Love creamy goodness!

I. Love. Cheesecake.  LOVE LOVE LOVE it!  Sorry but there is something about the dense creamy cold delight meeting the salty sweet crust that I just love to death.  And it is high protein and can be sugar free and gluten fee as well. 


When I was pregnant with Annabelle I had to up my protein A LOT.  So we pretty much made cheesecake every week, and it is pretty cheap to make as well.   Lorelei loved this recipe and she is the one that named it.  I am sure you can figure out what part my oldest added to this recipe to make it a surprise...


Shannon's Citrus Cheesecake Surprise
2.5 pounds of cream cheese (5 blocks and I used the reduce fat ones)
2- 6 oz containers of Dannon Light and Fit Yogurt- Lemon
1 grapefruit- zested and juiced
3 tsp of vanilla extract
1.75 cup of sugar sub (or sugar)
3 tbsp of all purpose flour (or a GF flour)
5 large eggs
2 egg yokes
purple food coloring
3 graham cracker crusts


Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.


In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese until soft and smooth, about 1 minute. Combine flour and sugar in another bowl and then add to the beaten cream cheese. Mix well Scraping down the sides of the bowl occasionally. Beat in the grated citrus zests. Add in the eggs, egg yolks and vanilla extract. Mix thoroughly scraping down the sides of the bowl, until the batter is perfectly smooth.

Pour the batter into the graham cracker crusts, tapping the bottom on the counter 4 or 5 times to eliminate air pickets. Bake 1 hour, or until the center feels firm when pressed. Immediately remove the cake pan from the larger pan and set aside to cool on a rack. Refrigerate for a few hours.

Eat and enjoy!

My Little Monkeys

My kids love all things bananas, but they do have times when they want nothing to do with them. When that happens this is the recipe I use to make THE BEST banana bread EVER!

1 cup of sugar (I use a sugar sub)
1/2 c butter
3 very ripe bananas
3 large eggs
1.5 tbsp buttermilk or sour cream
1.5 tsp of vanilla
1 tsp of kosher salt
2 cups flour (or GF making mix)
1.5 tsp of baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 c creamy peanut butter
1/2 c chopped walnuts
1/2 c mini chocolate chips

Cream the butter with the sugar until light and fluffy.  Then add in one banana and one egg at a time until they are all blended in to the butter mixture.  Then add in all the rest of the ingredients and mix until combined.  And yes I dump the nuts and chocolate in with all the other dry ingredients.  Dump into a greased and floured loaf pan.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 50 to 60 minutes.  Let it cool in the pan for about 10 mins and then remove to cool on a wire rack.

This is normally gone in a day in my house.

Bug Jammin' Jam

In July the girls spent some time with my parents in Indiana.  While they were gone I painted part of the kitchen (which still isn't done), tried to get organized, and made lots and lots of Jams and Jellies.  One of the girls favs is what we call Bug Jammin' Jam.  Yes, bugs.

To me I get sick of the same boring jams and jellies.  I want something different.  Something fun.  Unique.  In my quest for something fun I created Bug Jammin' Jam.  I bought all the ingredients at my local super Walmart.

Bug Jammin' Jam

2 Mexican Mangoes
4 Kiwis
2 cups of Pineapple juice
1 cup of Orange juice
2 tsp of kosher salt
3 TBSP of tequila
1 package of freezer pectin
4 cups of sugar

Dice up the mangoes and sprinkle with salt and sugar and set aside in a bowl.  Scoop out the kiwi guts and toss with the diced mangoes.

In a non stick sauce pan (it is what I used) add the juices, salt, and tequila; cook on medium heat for 15 mins. Now add the fruit and sugar to the juice mixture.  Now turn the heat up a little.  On my stove medium is 5- at this point this is when I bump it up to between 6 and 7.  You want it to boil some and once it reaches a boil then reduce it to low.  I let it cook on low for 3 hours.  You want the juice to reduce to a wonderful thick syrup.

While this is cooking on low you can either boil some water for your canning jars, rings, and lids or sterilize your plastic containers in the dishwasher.  Once done place them on a clean dry towel.  I used both when I was making the jams.

After the 3 hours, pull the sauce pan off the heat and stir in one packet of freezer pectin.  Then spoon into your jars/containers.  My jars were 1/2 pint in size.  This batch made 6 jars, another time it made 7 jars.

As you can see that the seeds from the kiwi look like bugs.  At first the kids didn't know what to think of it but now it is a must have for all toast, rolls, ice cream, oatmeal, etc...

Apple-oius Creamy Dreamy Baked Oatmeal

My hubby grew up eating baked oatmeal.  I had never heard of it until after we were married.  And we would make from time to time.  But with now my oldest girl in school this makes for a great breakfast.  It is full of fruit, protein, and good grains. This also easy to make reduced sugar or even completely sugar free with sugar subs.

3 eggs

½ tsp Kosher salt

2.5 tsp Apple pie seasoning mix

½ cup of packed brown sugar- you can use a brown sugar sub for this- if Splenda Brown Sugar it will be ½ cup

¼ of a block of reduce fat cream cheese

3 cups of diced baking apples- I leave the skin on- use whatever is in season

½ a cup of chunky apple sauce- no sugar added if you can get it

¼ cup of diced craisens

2 cups of water

2 cups of skim milk

2.5 cups of old fashioned rolled oats

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9x13 baking dish or if you want this a little deeper a 10x 10 baking dish.

In a mixing bowl beat add the eggs with the salt, seasoning mix, and brown sugar and beat until creamed.  In a small bowl or cup soften the cream cheese.  Once the cream cheese is softened turn the mixer on and slowly drop by the spoon full the cream cheese- doing this step will prevent the cooking of the eggs in the mixture.

Now once that is mixed together pull the bowl out and do the rest by hand.  Add the diced apples and apple sauce.  Then add in the oats, water and milk.  This is a sloppy mixture at this point.  Pour into the baking dish and bake for 40 to 50 mins.  The middle shouldn’t wiggle.

Now I do this the night before and then in the morning I pull it out of the fridge and cut out slices like it is a cake.  Then when I go to warm it up I put just a little milk in the bowl with a bit of sugar free maple syrup on top and heat it up.

-Now I know many of you love pumpkin so in place of the apple sauce you can add pumpkin puree to it.  This is not pumpkin pie puree mix but PURE pumpkin.  And if you do that switch out the apple pie seasoning mix to pumpkin pie seasoning mix.