Blueberry no bake cheesecake

It is hard to take control of your own food when you travel but it is important.  I've shown you in a few blogs this week how I made choices while eating at restaurants.  I also showed you that we chose to grill out one evening instead of going to a restaurant.  By taking control of my eating while I was on the road, I was able to drop two pounds.  It helped that I was able to do a twenty minute aerobic workout in the pool two evenings.

I had called the hotel to see if they just had stovetops or if they also had ovens.  They said that they had ovens so I pulled up a recipe for blueberry cheesecake that I could bake.  Luckily I checked the room before I went to the grocery store because there was no oven.  I had to quickly come up with a recipe that would work on the stovetop.

Crust:

Crushed walnuts

1/3 cup butter

a teaspoon of cinnamon

Mix:

The rest of the stick of butter

1/2 pint blueberries

Pint of Heavy Whipping Cream

8 oz stick of cream cheese

a teaspoon of cinnamon

1 Tablespoon Cocoa powder



Softening the blueberries

I started by heating up the blueberries until they were soft.  Once they were softened as you can see below the mix turned purple.

Softened Blueberry

I chose to add the cinnamon at this level.  I think next time I would add it to the cream mixture.  The taste was lost in the fresh blueberries.

Cinnamon

I used a small blender that I have to crush the walnuts a little bit.  I added cinnamon and butter so that it would pat down better in the cupcake liners and add a richer taste.  I had purchased the cupcake liners with foil on the outside which are designed for use without a cupcake pan.

Crust

After rinsing out the blender, I blended the cream cheese together with the rest of the heavy whipping cream and folded it together with the (now cooled) blueberry mixture.

Folding blueberries into cream cheese

I scooped the mixture over the crusts and sprinkled a few walnuts on top.  After all, I deserve a dessert at looks pretty when I travel.  

Finished Blueberry no bake cheesecake

They set up well but if they weren't eaten immediately out of the refrigerator they got a little sticky.  I froze one just to see how it would work.  It was a little too hard to eat I needed to let it warm up a little bit but once it was at a point to just start "melting" it was perfect.

Starting your day in the right way with a smile!

The hotel served a different breakfast every day.  Most days I could find something to eat.  One day they had scrambled eggs with cheese on top and bacon.  LOOK! it is even smiling at me (with a twisted goofy grin.)

Mushroom Swiss burger with broccoli and avocado

They ordered out from a café one day.  I ordered a mushroom Swiss burger served on a bed of lettuce (I requested no bun.)  It was normally served with French fries.  But on their side options they also had steamed broccoli so I asked if I could swap out the French fries for steamed broccoli.  There was a bottle of balsamic vinaigrette with olive oil in the refrigerator for "salad day".  I sprinkled a little bit over the broccoli to add flavor.  At the grocery store, I had purchased an avocado.  Since we ordered lunch the day before, I knew to bring the rest of my avocado with me to work.




Restaurants are service places.  If they are a good restaurant, they will do anything that they can to accommodate you.  Especially people that travel.  They want you on your return trip to come back to town.  Next time that you are in a restaurant, look over the menu and ask for what you want even if it isn't what the menu says.