Chocolate Sunbutter Swirl Cheesecake Bites

Life is funny sometimes. For months I was going full force at 110% with working out and accounting for every piece of food that I ate to make sure I was in top shape for my figure competition. After the competition I let myself have a few indulgences before I was ready to get right back to it for another show in June. Then a series of unfortunate circumstances set me back to a point that I haven't been able to work out for 3 weeks and might not be able to for another couple weeks. On one hand I am relieved that my body has been able to rest, but on the other I feel like I need to be going going going!

One good thing that has come out of my extra time is that I am able to write and test recipes! I have missed this so much!

My co-worker and friend, Megzilla, had a birthday recently so I decided to make her a little treat and this is what I came up with. I hope you enjoy them as much as she did :)

Ingredients:

For the crust

• 6 Sweet Potato Biscuits
• 4 Tbsp Stevia in the Raw
• 2 Tbsp grassfed butter, melted

For the filling

• 1 package cream cheese, softened
• 2 egg yolks
• 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup Stevia in the Raw
• 2 heaping Tbsp Sunbutter
• 2 heaping Tbsp unsweetened cocoa

Directions:

1. Prepare the sweet potato biscuits as normal (link is above).
2. Keep the oven on at 350F.
3. After biscuits are cooled, crumble 6 of them unto a bowl with the melted butter and stevia. Combine until thick and crumbly.
4. Line a muffin tin with cupcake liners and ration the crust evenly (should make 12). Then press the crust firmly into the bottom of the liner with a spoon or shot glass.
5. Place the crust in the oven and bake for 20 minutes until it starts to brown on top.
6. While the crust is baking, cream the cream cheese with a hand mixer, then add in the yolks, coconut milk, vanilla, and stevia. Blend until very smooth, at least 2 minutes.
7. Scoop out 1/2 cup of the filling and place in a separate bowl.
8. In the original bowl, add the sunbutter and mix with the hand mixer until smooth.
9. In the other bowl, add the cocoa and mix until smooth.
10. Take the crust out of the oven when finished and let cool slightly but not all the way, about 5-10 minutes.
11. Divide the sunbutter filling evenly between the 12 cups and spread to cover the crust.
12. Dollop the chocolate filling on top of the sunbutter filling and create swirls with a butter knife.
13. Place back in the oven for 10 minutes.
14. Let cool before serving and store in the refrigerator.

Choco-nana Ice Cream

Some interesting things have been happening lately and one of them is I contacted a competition coach close to my house and I'm meeting with her in a little over a week. I'm so excited that I am starting to get everything in order. It is all starting to feel very real to me now. I will be more and more exciting the closer the date comes. Right now I'm 15 weeks out so I still have a few more weeks to work hard and gain as much as possible in a short amount of time. I'm going to go back to Paleo eating and get my carbs from sweet potatoes. This is what I should have done to begin with but you live and you learn. Next time I'm going to be a sweet potato eating machine! I'm seeing spaghetti with sweet potato noodles!!!

Anyways, I do have a recipe for you today. I had some bananas that were starting to get overly ripe so I stuck them in the freezer to make ice cream with them. Delicious! It comes out just like soft serve! There is no added sugar so the riper your bananas are, the sweeter your ice cream will be.

Makes 2 servings

Ingredients:

• 2 frozen bananas
• 1 tablespoon coconut cream (the top portion of the canned coconut milk)
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Peel and roughly chop your bananas and place in the freezer for a few hours until frozen or overnight. I had mine in the freezer almost 10 hours while I was at work and they were perfect.
2. Place all of the ingredients in your blender and blend until smooth. The times for this will vary depending on your blender but mine took about 30 seconds. 
3. Any uneaten ice cream can be stored in the freezer but it will become hard so let it thaw in the refrigerator an hour or so before eating.