Vegan Blueberry Cheesecake w/ Macadamia Nut & Berry Topping

Adapted from a Berry No-Bake Cheesecake on Sweet & Healthy Living.

 This is the first time I've used the NuNatural's product:

Stevia More Fiber Baking Blend

 I can say now that I'll be using it again, and again, and again now.

I was a little concerned that the powdered Stevia would be bitter or not sweet enough for the cake.

Especially because there are no other 'sweet' ingredients except the dates.

It was neither bitter nor unsweet, it was perfection.

The Stevia held the no-bake cake together well and gave the berries a great sweetness.

I would compare the taste to a Blueberry Cream Pie!

Yum...........
So how can you make this wonderful Dairy, Sugar and Gluten free Cheesecake?

Wash off your fresh blueberries but air dry them before
using them in this recipe so they don't add a lot of water.

This is the cheesecake batter before adding in the blueberries. It will be less
smooth than dairy cheesecakes but taste even better ((I think)

This is the final cheesecake batter layer being spread on.
Fresh blueberries were dropped on throughout each layer.
See difference here between the 'blueberry flavored' batter and the plain.

Rough chop the nuts, you don't want them too crumby like dust.

Blueberry Cheesecake with Macadamia Nut & Berry Topping

Vegan, Dairy and Gluten Free

Crust
This recipe is basically the Raw Caramels shown here

1 Cup Raw Unsalted Sunflower Seeds

15 Pitted Medjool Dates

2 Tbs. Olive Oil

2 tsp. Liquid Vanilla Stevia

1/4 Cup Cocoa Powder

1 Tbs. Finely Ground Coffee or substitute like Cafix

Pulse Sunflower Seeds until pulverized. Add in the dates

and pulse until lumpy batter forms. Add in other ingredients and

continue pulsing until smooth.  Chill for 30 minutes and then press

into bottom of springform pan to about 1/2 inch thickness. 

Freeze until firm.

Cheesecake Filling
2 Cups of Cashews - soaked 2 - 8 hours in filtered water, drained
1 Cup of Chopped Dates soaked 30 minutes and drained

1/4 Cup Lemon Juice

1/3 Cup melted Coconut Oil

Pulse all ingredients until a smooth batter is obtained, scrape down sides of blender

Add in:

1/3 Cup Nut Milk of choice

8 oz. Non Dairy Cream Cheese like Tofutti brand

1/2 tsp. Vanilla Extract

1 Cup of Powdered Stevia More Fiber Baking Blend from NuNaturals

Pulse together with first ingredients until smooth

To have a Blueberry Flavored layer to the cheesecake:

Seperate out 2 cups of the batter and set aside.

Add 1 Cup of fresh Blueberries in with the remaining batter and pulse until smooth

To assemble the cheesecake:

Remove the chilled crust in the springform pan and set on an even surface.

Spoon out enough of the set aside, non blueberry flavored batter to cover the

bottom crust about 1/2 Inch thick.

Freeze 30 minutes to firm batter again.

When cake is firm, add spoonfuls of the blueberry flavored batter in different

areas of cake on top of first layer of plain flavored batter using about 1 cup of

blueberry flavored batter.

Spoon the remaining plain flavor batter inbetween the blueberry batter and on top of

the fresh blueberries.

Sprinkle of few fresh blueberries on top of the batter.

Spoon the remaining plain flavor batter inbetween the blueberry batter

and on top of the fresh blueberries.

Freeze again.

Pour on remaining Blueberry flavored batter over entire cake and smooth to

cover the previous layers.

Freeze at least 5 hours until whole cake is solid.

Topping

1 Cup of Macadamia Nuts, roughly chopped (see picture)

1/2 Cup Fresh Blueberries

1/2 Cup Fresh Raspberries

Top the firm frozen cake with berries and nuts - pressing down lightly to top the cake.

Freeze again for 1 hour, remove springform pan exterior.

Store in the freezer or cut into slices and freeze slices well wrapped.

This one is a keeper.  Adapt the berries to suit your own likes.

Another cheesecake posting you may enjoy:

Raspberry Mocha Cream Cookie Dough Cake

ENJOY!

Chewy Dandelion Root Brownies with Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirl

Can you believe I'm keeping "On Track" with these gorgeous squares of chocolaty goodness?

Dandelion root is God's perfect detoxifier for liver / blood. 

The root powder is especially effective for removing toxins. 

Readily available today at health food stores or on line.

