Easy Apricot Cheesecake Pie

With the holiday weekend fast approaching, you might be on the lookout for a quick and easy no bake dessert that is diet friendly...

If you are, this cheesecake pie is your answer! 

Super easy because it's made with just a few ingredients and a store-bought premade reduced fat graham cracker crust. Quick because you just whip all the ingredients together and chill.  The fruit flavor comes from a 10oz. jar of all fruit spread, so you can customize it however you like!  I used apricot spread here because that is what I picked up at the store, but any flavor would work. Make sure you use an ALL fruit spread so the nutritional information below is correct. 

This cheesecake pie is on the soft side, even after it sets up, so you will want to keep it refrigerated until it's time to slice and eat it. 

Easy Apricot Cheesecake Pie

adapted from HERE

Printable Recipe

Servings - 10   Serving size - 1/10th of pie   Points Plus per serving - 5 Points+

Calories - 203.8,   Total Fat - 8.1g,   Carb. - 30.4g,   Protein - 3.1g,   Fiber - 4.7g

1-9" reduced fat graham cracker crust

8 oz. reduced fat cream cheese, room temperature

1-10 oz. jar of ALL fruit spread, any flavor

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract (optional)

4 oz. Cool Whip Free (plus additional to garnish, if you wish)

In large bowl, combine the cream cheese and the entire jar of fruit spread with electric mixer until smooth.  Fold in Cool Whip Free.  Chill in refrigerator for several hours to set.  Garnish as desired.  Keep chilled until ready to serve. 

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Quick, easy and yummy.  I will definitely be experimenting with other flavors, maybe even combine some flavors next time and add some fresh fruit.  

My thoughts and prayers go out to all who have been touched by yesterday's tragedy in Oklahoma.  So sad.  Seems like these days, we are constantly reminded of how short life really is.  Take the time to tell those you love how you feel and live each day to it's fullest.  

Grilled Chinese Pork Tenderloin

Grilling season is finally here!  Is it me, or did it seem to take forever to arrive??  With Memorial day just around the corner, this is an excellent main course dish to make on your grill.  Pork Tenderloin keeps it lean and the marinade gives it tons of flavor.  I served it with some Asian flavored sesame rice and some grilled zucchini.  Yum.

I only marinaded the meat for about 2 hours before I cooked it off...but I can only imagine the flavor being more intense if you marinade it longer. (which would be a good thing)  I intend to plan a little bit better and leave it to marinade longer next time I make this.

If you have never used it before, the black bean sauce is a very pungent ingredient. It can be easily found in most Asian sections of  the grocery store.  It mellows beautifully with the additional ingredients.  The sugar in the marinade gives the meat a nice char when you grill it.  I didn't alter the original recipe one bit, except instead of cooking it in the oven, I grilled it. And because I was lazy, I used ground ginger and garlic powder in place of the fresh ingredients.  You can find the recipe I used HERE. 

Pork tenderloin is a great meat because it is so lean.  For this recipe, a very generous 8oz. serving is only 222 calories and 5.5g of fat or 5 Points+. 

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This was an incredibly easy and very delicious pork tenderloin dish.  My youngest said he felt like he was eating in a 5star restaurant when I served it.  lol  I don't know about that, but it really was restaurant quality food.  One word of caution, don't overcook your pork tenderloin.  Leaving just a tad of pink in the middle will keep the meat moist and tender.  If pink pork freaks you out, use an instant read meat thermometer and cook the meat to around 140 degrees F.  Remove the meat from it's heat source, cover loosely in foil for about 10 minutes before you slice it.  This will allow the internal temperature to rise to 145 ish and allow the juices to settle.   In fact, in recent years the United States Department of Agriculture lowered the safe temperature of pork from 160 degrees F to 145 degrees F. 

I managed to pick up some herbs yesterday!  yay!  Now I just need to find some time to plant them in the ground and pot them.  Looks like it's going to be a nice day today, so that is on the agenda.  Another thing I need to take care of this week is getting my driver's license renewed.  Boo to that.  Here in Ohio, that has to be done every 4 years.  When I compare photos, I realize just how old I am getting...lol  I read somewhere that New York state residents only need to renew every 10 years!  Is that true?  How long do you go in your state before your license needs to be renewed?  

 

Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie

What a yummy breakfast treat or a middle of the afternoon pick-me-up! 

