***Monday is Recipe Day***

Happy Monday! Today's recipe is completely frivolous and not a protein filled dish. However, I can't keep leaving out the desserts, because dangit, sometimes I want dessert! A friend of mine gave me this recipe long before I even knew I was having surgery and I changed it to be WLS friendly. I made this a week or so ago and we gobbled it up so fast! See the warning at the end of the recipe though Cherry Cheesecake Dessert 20 oz can cherry pie filling - no sugar added (may also sub other NSA pie filling flavors) 8oz package of Philadelphia fat free cream cheese 8 oz tub Cool Whip free 1 tsp lemon juice 1 Keebler Ready Crust reduced fat pie crust Mix together 3/4 of the Cool Whip with the cream cheese (cut into chunks) and lemon juice. Use a wooden spoon to mash the chunks and get the mixture as smooth as possible. Spread in the bottom of the pie crust. Add full can of cherry pie filling to the top. Spread evenly, leaving a 1 inch edge of cool whip-cheese mixture showing. Top with remaining Cool Whip. Refrigerate for 2 hours before serving. Cut into 8 pie wedges and serve. Nutritional Info Servings Per Recipe: 8 Amount Per Serving Calories: 181.5 Total Fat: 3.9 g Cholesterol: 2.3 mg Sodium: 266.7 mg Total Carbs: 23.4 g Sugars 9.6 g Dietary Fiber: 0.0 g Protein: 5.1 g My nutritionist tells me that I can have no more than 10 grams of sugar per serving, so this fell neatly into my plans. I had no problems eating this, but for those watching carbs, you might try to find or make your own low carb crust, or leave the crust out of the equation. Most of the fat, sugar and carbs came from the ready made pie crust. **Warning! My pie tended to fall apart easily, partly because I didn't have a full package of cream cheese (it was what I had left in the fridge). So it might not be pretty on your plate, but it sure is yummy and pretty much guilt free!

America's Test Kitchen featured a diet friendly cheesecake this week in my viewing area. The total calories were a bit higher (about 230 I believe) and I'm sure the pieces were smaller! It called for 2% cottage cheese pureed and drained LF yogurt with cream cheese (can't remember whether they used reduced fat). The only reduced the amount of butter and fat in the graham cracker crust, essentially not mucking with it too much as they thought the crust is what makes the dessert. Very interesting. Maybe we need a bake off?

Donna, What do you use to figure your nutritional information? Thanks Pam

There is a recipe calculator at http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/home.asp that I use for everything I cook. Since I enter my own information off the label of the ingredients I use, I know it's accurate. Browse through there, they have some awesome recipes! Donna

oh my this sounds yummy