Healthy 6" Cheesecake (Made With Cottage Cheese) Low Carb &

After much tweaking, this is my beloved cheesecake recipe. I always have a slice of this in my fridge. I love that I can eat it and not worry about my hips paying for it later. This recipe is for a 6" cheesecake, which makes a lovely five servings. Who needs a massive one anyway? I would eat way too much. Need a 8" cheesecake? Add a full 8 oz. of cream cheese, two full eggs, and increase sugar to 3/4 cup.

• Ready In: 45 mins
• Serves: 5
• Yields: 1 cheesecake

Ingredients

• 4  ounces cream cheese, 1/3 less fat
• 2  cups fat-free cottage cheese
• 1⁄2 cup sugar (or Splenda)
• 1  teaspoon vanilla
• 1  tablespoon lemon juice
• 1  teaspoon  chia seeds, milled
• 1  egg
• 1  egg white

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. In a food processor, blend the cream cheese until smooth. Add the cottage cheese and blend with the cream cheese. Add the sugar, vanilla, lemon juice, and milled chia seeds (for thickening). Blend away until no lumps remain. Add the egg and egg white. Blend again until evenly mixed.
3. Pour all the mixture into a 6" springform pan that has been sprayed with PAM.
4. Place in the oven and bake at 450 degrees for 15 minutes. Reduce the heat to 250 degrees without opening the door. Bake another 20 minutes, or until a thermometer inserted 1" from the edge reaches 155 degrees.
5. Remove from the oven. Run a knife around the edge. Let cool on the counter with a hot pad holder on top to keep it from dropping temperature too fast. After 30-45 minutes move it to the fridge and chill eight hours, or overnight.
6. Yummy Variations: Just omit lemon juice and then. . .
7. Chocolate Truffle: Add 1/4 Celsius cocoa powder and increase sugar to 3/4 Celsius Add 1-2 oz melted bittersweet chocolate for more richness.
8. Pumpkin: Add 1 cup canned pumpkin, 1/2 t. cinnamon, 1/4 t. allspice, 1/8 t. nutmeg. If you love pumpkin spices a lot, double them (I do).
9. Chocolate Chip: Stir 1/4 cup mini chocolate chips to the batter before baking (sub 3/4 t. mint extract for a mint chocolate chip).
10. Peanut Butter: Add 1/2 cup peanut butter with the cottage cheese.
11. Banana-Walnut: Add 3/4 cup mashed banana with the cottage cheese. Stir in walnuts right before pouring mixture into the pan.
12. Ricotta: Keep lemon juice. Sub 1/2 the cottage cheese for ricotta.
13. Fruit Swirled: Keep lemon juice. Swirl in preserves or sugar free spread into the top of the cheesecake before baking.