Made lower in fat and calories with the help of this amazing product...PB2 with premium chocolate!  If you aren't familiar with PB2, it is manufactured by Bell Plantation and it is real peanut butter in a reduced fat, powdered form.  PB2 reduces fat through a chemical-free process. PB2 and Chocolate PB2 are all natural, preservative free, and contain no artificial sweeteners. One serving of this product is only 1 PP!  Click HERE for nutrition information. (Disclaimer:  I purchased this product on my own and was not paid or compensated by Bell Plantation to promote this product. The opinions expressed are mine. I personally enjoy it and wanted to share.)

 

Currently, PB2 is available in limited markets (I found mine at Earthfare) and is available online. 

Back to the smoothie...

Simple and delicious.  I used my Magic Bullet to make easy work of whipping it up quickly.  This smoothie ends up being not too thick, which I like.  You could use a frozen banana too...and eliminate some of the ice to make it thicker.  The original recipe called for honey, which I omitted.  (There is plenty of natural sweetness from the banana.)  The entire smoothie recipe comes out to 5PP.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie

adapted from HERE

Printable Recipe

Servings - 1   Serving Size - entire recipe   Points Plus per Serving - 5 Points+

Calories - 201.4,   Total Fat - 2.6g,   Carb. - 39.1g,   Protein - 9.4g,   Fiber - 4.1g

1 medium, ripe banana

2 TBS PB2 with premium chocolate

4 oz. skim or 1% milk

ice

In blender or magic bullet, combine all ingredients and blend until smooth. 

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I'm not one to drink my calories, but I admit, I have made this for my breakfast a few times now.  It's pretty filling with all the protein and great when I need a quick, on the go, type breakfast.  

Life around here has turned SUPER busy again.  Just returned from picking my daughter and all her belongings up from NYC, only to get everything ready to move her to Milwaukee next weekend!  (She has a summer internship with Kohl's)  What a wild and crazy summer this is going to be.  I have to admit, moving my college aged kids back and forth has not been one of my favorite things...but I guess it's part of the package of being a parent.  

Still having issues uploading pictures from Firefox.  Hmmmm....I am just going around the problem and loading pics from another browser.  Works ok that way.  I don't think everyone who uses Firefox is having this issue though.  Lucky me.  

I have a jam packed week rest of the week.  I'd love to try and get some annual herbs into pots and in the ground this weekend or next week sometime.  I love when I can just go out and pick what I need!!   I have oregano and chives that come up every year already.  I want to pot basil, mint and rosemary and put some parsley in the ground!  

Carrot Cake Oatmeal

A delicious not-too-sweet breakfast treat with all the flavors of carrot cake!  Packed with whole grain oats, carrots, pineapple, spices, FF yogurt and pecans to make this a nutritious start to your day. When I stumbled across this recipe, I just knew I needed to make it.  The original recipe used steel cut oats and cooked it all stove top, but I made some changes to be able to make it in the microwave, so it takes no time to put together!  With 6.5g fiber and 9.2g of protein, it will keep you full for a long time too!

One final note, make sure you shred the carrot finely, as it will do all it's cooking in the microwave.

Carrot Cake Oatmeal

adapted from HERE

Printable Recipe

Servings - one   Serving size - entire recipe   Points Plus per Serving - 9 Points+

Calories - 347.9,   Total Fat - 8.2g,   Carb. - 64.8g,   Protein - 9.2g,   Fiber - 6.5g

1/2 cup old fashioned oats

1 cup water

1 tsp brown sugar

1/4 cup finely shredded carrot

1/4 cup crushed pineapple in juice (drained)

1 TBS golden raisins

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

dash of nutmeg

dash of ground ginger

pinch of salt

1/4 cup Non fat vanilla yogurt

5 pecan halves, roughly chopped

1.  Combine oats, water, brown sugar, carrot, pineapple, raisins, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and salt in microwave safe bowl with high sides.  Microwave on HIGH for 2 min - 2 min 30 sec, or until oatmeal is done and most of liquid has been absorbed.  (time may vary with microwaves) 

2.  Top with non fat vanilla yogurt and sprinkle with pecans.  Serve warm.  

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Super easy nutritious powerhouse to start your day!  

The original recipe called for apple instead of pineapple.  I've made it both ways and I like the pineapple better...much more like carrot cake to me!  

Picture uploading problem still not resolved yet.  Hope they are still working on it.  

We've had some absolutely gorgeous weather here for the past week.  No rain and blue skies with mild temps.  My flowering trees all around our property are all in full bloom.  Just beautiful!! 

