Who doesn’t love cheesecake… seriously.
Yep, we all love cheesecake. Unfortunately it’s a one-sided relationship.
I have sad news.
Cheesecake doesn’t love us.
Nope, not the usual run-of-the-mill cheesecake. THAT cheesecake sits there pretty on a plate in all it’s fatty, sugary, enormously high calorie glory and smiles a malicious little smile as we take each bite of it’s sweet derrière.
Because we all know, even that cheesecake knows, it aint’ good for us.
But guess what!! – this Crustless Meyer Lemon Cheesecake… is different!
This one LOVES you!
With each bite not only do you get rich, delicious, creamy, sweet flavor, but you also get 20g of protein, 7g of unrefined sugars, and only 2 little grams of healthy fats – in a cheeky little 135 calorie slice!
YUP. One hundred and thirty five calories.
Okay, so I know your asking yourself “how in the world is that possible?!”.
I’ll tell you!
Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, whole eggs, honey, stevia, and MEYER lemon deliciousness!
That’s how!
No full-fat cream cheese, no refined white sugar, no butter, no graham crackers, and NO 500 calorie slices!
Actually you could technically cut yourself a 500 calorie slice of this Meyer Lemon cheesecake, but that slice would be 60% of the entire cake… and well, that’s just a little greedy… because you have to share this healthy goodness!!!
So… been havin’ the cheesecake craving lately?
Whip up a batch of this one and rest in the fact that Mr. Crustless Meyer Lemon Cheesecake loves you. 🙂
- 2 cups dry curd cottage cheese
- ½ cup plain 0% Greek Yogurt
- zest of 1 meyer lemon, divided
- juice of 1 whole meyer lemon
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon pure lemon extract (optional, for extra lemony flavor)
- 2 whole eggs
- 1 egg white
- 1 tablespoon baking stevia (OR 2 tablespoons pure honey)
- 2 tablespoons pure honey
- ¼ tsp salt
- ½ cup berries of choice (optional, but will bring a little more moisture to the cake - this was an afterthought!)
- Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.
- In a blender or food processor pulse all ingredients (only ½ of the lemon zest) until as smooth as possible.
- Pour filling into a lightly greased cake pan (line the bottom with parchment paper to prevent sticking)
- Bake for 45 minutes, remove from oven and cool to room temperature on a cooling rack.
- Top with warmed (20 sec in the microwave) then mashed blueberries, raspberries, or strawberries, and remaining lemon zest to garnish!
- Enjoy!
I’ve always found it interesting to see how other bloggers make the magic happen. It’s neat to see how everyone has their food photography set up!
I dream one day to have a whole room in my house dedicated to blogging food photography with a tripod, a super nice camera, lighting, backdrops, and shelves loaded with props – but at the moment, this will do!
I have a little rustic table that I picked up from the antique mall a couple years ago. I just loved the wood top, and so I bought it and painted the legs white. This little table sits at the top of our staircase going to the upper floor of our place. Right at that landing is a little window that brings in the perfect natural lighting.
What I’ve learnt from reading countless food photography articles is that natural lighting is key to great pictures.
To bounce the lighting and avoid harsh shadows I use none other than a big white binder.
Lol, for real.
I have it in the plans to make an actual cardboard reflector but for now this does the trick.
So there you have it, the little corner in my house where all the Nutritionist in the Kitch photography happens. I am still SO new at photography in general, but I feel I have grown a lot even in the last year. I can’t wait to see what my food pics will look like in 2 or 3 years from now when I have more equipment and better knowledge of the whole thing!
After I took the pictures of this yummy Meyer Lemon Cheesecake, I brought the plate over to my hubby who was still snoring away and surprised him with a little ‘breakfast in bed’.
Or shall I say ‘cheesecake-that’s-so-healthy-you-could-eat-it-for-breakfast-in-bed’.
He was a happy camper to say the least!
Have a wonderful week!
Christal
Nutritionist in the Kitch
Can I use regular lemons instead of meyer?
Meyer lemons are a lot sweeter than regular lemons so you could still use regular lemons but you should probably add more sweetener!
