Mini Pumpkin Cheesecakes

I am on a pumpkin-craze right now! And my favorite dessert is cheesecake so I figured….why not combine the two! Genius! What’s not to love? Oooh, that instant 5 lbs you gain from cheesecake. Touche. How about we “skinnify” it? This means I’ll have to call in the pros and who better for the job than Kelly at Eat Yourself Skinny? I love this girls’ approach to healthy eating. She has ridden the wave of crash diets and bingeing on unhealthy food but has found that a lifestyle change, a little experimentation in the kitchen and some honest to goodness motivation to stick with it is the key to success. I couldn’t agree with her more. So without further a do, I give you….

Mini Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecakes – Eat Yourself Skinny

Crust

• 7 graham cracker sheets
• 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 2 Tbsp sugar
• 4 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted

 Cheesecake Mixture

• 8 oz. Cool Whip Free
• 1 (8 oz) package fat-free cream cheese
• 1/4 cup NuNatruals stevia (or sugar)
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract

 Pumpkin Mixture

• 1/3 cup pumpkin puree
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
• 1/8 tsp. allspice
• Optional cinnamon sticks for garnish

Directions:

1. In a food processor, grind up the graham cracker sheets into fine crumbs.  {If you don’t have a food processor or blender, place the graham crackers into a bag and crush them with a rolling pan or a cup.}  Place the graham cracker crumbs into a bowl and add in the ground cinnamon and sugar.  Melt the butter and add it to the graham cracker crumbs.

2. Line a cupcake pan with cupcake liners and put one tablespoon of the graham cracker crumb mixture in the bottom of each liner.  Press down the crumbs with your hand.  Set aside.

3. In a large bowl, whip the cream cheese, vanilla extract and sugar (or Splenda) for a few minutes until fluffy.  Add the Cool Whip and whip until smooth.  To make the pumpkin mixture, combine the pumpkin puree, ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, ground ginger and allspice.  Add 2/3 cup of the cheesecake mixture to the pumpkin mixture.  Stir with a spatula until the two batters are completely combined and there are no lumps.

4. Fill each cupcake liner with 1 1/2 scoop fulls of the cheesecake mixture.  Each liner should be filled almost to the top.  Now place three dots (or two big ones) of pumpkin batter onto the cheesecake batter in the liner. Use a toothpick to swirl the two batters.

5. Once each cheesecake cup is swirled, placed the cupcake pans into the fridge to chill for a few hours (I chose to keep mine in overnight) until firm.  Serve and enjoy!

And a funny dog pic for the road, just because…..

That is totally what I look like when a fish touches me too!! Haha have a good day friends!

Questions:

1. What is your food philosophy?

2. What is your favorite dessert? And how do/would you “skinnify” it?

3. What are you going to be for Halloween?