Dessert Week Offering # 7: Jen's Pumpkin Turtle Cheesecake Trifle

Happy Thanksgiving!! I know if you're anything like me this is probably a quick check in before the frenzy starts. If you're heading to a relative or friend's house for the big feast and still need a dish to bring, this one is a winner. It's super easy, delicious, and always a crowd pleaser.

In case you missed my post last night, we combined a couple of last minute Thanksgiving decorating tips along with links to all our recipes and the Survival Guide in one post for your easy reference.

We're thankful for all of YOU!

Today's offering is a combination of a few different desserts that are usually favorites of any crowd, so there is something in it for everyone. Pound cake + Pumpkin Pie + Cheesecake + Turtles Candies = Pumpkin Turtle Cheesecake Trifle! This is technically a "Recipe Remix" since I used a portion of the Butterscotch Pound Cake from Tuesday to make a totally different dessert.

The final result along with the main ingredients

I made this one in individual parfait glasses, sometimes I prefer that to a trifle bowl, especially on big holidays with lots of guests for dinner when I want the presentation to be extra special. My chocolate trifle looks beautiful in the bowl, but as you start dipping out individual servings it can get a bit messy. Not to mention the individual desserts make for MUCH easier portion control.

Here's how to make it:

I got a bit carried away with the garnish, also put a couple cake cubes and a tiny dollop of pumpkin on the top.

Jen's Pumpkin Turtle Cheesecake Trifle

Ingredients:

1 recipe Jen's Sugar Free Butterscotch Pound Cake

2 (3 1/2-ounce) packages instant Sugar Free Cheesecake pudding mix

1 (16-ounce) carton Greek Yogurt

2 (16-ounce) tubs Sugar Free whipped topping (such as Cool Whip)

1 can pureed pumpkin (NOT pumpkin pie filling, plain pumpkin)

3 pumps (tablespoons) Davinci Sugar Free Pumpkin Pie Syrup

3 pumps (tablespoons) Davinci Sugar Free Caramel Syrup

2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

½ cup sugar free Caramel Sauce (or ice cream topping)

1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts, lightly toasted 

Directions:

Prepare the cake according to the recipe. Let it cool thoroughly, then cut the cake into cubes about the size of walnuts. (Note: I usually bake several at the time and freeze them, that saves LOTS of time during the holidays.) If you're pressed for time and can't fit in a "semi-homemade cake" baking, substitute a sugar free pound cake or pumpkin bread for the cake base. 

Combine the Greek Yogurt, Cheesecake pudding mix, pumpkin pie spice, Davinci Pumpkin Pie Syrup, Davinci Caramel Syrup, and 1 tub of the whipped topping. Whisk together until thoroughly combined.  {Note: If you’re making this for an all post-op WLS crowd, you can add vanilla protein powder if you like. I usually add 2 scoops for a bowl this size.)

To assemble: In a trifle bowl, layer one third of the cake cubes, pudding mixture, whipped topping, nuts, and a drizzle of the caramel sauce. Repeat, layering the remaining ingredients, ending with whipped cream, nuts, and a final drizzle of caramel sauce.  I like to dust a bit of cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice over the top just to make it even prettier. 

If you're making individual desserts like I did, layer them in the exact same order as the trifle bowl, just in parfait or sundae glasses (or even martini glasses are pretty). 

Serve immediately or cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate until time for dessert. This is usually best if eaten within 6 to 8 hours of assembly. You can make all the components the night before and just assemble it right before time to serve. 

The perfect sweet ending to a delicious holiday!

Last Minute Thanksgiving Tips

~~posted by Jen

Individual or Side Table centerpiece: wine glass with pinecones, pumpkins, & gourds inside and a few fall flowers around the base. Pretty and EASY!!

Well guys, this is it! Tomorrow is the big day! (Or if you're on the East coast, today is the big day!) I don't know about y'all, but I have been running around like a maniac all day trying to finish up my last minute errands and get the big part of cooking prep out of the way.

Are you worried and fretting over how to handle a holiday foodfest since having weight-loss surgery? Nik and I remember that feeling very well, but we've got you covered with her BF Survival Guide to Thanksgiving. As usual, Nik has some very practical advice and tips that work well for any stage of the weight loss surgery journey.

