Key Lime Cheesecakes with Coconut Crust

I’ve been on a cheesecake kick.  That’s in part because I’ve discovered some healthy recipes, which means I should actually be eating it.  With these recipes, you can think to yourself: “Did I remember to have my cheesecake?” The way you might think of a multivitamin.  If you make it fruitier you can definitely think of your cheesecake that way.

Winter is definitely here.  Yesterday was a day for long johns, which is the only way to be comfortable and get out of the house when it feels like -24 with the windchill.  In Toronto it’s the windchill that gets you.  And so it is time to escape somewhere warm…but that’s not in the budget or the schedule at the moment, so food must be the vehicle.  And with that, here are some shockingly healthy key lime cheesecakes.

Crust ingredients:

• 3.5 cups flaked coconut (unsweetened)
• 3 packets powdered stevia
• 4 T coconut oil
• 1 t vanilla

Crust how to:

1. Pulse flaked coconut in the food processor for 5 minutes, scraping down sides from time to time
2. Add all other ingredients and blend
3. Press crust into the bottom of a parchment lined pyrex (mine was 9″x13″)
4. Bake for 15 minutes at 325

Filling ingredients:

• 1 cup greek yogurt
• 2 cups cottage cheese
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup egg whites
• 1/4 cup apple sauce
• 1 t liquid stevia
• juice and zest of 6 limes

Filling how to:

1. Zest limes and juice limes and set aside
2. In a large bowl, combine all ingredients except for lime zest
3. Puree with immersion blender until smooth (no more apparent cottage cheese texture)
4. Fold in lime zest
5. Pour over crust (after crust baking time is done)
6. Return to oven for 35 minutes at 350
7. Let cool
8. Refridgerate for at least 2 hours
9. Cut into squares, or use a cookie cutter (beware, this means you’ll enjoy yourself a little too much while eating all the scraps from in between the different cookie cuts.
10. Enjoy!

And of course, you can eat these for breakfast.  On Valentine’s day.  Or any day.  Guilt free.

Other than the fact that you definitely want to be eating key lime cheesecakes, why else should you make these?

• They also happen to be gluten free if that’s your thing
• High protein:
  • if you work out, you want this to rebuild muscles
  • if you don’t work out you should.  But also, if you don’t work out you should focus on desserts with protein because it fill you up.  Desserts that are purely sugary make you crave more.  Good for sugary dessert business, bad for your body.
  • refined sugar free…actually, flat out sugar free!