Lightened Up Hashbrown Casserole

I made this scrumptious potato casserole last week from THIS recipe to go along with some BBQ ribs for dinner one night.  I changed up the recipe quite a bit but didn't sacrifice ANY of the flavor. We had my inlaws over for dinner and my MIL had seconds.

Ya, it's that good! 

This type of hashbrown casserole dish has been around for some time. If you haven't made it, you have probably eaten it at some time.   It's basically frozen potatoes, a can of condensed cream soup, cheese, sour cream, butter and cornflakes.  The original recipe called for 1/2 cup of butter mixed with crushed cornflakes for the topping, which I omitted completely.  I used 5 crushed up Ritz® crackers for the topping instead.  They were perfect and greatly reduced the fat and calorie count in this dish.  I used reduced fat sour cream and, because I didn't have any cream of mushroom soup, (as originally called for in the recipe) I used a can of cream of cheddar.  I totally replaced the processed cheese called for in the original recipe with a greatly reduced amount of reduced fat cheddar cheese and added some dried onion into the casserole for flavor (because when I have made this type of recipe in the past, that is what the recipes have always called for an I like the onion flavor with the potatoes).

The result was a winning potato casserole dish that comes in at 4 PP per 1/2 cup serving!

This is an excellent pot luck type dish that no one will know is reduced anything...and no one will miss that 1/2 cup of butter or all that extra cheese!!

Lightened Up Hashbrown Casserole 

adapted from HERE

Printable Recipe

Servings - approx 16   Serving Size - approx 1/2 cup   Points Plus per serving - 4 Points Plus

Calories - 150,   Total Fat - 7.7g,   Carb. - 13.7g,   Protein - 6g,   Fiber - 1.4g

1-32 oz. package of frozen Southern-Style hashbrown potatoes

1 -10.75 oz. condensed cream of cheddar soup (NOT reduced fat)

16 oz. reduced fat sour cream

8 oz. reduced fat cheddar cheese, divided

1 TBS. dried onion

salt and pepper, as you like

5 Ritz® crackers, crushed (or other similar buttery type crackers)

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Spray a 13"x 9" casserole dish with cooking spray.  

2.  In large bowl, mix the soup, sour cream and the dried onion.  Measure out about a 1/4 cup of cheese and set aside.  Add the potatoes and the rest of the cheese to the soup/sour cream mixture and stir to combine.  Season with salt and pepper, as desired.  

3.  Pour potato mixture into prepared baking dish.  Top with the reserved 1/4 cup cheese and then the crushed crackers.  Bake in oven for about and hour or until the casserole is hot and bubbly all the way through.  (I did cover mine loosely with foil for about 45 minutes, then took the foil off for the last 15 to crisp up the cracker topping.) 

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Yum.  This turned out delicious and for so many less calories than the original.  I did make the serving size 1/2 cup, which I feel is perfect for a side dish, instead of the 1 cup serving size in the original recipe.  And yes, if you follow the link to the original recipe you will find my picture there, as this was another "faceless" AR recipe I gave a face to.  

Blogger is still having issues with photo uploads through my preferred browser, but I hear they are aware of the problem and working on it.  I did find a work around.  It just is a bit more work to download pictures.  

Also, Cinco de Mayo is this weekend!  Will you be celebrating with some Mexican dishes?  Here are a few of my picks to help make your celebration festive and diet friendly!!

 

Great Product Find: Arnold/Brownberry/Orowheat Breads!

A while back, I was contacted by a representative for Arnold/Brownberry/Orowheat® breads and asked if I would be interested in trying out some of their products.  Note: Arnold is the brand name in the East, Brownberry in the Midwest and under the Oroweat in the West. (Disclaimer:  I received money saving coupons from this company representative for free and have not been paid for my endorsement.  All opinions and photos are mine.)  

I do routinely purchase Arnold/Brownberry/Orowheat® breads for my family. All of their bread products are cholesterol free, contain zero grams of trans fats and have NO high fructose corn syrup.  What's cool now is that their Sandwich Thins® are endorsed by Weight Watchers!  Their Sandwich Thins® are available in seedless rye, 100% whole wheat, honey wheat, made with whole grain white, flax and fiber and multi-grain.  Each Sandwich Thin® is 3PP. 

...and did you know their website has some really delicious sandwich ideas and recipes? Many of the recipes also give you WW Points Plus values and nutrition information too!!!