If you're still wondering what to cook or making some last minute menu plans for the holiday, we have our WLS-friendly Thanksgiving posts all linked together here along with a Sugar Free Cranberry Sauce Recipe (both whole berry and jellied versions). I updated that post at the end to include a link to all the desserts we've posted for Dessert Week.

In case you missed it last night, I posted some easy yet elegant centerpiece ideas to make your tables look gorgeous, and I included a couple more here that are even faster and easier using some of the same components.

Nik and I are thankful for all of our friends, who also happen to be readers of our blog. We wish you a safe, happy, and healthy Thanksgiving!

Floating candles are inexpensive and beautiful on the table. This one is in a martini glass with a fall flower and gourd at the base of the glass. Group several together in an arrangement for your main table to create a beautiful centerpiece.

Dessert Week Offering # 6: Denise's Protein Caramel Macchiato

~by Nikki

A few days ago, my gorgeous friend Denise (waitinggame on OH) sent me this recipe for her Protein Caramel Macchiato. Here's the funny thing...she thinks that I invented it! Bless her heart...

I WISH I could take credit for this but I cannot. It was actually Jen's creation (which I did not know until just recently when Jen pointed it out to me!) but I believe Denise has managed to sneak a bit of extra protein in there.

At any rate, I decided to give this drink a whirl the other day. I'd just finished a particularly strenuous strength training session (note to the gym rats out there: if you lapse in strenght training, I wouldn't advise trying to jump back in where you were before. It can be painful. Just sayin') and my muscles needed the protein and the carbs from the milk for recovery! This made a nice bedtime snack and I could totally see this becoming my new faux-Starbucks fix!

Denise's Decaf Protein Caramel Macchiato

Ingredients:

1 scoop vanilla protein powder (Denise uses this)
8 oz milk
2 oz hot water
1 serving instant coffee (or instant decaffeinated espresso)
3 pumps DaVinci sugar-free Caramel syrup
Drizzle of sugar free caramel (I used Smuckers)
Optional: no-calorie sweetener to taste

Denise's Instructions:

Heat the milk in the microwave until nice and hot. While it is warming, mix your protein powder with your SF DaVinci in a large (12oz +) mug and make a creamy paste. Add a bit of cold water if you need more liquid to thin the paste. Once the milk is hot, put a whisk into the milk and spin it like crazy between your hands create foam (or use a frother or immersion blender). Pour the hot milk over the protein paste holding back the foam with a spoon. Add hot water and the instant coffee and stir it well until everything is blended. Pour the foam on top and top with a drizzle of the Smuckers caramel syrup. Enjoy!

This is a warm, comforting drink...and it saves me a trip and the expense of going to 'Bux. Thanks Denise for sending us your version!

Do you have a Thanksgiving dessert plan yet? If not, check out all the offerings of BF Dessert Week here and get to mixin'! We have some ideas for last minute yummies tomorrow should you need them.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Dessert Week Offering # 5: Nik's "Portion Control" Cheesecakes

(Warning: this is a long post. Go get a cup of coffee or tea and come back...I'll wait...)

Cheesecake. It is a wonderful thing and I don’t think anybody…not one single person…should be deprived of it.

But cheesecake is kind of hard to work into our daily plans, isn’t it? It’s richness makes it filling but, in and of itself, it doesn’t have sufficient protein to count as a “meal.”

Well, what if that weren’t so? What if you had a way to eat a controlled portion of cheesecake that gives you a decent amount of protein and fiber? Would you embrace cheesecake then?

(“Sign me up!”)

You may have already seen my recipe for banana cheesecake. Yummy though it is, I always have a bit of a portion control problem on my hands with that thing. Namely, I want to eat the whole darn thing! Unfortunately (fortunately?) my pouch doesn’t put me on lockdown until I’ve had a good bit of it. So…this started as an experiment in portion control.

Four lil' cheesecakes, reporting for duty! Pay no attention to the cracks...we'll talk about them in a minute.

So I put them in 4 ounce ramekins. Worked like a charm! Even figured out how to make just four—one for me, one for each of the divas and one for my lunch the next day. But then, as I got to making these lil’ things more and more, I realized there is an opportunity here for something WONDERFUL. Customization!