This definitely sounds like a winner!! I just wanted to check if you use both baking stevia and honey in the ingredients? And if you are substituting honey for the stevia then it would need 4T?
Yes I used both! 🙂 You can sub for more honey if you don’t want to or don’t have stevia!
That looks really good!
And thank you for the behind-the-scenes-look. Love it. I’m not a food blogger though I do share recipes occasionally, and food photography is something I’m working on. Love the white binder idea! I’ve been considering making myself a light box (thanks Pinterest), but this is easier!
Thanks Alison! 🙂 Yes, the binder is a quick fix for now, I wanted to build a light box too, but I have a feeling it would result in a lot of teeth gnashing! Lol!
I’m not familiar with “dry curd” cottage cheese. Can you fill me in? What is it and where can I get it? Would silken tofu work too? I cannot wait to try this!!
Hi Jennifer! You can find ‘dry curd’ cottage cheese where you find regular cottage cheese in the grocery store – it’s the same thing just without all the liquid! 🙂
Healthy cheesecake has to be my favourite thing ever, I love it so so so so much! Can’t wait to try this recipe, it’s been so long since I last had a piece of cheesecake (two days lol) and I’m craving it so badly ;–) Thanks for sharing!
And your set-up looks lovely, I’m in love with your rustic table xx
Thanks so much Consuelo! Enjoy the cheesecake!! 🙂
I love your photo set up! And what a cute little table!! I really like the top of it, too!
I know what you mean about being excited to see what your pictures will look like in the future. I’ve only been blogging / photographing food for 4 months and I already feel a little more comfortable! I can’t wait until I feel totally at ease with it!
So … about this cheesecake. Lemon is my absolute favorite (and crust is my absolute least favorite!). It looks so refreshing – and I’d probably add raspberries (before they go out of season!) to mine. Mmmm – can’t wait to try!!
Thanks! Yeah, it’s amazing how fast you learn when you get into the whole blogging thing!! I look at other blogs all the time to see what I can pick up – there are some unbelievably amazing self-taught photographers out there!! 🙂
Mmmm. raspberry + lemon. Perfection!
Oh my goodness… I have to try making this! I love cheesecake, but like you said, it doesn’t love me back. Love that you can have this and actually feel good about eating dessert!
The berries sound like a great addition too!
Thanks Kelsy! Yes, the berries will bring that little bit of moisture and sweetness! Oh and make it look even prettier too! 🙂
This might be a stupid question but what is “dry curd” cottage cheese? Definitely going to make this!!
Hey Laura! Not a bad question at all! Dry curd cottage cheese is a variety of cottage cheese you can get from the store that doesn’t have the liquid in it. It’s pretty much just the dry crumbles! It will say right on the container “dry curd” 🙂
Love the blogging setup! (hey if it works, it works ;-)) and I can taste your lemon infused cheesecake from here… delightful.
Lol! Yep, for now the little corner will have to do – eventually I’ll have a bigger more functional space – lugging my food and props up the stairs all the time is a tad annoying! 🙂
That looks delicious! I once had a banana cheese cake in a Mongolian restaurant, and it was definitely not the healthy kind, but I make the odd exception here and there 🙂
I might have a go at making this though, mmmm! I love when desserts are sweet but has that zingyness to them – perfect!
I love your little photo corner, it looks beautiful! I struggle now with taking photos of the food I make, because there are no windows in out kitchen (Can you believe it?!) I love when photos have that rustic feel to it, might have to get me a blog table of my own! My camera is quite fancy, he it’s also getting a bit old…poor soul! 😛
I hope you’ve had a great start to your week 😀 x
Mmmm.. Oh my banana cheesecake! That sounds amazing! Yes, I’ll be honest, when I’m at a restaurant for a special meal out, and we splurge for dessert, it’s almost always the cheesecake!
There are barely any windows in my kitchen either, ugh! Just one small one that brings in some light, but not a great set-up. Lol, eventually we will move up in our food photo worlds, a little bit at a time! 🙂