I used my coupon to purchase a package of Multi-grain Sandwich Thins®.  I made two different recipes from their site and both sandwiches were delicious!  The first sandwich I put together was the Avocado, Turkey, and Tomato Sandwich. (click on the link to find out how to put it all together)  This entire sandwich was 6PP and it was delicious. Turkey and avocado are natural partners!

The next sandwich creation I made was the Chicken Curry Salad Sandwich.  ( click on the link to find out how to put it together)  I substituted the Mulit-grain Sandwich Thins® for the bread in the recipe.  It was also a healthy and delicious sandwich.  Out of the two sandwiches, my son liked this one the best! 

For more awesome sandwich ideas using this product go HERE!

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On a quick side note, it seems that blogger is having some issues with their photo uploading.  I understand they are working on the problem, but for now, it is a bit tedious to upload photos and publish posts, so it might be a little quiet around here until they get the problem resolved.  Thanks!

I also renewed my WW subscription, but am going to try to go it online instead of going to meetings.  So far so good.  I have to say, I am pretty impressed with the ease of using my mobile device to track and the online data base is so much better than what I remember it being.  Does anyone else have experience with doing WW online?

This post originally contained a giveaway that I am no longer able to do.  I apologize.  I was informed by the contact from this company they cannot participate in giveaways at this time.

Easy Mexican Red Guajillo Chile Chocolate Cake

Another great (and easy) recipe using Herdez ® Mexican cooking sauces!  Boxed cake mix and Herdez® Red Guajillo Chile Mexican Cooking Sauce make this cake a snap to put together. Red Guajillo Chiles deliver a delicious green tea flavor with berry overtones that compliment the dark chocolate cake perfectly. The cake bakes up moist and can either be frosted with your favorite frosting or dusted with powdered sugar. It will leave you saying "Ole"!

One of this month's assignments for the AR Ambassador program was to develop a recipe (or two) using new Mexican cooking sauces from Herdez ®  (Disclaimer:  I received these sauces for free to review from AR and Herdez ®.  The opinions, recipe, and pictures are mine and I have not been compensated for them other than receiving product samples.)  My package included two of the four new sauces which currently have limited availability in California retail stores but can be purchased over the internet HERE from anywhere.  Herdez ® plans to roll out the sauces nationally sometime this summer.

One of the sauces I got in my package was the Red Guajillo Chile Mexican Cooking Sauce.

Image source: Herdez

The Guajillo Chiles thin, deep-red flesh delivers a delicious green tea flavor with slight berry overtones. Combined with vine-ripened tomatoes, our Red Guajillo Chile Sauce has a tangy, fruity finish with mild heat.

Ingredients: Water, Guajillo Pepper, Tomato Paste, Distilled Vinegar, Iodized Salt, Soybean Powder, Xanthanm Gum and Natural Flavors. (Product information source: mexgrocer.com)

The heat in this cake is subtle. The chiles give it a nice layer of flavor. You'll know there is something in there, but you might not be able to tell right away what that something is.  The cake can easily be made lower in fat and calories by substituting reduced fat sour cream and sugar free pudding mix and reducing the oil to 1/3 cup. I've made it the reduced fat/calorie way and the regular way, both with good results. The texture of the lightened up version is a bit less dense and more springy. You can also leave out the chocolate chips if you are trying to make a lighter version and just dust it lightly with powdered sugar instead of frosting it.

For the complete recipe and a printable option go HERE.  

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The two sauces I was given were both a hit!  I want to try the two I didn't get and will probably be ordering them for myself from Mexgrocer.com in the near future.  My family loves Mexican dishes and these sauces make it so easy...and they are delicious.  I really enjoyed this AR assignment this month.  I hope they will be available in my area this summer.  I know I will be requesting my grocer carry them, as they do have other Herdez® products on their shelves right now.

Check out my other Herdez® Mexican Cooking Sauce recipe...Turkey and Zucchini Enchiladas with Tomatillo Verde Sauce!

Have you ever requested an item be carried by your local grocers?  I've requested items in the past, and if they can get them, they have been good enough to put them on the shelves. 

 Disclaimer

I am an Allrecipes Allstar Brand Ambassador (a voluntary position) and I’m not compensated for my work with Allrecipes.com.

Products received from advertiser are only used for experienced-based reviews on mykitchenadventures. The reviews, content and opinions expressed in this blog are purely the sole opinions of Renee@MKA. This blog was written in support of Herdez® and their Product or campaign.