I’m giving you the basic recipe for my cheesecake and then I’ll give you tips on how to add a little variety.

Nik’s Basic Cheesecake Recipe
(makes 4 servings)

1 – 8 oz. package Neufchatel cheese (1/3 less fat cream cheese)
4 oz. unflavored non-fat Greek yogurt
1 egg
½ - ¾ c. Splenda (depending on your sweetness tolerance and what you are adding to it)
1 tsp lemon juice
2 scoops unflavored protein (these days I use BiPro USA unflavored whey)

Optional: 1/4 c. sugar-free syrup of your choice. I recommend starting out with something like sugar-free caramel.

(“That’s it?”) Yes, that’s it!

Directions:

Pre-heat your oven to 375 degrees.

Mix cream cheese, yogurt, protein powder, syrup and Splenda well. Add in egg and lemon juice and mix again. To mix, you can use a handmixer in a bowl. I used my Magic Bullet. Much easier clean-up!

Me putting my ingredients in my Bullet.

Pour the cheesecake filling into the 4 ounce ramekins. Place all ramekins either in a creme brulee set, or if you are poor like me, simply place them in a baking pan. Fill the pan with warm water until it reaches halfway up the sides of the ramekins.

"Look Ma! Po' folk can make cheesecake too!"



Bake at 375 for about 45 minutes or until they are set (how can you tell? Jiggle a ramekin. If it quivers, it's not done yet!). Then turn off your oven, prop the oven door open with a wooden spoon and allow the cheesecakes to cool down with the oven. Remove and cool further on the counter.

("For real,  Nikki, that's it??? Don't play with my emotions!") YES...that's it!

Now let's talk about those cracks. Those are not a result of the ingredients or the methodology. Those are a direct result of...Murphy's Law. I made these this morning and had to take the girls to school. The cakes had about 15 minutes to go. I said to myself "I'll just leave 'em in there. It only takes 5 minutes to get to the school and back..." Famous last words. We all know when we say that there'll be two traffic jams and some construction. There was and it took me 30 minutes to make a trip that should have been five minutes. Hence, they were a bit overcooked. If you cook them the appropriate amount of time that will NOT happen. :)

So let’s talk customization. There's three places, from my perspective, where you can change things up:

• The Filling
• The Crust
• The topper

The Crust

I went crustless with these (in the interest of time) but here are a few ideas

Nik's Beloved Fiber One Crust:
(makes enough for the above recipe)

½ c. Fiber One original cereal
2 tbsp light butter spread
1 tbsp Splenda

Directions:

In a mini-food processor pulse cereal until a crumb mixture forms. Pulse in butter until well mixed.

Press ¼ of mixture into each ramekin and top with cheesecake mix

Whole Wheat Cheerios Crust (more resembles graham cracker in texture):

½ c. whole wheat Cheerios
2 tbsp light butter spread
1 tbsp Splenda

Directions:

Same as Fiber One Crust

The Filling

Here's the REALLY important question: was the non-cocoa mix jealous of the cocoa mix? What do you think?

I did two different fillings. In the basic cheesecake, I put some Davinci sugar-free caramel mix. The others, of course, were chocolate, using cocoa powder. But the possibilities are endless. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

• 2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder (omit the lemon if you do chocolate)
• 2 tbsp of virtually any sugar-free pudding mix
• 2 tbsp decaffeinated instant espresso mixed with 1 tbsp water (to make a paste...this is especially good in conjunction with the cocoa powder but you'd need to bump up the Splenda to 1.25 c. to accommodate the bitterness)

The Toppers

There are two types of toppers, in my opinion. "True" toppers and swirls.

For true toppers, you can simply purchase a can of no-sugar added pie filling of your choice (except pumpkin...I don't see that working out well) and spooning it on top. Cherry and Strawberry work well. Or you can simply use fresh fruit like berries.

The photo at the top of this post is inspired by Jen's Banana Pudding. I topped the chocolate one with some whipped cream, no-calorie chocolate syrup and a wedge of a Thin Mint cookie. Do whatever inspries YOU!



