baked require more time.

As I was making these no bake lime cheesecakes, of course, I was tasting the mixture. I couldn’t help but to think of other flavors that would go great with this ingredient combo. I don’t know exactly which flavors would be good next time but I am thinking that any type of berry together with vanilla may probably be great. Do you happen to have any other flavor combo ideas? If you do, please share.

I just remembered that yesterday was cinco de Mayo and this recipe would have been indicative of that holiday given the flavor. Oh well, maybe I should have posted the recipe yesterday instead but never the less, I don’t think you need the excuse of that especial day to make these cheesecakes.

For these no bake lime cheesecakes I sweetened the batter with Truvia’s new product, Truvia Nectar. I must say I am in love. The flavor is more subtle than using straight honey so I think it blends really well with the lime flavor and cream cheese mixture.

I am planning of making more desserts with their new product, especially for my diabetic friends, so stay tuned.

Well I hope that you like these individual no bake lime cheesecakes. You can keep them in the fridge for up to 5 days. These are extremely refreshing and light to the palate so I hope you get to try them soon.

Enjoy!

No bake lime cheesecakes

Miryam's original recipe

Yield: 6 servings

Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

• 16 oz low fat cream cheese, room temperature
• 2 cups Greek yogurt
• 1/3 cup Truvia Nectar, or honey
• 6 limes, juice
• 10 whole wheat graham crackers

Directions:

Place graham crackers in your food processor and pulse until they pulverize.

In your stand mixer, add the cream cheese, Greek yogurt, lime juice and nectar. Combine until you obtain a smooth mixture. About 30 seconds to 1 minute.

To assemble the cheesecakes, obtain small glass jars and layer graham crackers followed by the cream cheese mixture repeating layers as desired. No specific science to it, just as you wish.

Keep refrigerated for up to 5 days.

The post No bake lime cheesecakes appeared first on Eat Good 4 Life.

I am trying to make some spring theme desserts, at last because I have had it with the cold! Not that it is too warm just yet here in NJ but much better temperatures than being in the teens.

When I made this recipe I actually made quite a bit of the mixture, which was great because I thought of placing the remainder mixture in the 3 0z cups and make individual serving sizes as well. Such a great idea because they are supper convenient and easier to eat, especially for my kids.

I also used Truvía® Spoonable, which is zero-calorie. You can use this type of Truvia to sweeten anything from coffee to tea, cereal to yogurt, and many other items of your choice. For this recipe I only used 2 tablespoons, which is equivalent to 1/3 cup of regular sugar. For those that suffer from diabetes, or high sugar issues, this may be a better alternative for you. Check out Truvia other products, they have other alternatives to sweetened your baking treats too.

To keep the recipe gluten free I used gluten free  graham crackers, however, you can use any other type of graham crackers of your choice. I am super excited to start making more frozen desserts. My kids love them and so do I.

Because I wanted to maintain the texture of these strawberry cheesecake ice cream smooth and creamy I use heavy cream. I know is not the best of ingredients but once in a while it is OK. Is not like we eat this type of ice cream everyday so indulging once in a while it is fine with me.

Well I hope you get to make this recipe soon. The graham crackers give it a distinctive flavor that I love, the recipe is very easy to make since you don’t need an ice cream maker, and it is just plain delicious.

Enjoy!

Strawberry cheesecake ice cream

Miryam's original recipe

Yield: 12-16 servings

Total Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

• 3 cups heavy cream
• 2-3 tbsp Truvía^® Spoonable
• 8 oz low fat cream cheese, room temperature
• 12 oz organic frozen strawberries, thawed
• 10-12 gluten free cinnamon graham cracker, crushed
• 1-2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

In a medium mixing bowl add the graham crackers and with your hands crush them to obtain little pieces like in the picture.

Place the heavy cream and Truvia in your stand mixer, or hand held mixer,  and pulse until you obtain soft peaks. Add the strawberries to the stand mixer and pulse for 10-15 seconds until they crush a little bit. Add this mixture to the graham crackers.

Place the  cream cheese in the stand mixer and beat until soft and creamy. Add the cream cheese to the graham cracker bowl. With a spatula fold the ingredients together making sure that you don't over mix. You want to have some strawberries and graham cracker chunks.

Transfer mixture to a 9 by 5 inch baking loaf pan or ceramic container and freeze for at least 3-4 hours.

Alternatively, you can divide the mixture on 3 oz dixie cups and stick a wooden stick on each and freeze for at least 2 hours.

The post Gluten free strawberry cheesecake ice cream appeared first on Eat Good 4 Life.

I might confess that I have a sweet tooth, however, I am not a person to like overly sweet treats. These berry cheesecake crumb bars and not that sweet at all that is why at the end I had to add the caramel over the crumb.

Unless you are using regular jam, which I didn’t, these berry cheesecake crumb bars won’t be that sweet. My berry chia seed jam is not that sweet either so I had to use the extra caramel sauce, which in my opinion was genius. My caramel sauce is made from Goat’s milk, which I also love since it is not overly sweet either.

