WILLPOWER WEDNESDAY: Cheesecakes Galore

I again spent the last hour playing with Gimp, trying to come up with the perfect "logo" for my Willpower Wednesday. It keeps getting changed...the logo and the name. I think when I first had the idea, I was going to call it Willpower Wednesdays. Now, I've decided it is should be singular, so henceforth (I LOVE that word!) it shall be known as "willpower wednesday". Completely against my nature, you will now see that I have also decided to drop the capitalization. Maybe it's to be ironic...you know, instead of being lazy on Wednesday nights, I'm choosing to have a little willpower. And yet I can't bother to summon the strength to hold down the shift key!

I did get somewhat creative in the kitchen tonight as promised. And instead of just making ONE cheesecake, I made two. Well, technically the second one isn't quite MADE yet, since it is still baking. Honestly, I don't even remember what all I put in the first one. If I had to guess, I believe it was:

CRUST:

2/3 cup almond flour

2 Tbsp butter, melted

1 Tbsp Swerve (you can use a different sugar alternative, or real sugar)

Once I mixed up the crust I realized that I didn't have quite as much as I would have liked. But I left it as it was, because I only have so much willpower people!

FILLING:

(to the best of my knowledge it was the following)

1 8oz. block of cream cheese

3 eggs (I have a feeling this ratio of cream cheese to egg was NOT a good idea--you'll see why soon)

20 drops Chocolate Stevia Liquid (random number that seemed right)

5 drops Vanilla Creme Stevia Liquid (another random number)

This is how it looked before I baked it:

By the time it finished, THIS is how it looked:

This cheesecake could not decide whether it wanted to be a cheesecake or a meringue! And let me just say that it did not TASTE like cheesecake OR meringue. I KNEW I had put too many eggs in it, and yet I kept putting them in. The top layer tastes more like an omelet. A bittersweet (that would be the stevia), chocolaty, DISGUSTING omelet!! Do you see now why I don't experiment?? Looking at it again now, it certainly does look more like a burnt omelet than anything though doesn't it?

HOWEVER...at the time I didn't know how horrible this egg cake thing would taste, so I thought "Why not do a little more experimenting!" Pumpkin sounded good, so attempt #2 began.

I really would have like to have had more cream cheese. I was down to just one block so I had to think of other things to add in. So here is what I did (or at least what I can remember):

CRUST:

1 1/2 cup almond flour

4 Tbsp butter, melted

3 Tbsp Swerve

This I mixed together in an actual spring form pan. Because my only pie stone was full of a gross fancy omelet and because why not?!?

FILLING:

1 8 oz block of cream cheese, softened

1 15 oz can of pumpkin

1 (1 oz) box sugar-free vanilla pudding (the pudding was added because it needed something more and this is what I had on hand)

1 (1 oz) box sugar-free cheesecake pudding (this flavor was used because I only had one box of vanilla!)

About 1/2 cup milk (I just poured some in because it looked like it needed it-again I am NOT an experimenter!)

1 tsp. Cinnamon Plus Spice Blend (Pampered Chef)

Oh yeah...eggs...again I used 3. What is wrong with me??? Did I learn nothing from my first attempt?

Oops...I almost forgot. At the last minute, even though the batter tasted sweet, I went ahead and added 1/4 cup agave nectar to it.

Are you getting a good picture here of why I need to follow a recipe?

Anyway, I mixed it all together and it LOOKED better.

I baked the cheesecake (both) at 350 degrees for an hour. THIS cheesecake looked a lot better and I really, REALLY hope it turns out. This one I will cool like I am supposed to and then refrigerate it. It isn't technically yeast-free to the extent that some people have to live yeast-free, but it is yeast-free enough for me while I try to get back on track and get a handle on this whole complicated lifestyle. Here is what my finished Pumpkin Cheesecake looked like.

Wait...it doesn't look much different after it's baked does it? But it is. It's really drier on the top than it looks.

I'll report on the taste tomorrow! Here's to hoping...and thanks for joining me tonight!