I did not do a swirl but for a swirl you could use:

• No sugar added jelly or preserves (nuked for about 10 seconds to liquify)
• Melted chocolate
• Sugar free caramel syrup (like the kind that goes on a sundae)

To achieve a swirl, you'd pour your cheesecake mixture into your ramekins and then put a dime sized dollop of whatever you are swirling on top of the mixture. Use a butter knife to create a swirl pattern.

 Don't be disheartened if you get minor cracks in your cheesecake (bad decison making notwithstanding). I JUST made my first crack free cheesecake (since I am from Baltimore...insert obligatory "The Wire" joke here...yes, yes...chuckle, chuckle...) and I just so happen to have a picture of it. Lookit:



It was like Christmas morning to see a crack free cheesecake, but keep in mind I've been making them for YEARS!

Any way you slice it, this cheesecake recipe and method is a keeper for us WLS folk! I hope you enjoy it as a part of your holiday feasts.

BF Crafty Corner: Thanksgiving Decorating Ideas Part 1

~~posted by Jen  


"Hello, my name is Jen, and I am addicted to seasonal decorating. I hit rock bottom when I had a temper tantrum at Christmas Tree Shoppe in Freehold, NJ because they only had 5 matching placemats for my tablescape and I needed 6."

Yes, I admit it. No shame here. I love for my house and yard to be decorated for every season or holiday. There is a very good reason my neighbors used to call me the Martha Stewart of Cliffwood Beach! Sadly, I don't live in Cliffwood Beach anymore.

What I am calling home these days is not "my" house, but in my inimitable fashion, I have stepped up to the challenge of making it mine. Not that the actual homeowners are always on board with that plan, but fear is a powerful motivator in small doses. Especially when it's coated in a sweetly irresistible accent. Not that I ever use that to my advantage or anything ***eyelash flutter***.

ANYWAY...since I know many of you share my love of making things look pretty, we decided to add a new feature called "Crafty Corner" to share holiday decorating ideas. We typically show some easy ideas at our regional Pouch Party™ events, like the Holiday Preview we just did in Baltimore. So it only made sense to share a few with you here on the blog as well!

My decorating budget is considerably less than what it once was, but I still like to make things look nice. It's important to me and, most of all, it makes me HAPPY! So I put together a few simple and inexpensive ideas for centerpieces for your Thanksgiving table.

If your Thanksgiving set up is anything like mine typically is, there will be several tables with food in addition to the main dining table. I like to place a small decorative item on each table, with the main centerpiece on the larger table where we'll actually be eating.

The cheaply chic crafter's best friend is a trifle bowl. It's more cost effective to get the set of several, that way you have plenty for both decorations AND delicious desserts like my Chocolate Trifle. I promise we will share many, many ways to utilize said trifle bowls in the future! Hey, maybe I should write a book....1001 things to do with a trifle bowl. No? Just a thought.

S'anyway, here's a pretty and simple idea using things you most likely already have or that are easy to find.
Layer small pine cones, baby pumpkins (real or plastic), and some autumn-colored flowers in a trifle bowl until it's full to the top.

Shown here on a cornucopia table runner ($5 from Dollar General) with plastic pumpkin topiaries on each side ($2 at Michael's). This entire set up cost $18 including the trifle bowl.

This looks very pretty on your table AND doesn't cost a fortune! Don't have a trifle bowl? No problem! Use the same items in a gold or brown basket. Bonus with the gold one, you can use it for Christmas also.

Basket was on clearance at Michael's for $3, so this whole set up cost $12 and looks quite elegant.

Now a couple of ideas for the actual buffet tables, or maybe even at individual place settings if you have a more intimate gathering for dinner. I love the challenge of finding things I already have in the house and re-purposing them for holiday decorations. These vintage green glass ice cream dishes have been in my cupboard just gathering dust, but they make a beautiful autumn votive holder with a green or gold candle burning in it. I placed a couple of the small items around it just to dress it up a bit.

The votives are great if you want to make sure your guests can see each other clearly over the centerpieces. You could also do a grouping of these together to make a larger "centerpiece."

Much like we tell you to play with your food and come up with your own twists on our recipes, mix it up and get creative with the things you already have to make something pretty and impressive. Tomorrow we'll share a few more ideas for quick and inexpensive decor.