Make sure you don’t over cook these bars. When I baked them, I left them in the oven for an extra 10 minutes thinking I turned the oven off, which I didn’t and the bottom layer got a bit over baked, none the less, each single bar got eaten.

I have been cooking and baking none stop, and quite frankly I am a bit tired. Don’t get me wrong, baking and cooking are my hobbies and I will never stop doing that but having to take pictures virtually of almost everything I cook and bake makes it a bit tiring after a while. Sometimes I would just like to eat everything I make and not have people wait until I am done taking pictures, which sometimes can take a long time.

Anyhow, I hope you get to make these berry cheesecake crumb bars. Use any other type of jam of your choice. My choice made it extra healthy, since it was not that sweet and it was loaded with chia seeds which are a great source of Omega-3’s, a natural anti-inflammatory agents, and high in fiber.

Enjoy!

Gluten free berry cheesecake crumb bars

Miryam's original recipe

Yield: 12 bars

Total Time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

Crust

• 2/3 cup coconut flour
• 2/3 cup almond flour
• 1/4 cup coconut oil
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1-2 tbsp almond milk
• 1/2 tsp aluminum free baking soda
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Filling

• 8 oz low fat cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 tbsp maple syrup
• 1/2 cup berry chia seed jam, or jam of choice

Topping

• 1/2 cup brown rice flour
• 3 tbsp coconut oil
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/3 cup unrefined sugar
• 1/4 cup caramel sauce, optional

Directions:

Preheat your over to 350F.

In a medium mixing bowl mix the crust ingredients. Press this mixture onto a 8x8 square baking pan and set aside.

In another mixing bowl add the filling ingredients. With a hand stand mixer mix until the ingredients are well incorporated and you have a homogenous mixture. Spread the cheese layer over the crust followed by the chia jam or jam of choice.

In a small bowl mix the topping ingredients, except caramel sauce if using, and sprinkle over the jam. Baked the bars for 40-45 minutes. Let them cool completely before cutting. If using the caramel drizzle it over the bars and serve.

Keep bars covered in your refrigerator for up to 4-5 days.

for 40-45 minutes

The post Gluten free berry cheesecake crumb bars appeared first on Eat Good 4 Life.

The recipe comes from my gluten free chocolate cake I made a while ago. I turned the batter into cupcakes to make the chocolate cupcakes which I frosted with cream cheese and white chocolate. OMG…these were the bomb.

I actually made these gluten free chocolate cupcakes for my daughters birthday party this past weekend. I was originally going to make a cake but then I thought that cupcakes would be easier since I didn’t have to cut them and all. Plus there is less waste and mess.

These chocolate cupcakes are straight forward. You can use any frosting of your choice but because I don’t like using confectioner’s sugar I used the white chocolate which always works perfectly. The only thing is that this time around I forgot to add 8 oz of white chocolate and I added 4oz instead. The frosting didn’t look too runny but it was suppose to be a bit harder to pipe. Oh well I am sure that I will remember next time. Either way they were fantastic.

Well, not much to elaborate on this recipe. I have to make them again on Thursday for my son’s school Valentine’s party that got postponed due to all of the snow we had these pasts days. I hope the kids like them. Will see.

Enjoy!

Chocolate cupcakes with white chocolate frosting- Gluten free

Miryam's original recipe

Yield: 16 cupcakes

Total Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:

• 5 organic eggs
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1 cup brewed black coffee, you can use decaffeinated
• 1 cup coconut flour
• 1 cup unrefined sugar
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 3/4 tsp aluminum free baking soda
• 1/4 tsp aluminum free baking powder
• 1/2 tsp real vanilla extract

Frosting:

• 8 oz cream cheese, I used 1/3 less fat
• 8 oz white baking chocolate, I used Ghirardeli brand
• 2 oz organic fresh raspberries, more for decorating the cupcakes

Directions:

To prepare the frosting, place cream cheese and raspberries in a food processor. Pulse until mixed through. In a microwavable dish place the white chocolate broken into pieces and microwave at 45 second intervals stirring in between until melted. Add the melted chocolate to the food processor and pulse until well combined scraping down the sides in between if needed.

Refrigerate the frosting for 2-3 hours before piping to make sure it has harden enough.

Preheat your oven to 350F. Line a standard muffin pan with cupcake liners and set aside.

In a mixing bowl add the eggs, olive oil, and sugar. With a wire whisk, whisk until combined. Add coconut flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and baking soda and incorporate well until there are no lumps. Add the black coffee and mix through.

With a large cookie scoop, filled each cupcake liner 3/4 of the way and bake for 20-25 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Remove cupcakes from the oven and baking pan and let them cool on a cooling rack.

Decorate the cupcakes as desired. I used a 16 inch piping bag with a decorative tip and placed a raspberry on top of each cupcake. Keep cupcakes refrigerated.

 

The post Gluten free Chocolate cupcakes with white chocolate frosting appeared first on Eat Good 4 Life.