December 7, 2010

Nik's Protein Cheesecake Cheeseball

~by Nikki


First, forgive me for my lack of process pictures. In general I’ve been working on snapping pictures as I go along making a dish, but this one didn’t get “the treatment.” Why? Well, because I didn’t originally plan to post this!

Long story short…remember how I said I went to my annual bariatric reunion on Sunday? Well my surgeon’s office has been a BIG support to Pouch Party™ and, in fact, has a party scheduled for early January as a part of its “Back on Track” month. At the reunion, a staff member from my surgeon’s office reminded me that yesterday was support group and that it’d be a GREAT time to hand out fliers for the next party. (Cue panic on my part as I’d not yet made any fliers for the party!) Then a fellow post-op who heard about Bariatric Foodie asked, “will you be bringing something yummy to group?”

Initially I answered no but my brain chews on stuff like that. I wanted to bring a sample of something, as I always do when I announce a party at a support group, but I simply didn’t have time to make anything complicated. The theme of the support group that night was holiday eating. So I thought, and I thought and I thought…then my head hurt. Then I thought some more and this recipe came to mind!

I’ve made it a few times and it scored well with the family and is so quick and easy to make. For those of us who, after surgery, want to avoid big indulgent desserts, it’s a neat way to get your cheesecake fix in. And NOBODY can ever tell there’s added protein unless I tell them.

Nik’s Protein Cheesecake Cheese Ball

Cheese Ball Ingredients:

12 oz. Neufchatel cheese (1/3 less fat cream cheese)
1/3 c. 0% unflavored Greek yogurt
2 scoops Any Whey unflavored protein powder
1 c. no-calorie sweetener (I used Splenda)
2 tsp. lemon juice

Coating Ingredients:

1 c. Whole Grain Cheerios
2 tbsp no-calorie sweetener
3 pumps SF Davinci Caramel Syrup

Directions:

In a bowl, combine cheese and yogurt and beat with a hand mixer until just blended.

Add protein powder, Splenda and lemon juice and beat again until fully incorporated.

Lay out a large piece of plastic wrap and, using a wooden spoon, scrape cheese mixture onto it.

Wrap it and form it into a ball. Refrigerate 2 hours.

In a mini-chopper or food processor, combine all coating ingredients and pulse until a moist crumb forms.

Once the ball is firm, lay out coating on a plate and drop the ball onto it. Roll until completely coated.

Transfer to a plate and serve with reduced fat graham cracker pieces or fruit.

At support group I served this with half-slices of Macintosh apples. I think that was a good choice. Macintosh apples are fairly starchy but sweeter than a red delicious. One of my group members suggested a Granny Smith. That could work too, although the tartness of the lemon juice in the cheese ball and the tartness of that apple might not play nicely together. But you know what we always say…play with your food!

This is a great thing to bring to your office holiday party as a safe and tasty dish. Stay tuned later this week for the official "BF Survival Guide for Holiday Office Parties" for even more strategies to get through the party season!

To my support group peeps…thanks for giving this recipe a try! From what I could tell it was two thumbs up! I mean…when I walked into the room, I had a cheese ball. When I left the room, I had no cheese ball. So…yeah. I think it was good!


Enjoy.



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