A few years ago, I really got obsessed for a few months with growing my own dandelions

to have a clean source of root, flower etc.  It proved to be an extensive project.

Not worth the time when you can get quality Dandelion products from health food stores

these days or on-line.

 Dandelion Root is one of those wonderfully nutritionally packed ingredients that can hide in your baked goods or hot drinks and really give a vitamin and mineral boost to your food.

More information on Dandelion Root: http://www.livestrong.com/article/343007-the-advantages-of-dandelion-root/

Nut Butter (Peanut in this case) Swirls through the Cocoa Brownie
See this post for Nut Butter recipe:  http://cannedtime.blogspot.com/2012/06/raw-vegan-caramels-with-chocolate-nut.html

 Full pan of brownies shot below shows the Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirled through the batter.

Chewy Dandelion Root Brownies w/ Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirl

Gluten Free and Very Low Sugar

Combine Wet Ingredients in a blender or food processor and mix until a smooth batter is formed:

1 Cup filtered Water

3 Eggs (or egg substitute)

1 tsp. Liquid Vanilla Stevia + 1 tsp. Plain Liquid Stevia

1/4 Cup Olive Oil

15 Whole Pitted Dates

1/3 Cup Brown Sugar

1/2 Cup Melted Coconut Butter

Combine Dry Ingredients in a bowl and sift together to fully incorporate:

1/2 Cup Dandelion Root Powder

1/2 Cup Cocoa Powder

1 tsp. Baking Soda

1 tsp. Baking Powder

1/2 tsp. Sea Salt

1/2 Cup Ground Flax Seed

1 Cup Spelt Flour or other Gluten Free Flour

1/2 Cup Coconut Flour

Stir the wet ingredients into the dry, stir well and form a wet, thick batter. 

Pour batter into a well greased, 9 X 9 pan and bake at 250 for about 45 minutes.

Check for doneness.  Do not over bake, they will be moist until the cool some.

Makes 12 good sized brownies.  Store covered and refrigerated for up to 1 week.

These brownies turned out surprisingly 'normal' tasting considering the vast array of ingredients.  Lots of substitutions could be made if you don't have certain items.  But if you do, I'd recommend these 'as is' for a healthy, gluten free, Very low sugar snack or dessert.

The Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirl makes them fudgie and sweet.

Nut Butter recipe is here: http://cannedtime.blogspot.com/2012/06/raw-vegan-caramels-with-chocolate-nut.html

Another great Dandelion recipe from Canned Time check out:  Dandelion Greens Strawberry Salad!

Enjoy!

Apple Berry Upside-Down Cake - Dairy and Gluten Free

Apple Berry Upside-Down Cake

Ingredients:
1/2 Cup Vegetable Spread or Butter
1/3 Cup Brown Sugar
1/3 Cup Coconut Palm Sugar (or regular)
1 Vanilla Gluten Free Cake Mix (or regular)
3 Eggs cracked and beaten slightly
1/3 Cup Olive Oil
1/2 Cup Milk of choice ( I used Coconut this time)
1/2 tsp. Cinnamon
1/2 tsp. NuNaturals Liquid Vanilla Flavored Stevia

1 Granny Smith Apple sliced in 1/4 inch slices.
About 10 ripe Blackberries

Melt 1/2 Cup Vegetable Spread or Butter on low in an 10" Iron Skillet.

Mix in 1/3 Cup Brown Sugar

and 1/3 Cup Coconut Palm Sugar with the melted butter.

Stir and allow the sugar to melt down on low heat.

If you don't have Palm, all Brown Sugar is fine too.

While the sugars are melted down, mix the cake batter and slice apples

Cake:       Mix together all ingredient in a bowl to form a lumpy batter.

1 Vanilla Gluten Free Cake Mix (or regular)

3 Eggs cracked and beaten slightly

1/3 Cup Olive Oil

1/2 Cup Milk of choice ( I used Coconut this time)

1/2 tsp. Cinnamon

1/2 tsp. NuNaturals Liquid Vanilla Flavored Stevia

Set batter aside, stir the sugar butter mixture, slice up apples.

When the butter and sugar is mixed and melted together, arrange apples and blackberries on top of the sugar mix. 

You can keep the pan on low heat this whole time.

When fruit is arranged, slowly pour cake batter on top of fruit

(mine floated up some into the batter so I didn't invert the cake after it baked)

Cover the pan loosely and cook on low for 30 minutes or until cake is firm to the touch.

