Char - Here ya go

Beachgirl's Basic Cheesecake

· 32 ounces cream cheese
· 1 cup splenda
· 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
· 1 teaspoon lemon juice
· 4 eggs plus 1 egg yolk
· 3 tablespoons sour cream


With an electric mixer, combine the cream cheese and splenda at slow to medium speed, scraping sides often. Add all other ingredients except eggs. When completely mixed (with no lumps), add the eggs and egg yolk, one at a time, beating very slowly. When eggs are incorporated, do not mix any more. Over-mixing the eggs is a contributing cause of cracked cheesecakes. (The leading cause of cracking is over-cooking, so don’t believe any one who tells you it is normal for a cheesecake to be cracked; it isn’t.) Always treat the batter gently.

Pour the mixture into the springform pan. Place the pan on a very large piece of aluminum foil, and fold the foil up around the pan to create a watertight barrier around the cheesecake. Then place the barrier pan in an even larger pan and fill the larger pan halfway with water. This is called a water bath. It is a gentler way to cook the cheesecake.

Place the entire water bath containing the cheesecake in a 300-degree preheated oven. Cook for 1 hour and reduce heat to 200 degrees for 1 more hour. Turn oven off and leave cheesecake in until the oven is completely cool. The cheesecake can even be left overnight at this point. Cracks can also occur when a cheesecake cools too quickly.

It may be beneficial to run a knife around the edge of the cheesecake, separating it from the sides of the pan. If your goal is to serve the cheesecake on a different dish without the bottom of the spring form pan, then the pan can be lined with parchment paper before the batter is poured in. Make sure to grease both sides of the paper. This will make for easy removal of the cheesecake later. It works best if the cheesecake has been refrigerated fully before trying to remove it from the bottom pan.

Per Serving (based on 12 servings per cheesecake): 308 Calories; 29g Fat; 8g Protein; 5g Carbohydrate; trace Dietary Fiber; 165mg Cholesterol; 244mg Sodium.quest my cheesecakes as gifts and for birthdays...so I must be doing something right!
Chocolate Almond Crust

2 1/2 cups ground almonds
2 tablespoons Splenda
4 tablespoons melted butter
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

Place nuts in bowl of a food processor; pulse until ground into a meal.
Add sugar substitute, butter and pulse to combine.
Transfer to a 9" springform pan. With your fingers, gently press nut mixture to form a crust on bottom of pan.
Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes; remove from oven and cool.

RASPBERRY-ALMOND CRUMB CAKE
1 cup ground almonds
1/3 cup splenda
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 cup butter
cut into sm chilled pieces
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/3 cup sour cream
2 tbsp heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 lg egg
Cooking spray
3 oz cream cheese -- 90gr softened
2 tbsp splenda
1 lg egg white
1/3 cup fresh raspberries-I used sf jam..apricot or whatever...
2 tbsp sliced almonds

Preheat oven to 350°F-180°C. Combine nuts, 1/3 cup splenda, and salt in a bowl; cut in butter with a pastry blender or 2 knives until mixture resembles coarse meal. Reserve 1/2 cup nut mixture for topping; set aside. Combine remaining nut mixture, baking powder, and baking soda, and add sour cream, heavy cream, extracts, and egg. Beat at medium speed of a mixer until blended. Spoon the batter into an 8-inch 230mm round cake pan coated with cooking spray. Combine cream cheese, 2 tablespoons splenda, and egg white; beat at medium speed until blended. Spread evenly over batter. Top with raspberries. Combine the reserved 1/2 cup nut mixture and almonds. Sprinkle crumb mixture over raspberries. Bake at 350°F-180°C for 30 minutes or until cake springs back when touched lightly in center. Cool on a wire rack.
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Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 245 Calories; 23g Fat (80.1% calories from fat); 7g Protein; 5g Carbohydrate; 2g Dietary Fiber; 60mg Cholesterol; 215mg Sodium. Exchanges: 0 Grain(Starch); 1 Lean Meat; 0 Fruit; 0 Non-Fat Milk; 4 Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates.

Pumpkin Pound Cake!
Recipe By : Dottie
Serving Size : 8

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 cup splenda powder
5 each large eggs
6 ounces ground almonds(2 cups almond "flour")
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

Preheat oven to 300f. Spray a loaf pan with cooking spray and sprinkle 2T of the splenda in the pan. Set aside.

