Orange & Rosemary Yogurt Cheesecake

As a cheesecake lover, I’m always looking for new cheesecake recipe ideas. Is it possible to concoct a healthy cheesecake? If so, I’m all about it. When I ran across a recipe which uses yogurt in the filling rather than cream cheese, I took notice. This cheesecake recipe uses a “labneh” which is Greek yogurt that has been strained to make a soft cheese. The labneh makes a smooth and light-textured cheesecake! It is higher in protein and lower in calories than cream cheese versions. Yes, a little healthier and very easy to make. This cheesecake recipe adds fresh rosemary and orange zest to the filling. These ingredients give a unique flavor “pop” to this cheesecake. Something different to brighten up an otherwise rather bland filling. And I added candied orange peels from marmalade as a topping.

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Ridiculously Easy One-Bowl Oatmeal & Apple Cookies

My grandmother Ida’s pride and joy was her “Oatmeal Bars” which we helped her bake every summer during our visits to her Iowa farm. She was especially proud that you could make these bars using only one bowl. I decided to bake a variation of her recipe, but making cookies rather than bars. I had a very tart apple to use up and added this to the dough. The cookies turned out great. They are soft and moist yet chewy with plenty of apple and oatmeal flavor. The cookies are very simple to make. I used a large saucepan and “dumped and stirred” in the ingredients — one at a time in order. For further ease, I adjusted the ingredients so that most of them are “one” cup or “one” item. The hardest part of the recipe is peeling and chopping the apple.

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Meringue Nests with Fresh Fruit for Passover and Easter

I cannot remember a Passover meal without my mother-in-law’s meringue nests for dessert. These are truly a family tradition. The little meringue shells are made from egg whites and sugar with a hint of vanilla extract and are filled with fresh fruit. They are tasty and colorful and truly remind me of spring. Fill them with whatever fruit is in season — blackberries, blueberries, raspberries or strawberries. Best yet, this dessert is fat-free and healthy. It will surely impress! This is the “perfect” and elegant dessert for spring — serve it for Easter dinner, too!

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Brown Sugar & Walnut Dairy-Free “Ice Cream” a.k.a. Frozen Dessert Delight

Summer and early autumn means that it is time for homemade ice cream. However, if you are lactose-intolerant, then eating lots of ice cream may result in an uncomfortable digestive reaction. Since we’ve started drinking almond milk at our house, I decided to see if I could make a dairy-free and lactose-free “ice cream” variation. I used almond milk, brown sugar and walnuts in the recipe and amaretto liqueur for flavor. To make a “smooth texture” I added xanathan gum. The recipe doesn’t contain eggs making this recipe good one for a vegan diet. For a finishing touch, I topped the frozen dessert with my “Fresh Cherry Topping” and some of the topping even got mixed in with the frozen dessert for a swirled effect. Well, surprise, it turned out to be quite delicious. Let’s enjoy this concoction.

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Yogurt Cheesecake with a Salty Pretzel Crust and Candied Walnuts

I like a challenge and was excited to see a notice for a contest to create a recipe using California walnuts. The goal was to submit a blog post and recipe using walnuts in either a sweet or savory recipe. Well, I love walnuts and so I jumped at the chance to enter the contest. However, by the time my walnut samples arrived in the mail and I figured out what to make, I’d missed the deadline. I made my recipe anyway. It is a soothing yogurt cheesecake — very healthy, too — I added a salty pretzel crust (savory) and candied walnuts on top (sweet). The recipe contains a “twist” on traditional cheesecake recipes. You will see. The dessert turned out great.

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Dessert Pizza with Fresh Fruit — It’s Gluten-Free

Who doesn’t like a dessert that tastes great and is also healthy? This dessert is gluten-free and also fitting for the the Pesach holiday (Passover). You might just like it because it uses an assortment of fresh fruit along with cream cheese, yogurt and a lemony-almond crust. It is a dessert which is hard to resist.

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Persimmon Log Roll

I wanted to bake something really unique for a fall covered dish supper. I kept looking at the persimmons ripening on my backyard tree. How about a persimmon sponge cake roll? Now that’s different. Well I was in a hurry — the egg whites didn’t get stiff and my husband ate one of only two ripe persimmons. But I took the cake anyway and was pleased that it all disappeared. The cinnamon in the cake and cream cheese filling really toned down the flavor of the persimmons. Many folks said how tasty the cake was. Think I’ll make it again — this time properly.

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