It will look slightly underdone compared to most cakes because of the sugar / butter mix

but let it rest and it should be okay.

This cake was so moist, sweet and fruity.  Really made the whole house smell like a fresh bakery...

The cinnamon, apple and berries, along with the vanilla cake, delicious!

I'm keeping this in the fridge, it's going quickly.

I'll definitely be trying this same method with other fruits and cake flavors too.

Thanks for all the NuNaturals Giveaway entries!

Dairy Free Biscoff Cookie Spread Cupcake Cheesecakes

I wanted to make my Mom a special treat for Mother's Day so I started with a great main taste....Biscoff Spread:

These are No Bake Cupcakes, Dairy Free, almost Sugar Free and need to be kept frozen until you want to eat them. Thaw for just a few minutes and they'll be just like a cheesecake texture.

Makes about 12 Cupcakes, here's how:

Crust / Bottom

1/2 Cup Date Pieces

1/3 Cup Slivered Almonds

2 Tbs. Brown Sugar

4 Biscoff Cookies

& 1/3 Cup Melted Coconut Manna

Grind 1st 4 ingredients until a smooth crumb is obtained.

Stir in melted Coconut Manna with the crumbs and mix until a wet pasty batter is formed.

Spoon 1 Tbs. of wet crumbs down into each cupcake liner, smooth out and press down firmly into each paper to create a cake base with the crumb mixture.  Set aside while you make the next layer.

Cheesecake Cream Filling:

1/4 Cup Brown Sugar

1 15 oz. can Organic Pumpkin puree

1/2 Cup Biscoff Spread (yummmm!)

1 8 oz. tub of Tofutti Non Dairy Cream Cheese (or other brand)

1 tsp. Cinnamon

1 tsp. Liquid Vanilla Stevia

1/4 tsp. Ground Cloves

The Steel Oats here are optional but why not add a little fiber in right?

 1/2 Cup Steel Cut Oats soaked in 1/3 Cup Water for 10 minutes

Cream all ingredients together in a food processor or blender until smooth.

Pour the batter into a bowl and stir in the soaked Steel Oats.

Spoon the batter into each Cupcake liner and filling just to the top of each liner

Allow cupcakes to freeze until the tops are solid and non sticky. 

*I froze mine overnight before frosting.

Coconut Manna Vanilla Orange Icing

1/2 cup Nutiva Coconut Manna (softened)

1/2 tsp. Pure Vanilla Extract

1/2 tsp. Liquid Orange Stevia (optional)

3 - 4 Tbs. of Powdered Sugar*

Pinch of Sea Salt

Blend all ingredients in a high power mixer or blender until smooth.

Adjust powdered sugar to texture.  You may add in up to 1/4 Cup of nut/soy milk to smooth out the icing.  The Coconut Manna will become stiff when it cools also so 10 seconds or so in the microwave brings it back to being spreadable.

Homemade Brown Sugar

By the way, I had a lot of questions last week about the Homemade Brown Sugar I made.
Well it's just as quick to make 'Powdered Sugar'

I made just over 1 cup in less than a minute here.

 Just put regular white sugar in a coffee grinder or blender and spin for a few seconds and you'll have powdered or 'confectioners' sugar fresh and homemade.






I broke a few Biscoff Cookies in half and pushed them down into each cupcake top then sprinkled some cookie crumbs on top of each as well.  If you can't get Biscoffs,
ginger snaps would work well in this recipe as well.

Happy Mother's Day everyone.............enjoy!

Crock Pot Oat Chewy Chocolate Bars

 A cold rainy Sunday today.  So glad our trip ended this weekend before the rain started today.















I know how much the plants need the drink....it is much colder out than it has been the past few weeks here so the rain seems a little more depressing.

I needed to make up some comfort snacks to warm things up..........

These Oat Bars will do the trick I think.................They turned out nice and chewy, not much sugar and will last through the week for breakfast and snacks.

I had some leftover toasted coconut from my Chocolate Donuts with Key Lime Frosting & Toasted Coconut   But my husband isn't too fond of coconut anything.........  so I only used it on half of the Oat Bars.   The chocolate I used was from Trader Joe's, dark, that I melted down and added in a little vegetable butter (Earth Balance) to give it a shine and also a few drops of NuNaturals Liquid                   Stevia Orange flavor.

Thanks for all the Holiday LEDS Giveaway entries.  Contest ends Monday night.