Mini Peanut Butter Cheesecakes with Chocolate/Espresso Crumble

I finally did something new in the kitchen today. With traveling, work, and my lack of managing my stress lately, I haven’t had the time or the creative mind to do anything new (or much of anything at all) in the kitchen.

Today, I did this.

Mini Peanut Butter Cheesecakes with Chocolate/Espresso Crumble

Step 1:

Melt 3 Tbsp coconut oil.

Mix it with the following until smooth:

4 Tbsp smooth natural peanut butter
1/4 (heaping) tsp liquid vanilla stevia

Fill about 10 mini muffin cups with 1 Tbsp each of this mixture, and put it in the freezer while you do the next steps.

Step 2:

Crush about 4 Tbsp of chocolate covered espresso beans. Note: there is about 14g sugar in 3 Tbsp, if you divide this into the entire recipe it adds just over 1g sugar to each mini cheesecake.

Remove the pb cups from the freezer and equally divide the crushed espresso beans between them. Return to the freezer.

Step 3:

Blend 6oz softened cream cheese (I use cultured Organic Valley) with 1/4 tsp (heaping) liquid vanilla stevia.

Step 4:

You have two choices. You can pipe the softened cream cheese mixture onto the pb/espresso cups (I used the Pampered Chef Easy Accent Decorator), or you can soften it further (until it’s “pourable”) and you can add 1 Tbsp to each. If you choose the first option, put the finished cheesecakes into the fridge, and serve cold. If you choose the second option, put the cheesecakes in the freezer for about 10 minutes, and then move them to the fridge (assuming you want to eat one right away).

I’m not sure if all that sounds complicated….but it’s not! There are just a few steps, but I think the ingredient list is pretty simple. You could substitute in cacao nibs for the chocolate covered espresso beans if you want to leave out some of the caffeine or added sugar. I ate three—they were amazing. In fact, that was my lunch, and I don’t feel guilty at all.

Make sure to keep them in the fridge until right before you serve them—and you may just want to eat them with a fork, especially if you pipe the topping onto them!

News/Notes: I don’t have a lot to say right now about what’s going on with me—I have a lot going on, life-changing actually, but not things I really want to talk about at the moment. Have you noticed how things in life often come in opposites? Like, something that seems “bad” comes along but it opens a door to something “good?” I’m trying hard not to label things—I know I talked about that before. Challenges are opportunities, and I really believe that. That doesn’t mean the challenging part is any easier, it just makes it more valuable in the long-run. So I’m just plugging along, working out, doing my work, and figuring things out.

In other news, I am throwing a baby shower at the end of June, and if you have any great baby shower ideas, games, decor, etc….please tell me! I know we’re going to ask people to bring a favorite children’s book instead of a card for the mama (my cousin’s wife), and we’re going to plan on playing two games. I really really don’t want to do the cheesy ones—are there any un-cheesy games?! The mama-to-be is super classy and her wedding was like a country-meets-city theme at a stallion ranch in Southern Cali…We’re having the shower at a cottage on Keuka Lake (it’ll be a little rustic), so I’m thinking of going along those same lines. Oh, and boys are invited, so that adds an interesting twist too!

Any fun baby shower ideas?