Beat pumpkin, powder, vanilla and pumpkin spice with the splenda until smooth. Beat in eggs then almond flour. Add a little water IF needed to make it a thick, but pourable batter.
Pour into prepared pan and bake 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes. It will pull away from the sides of the pan an "test" done with a toothpick when it's cooked correctly.

I'm thinking you could use gingerbread spice in this instead of the pumpkin and get a really "autumn" flavor

Thanks Orang for your suggestions. I will try to up my calorie intake this week and see what happens.

You guys are great!

Orang, are you sure Kat and I aren't the same person ? Hypo and didn't lose a pound on Atkins?

Smoothblu,
Hope the suggestion helps. I'm with Bawdy on the potassium. I had lots of leg cramps - both at nigh and while hiking before I started taking it. A cramp is a very rare thing now - only happens when I do something stupid like climb a mountain without stretching first.

Welcome Katlyn.
I live southwest of Knoxville over toward the Smokey's these days. My family is still in Chattanooga so I'm a regular visitor. My brother used to live in Signal Hills - he was a pharmacist at the CVS there for several years (big guy with a beard and hair to his waist), He's engaged and they are looking at houses on Signal Mountain now so he may be returning - CVS is offering some pretty attractive incentives to lure pharmacists these days and I'm sure he does want to drive to the Hamilton Place area (where he now works) from Signal Mountain every day.

As for PP allowing more foods than Atkins - it does. While Atkins focuses on carbs alone, PP focuses on getting adequate protein while keeping carbs low - but not as low as Atkins. There is no list of forbidden foods - things like white sugar and white flour are discouraged, but not prohibited (I had some white flour tonight - 1/8th of a cup dusted on chicken livers - being a southern girl you know you can't cook livers without flour or cornmeal ) I don't eat that often, but this plan allows me to.

Both plans emphasize the use of natural fats and urge you to avoid transfats and hydrogenated oils. PP goes into far more detail about why to do this and which vegetable oils are best - cold pressed olive and canola. Atkins has no limits on fat and encourage the addition of fat to the diet to promote weight lose. PP does not have limits but urges a moderate fat intake. Atkins says calories do not count - PP says they do, but not as much as they would on other types of diets. The books explain why.

Atkins says you must be in ketosis to lose weight. PP says that while you may go into ketosis while using the WOE, it is not required. I like to maintain light ketosis because it is a natural appetite surpressant. Ketosis is an indication the body is burning fat for fuel - unfortunately, it doesn't indicate if the fat came off your thighs or your dinner plate which is why you see so many on Atkins in ketosis but stalled.

Note you have thyroid problems - you have lots of company in this group. Mine is normal.

Elaine (ewinpa)
How about sharing some of your knowledge re: carb intake levels and being hypo with Katlyn since her previously stable levels on meds aren't stable now...

MMMMMM....Ellie...those recipes sound soooo yummy. Thank-you so much for posting them and I will be sure to try everyone of them! Tonight I am trying the Parmesan Chicken recipe that I found on a thread in the recipe section. So far it smells really good, so we'll see how it tastes soon!

After reading your suggestions and reading through the book to refresh my mind. Every person has a different amount of time their body goes through detox. I was addicted to carbs, which is a strange thing for me to say, because I never considered carbs an addiction. Little did I know. Carb addiction is as real as nicotine, drug, or alcohol addiction, they say. Along with changing fuel sources from carbs to fat, I also have to work through the carb withdrawals.

I checked back on my medical records and found that I do have a problem with magnesium. I thought I remember years ago having to have some test taken and was told that was what was causing my "problem with loose stools". I had forgotten that. I remember I had a hard time finding vitamins that didn’t have any <or very little> magnesium in them. So I'm going to stop the extra magnesium for awhile and see if this will help.

I'm also going to try and up my calories some. It's really hard to eat that much food.

In other words this is a normal process that I'm going through.

I do believe there is value in having others look at a week's menu plan every so often to assure I don't get lazy in my planning.

I also decided I’d had enough of feeling yucky and went out and walked 1.5 miles anyway. That felt good. I upped my potassium and took a couple more after my walk.

So there is my plan. Once again I want to thank everyone for their concern and suggestions.

Have a great evening.