To celebrate my Annual Food for Thoughts 2018 writeup – here is a much more frugality approved recipe over the initial 2017 version. 40% Less Greek yoghurt used. 50% Less cream cheese required. A staple dessert during this year’s strenuous Cyclical Keto/LC+IF.
Ingredients & Pricing
Each cake = 4 serves. Or 3 for a very hungry person.
- 165g (any brand) Greek yoghurt preferably NOT low fat (obviously). ($4 for 1kg tub) 65 cents used up.
- 1x whole egg. (one 12x 600g carton of egg = $2.00 – $2.50). 18 cents used up. NOTE: 2018 seasonal pricing.
- 125g of cream cheese (regular). ($2.50-$2.75 per small tub sadly a price increase compared to 2017). $1.25 used up
- WPCs of choice (I’m using unflavoured 2 Brother Foods bulk purchased FIVE KILOGRAMS for $25) = 33g. 17 cents used up.
- 3 tsp psyllium husk ($6 per 250g bag). 8 Cents used up.
- 1 tsp of Xanthan Gum. A 100g batch @ $5 lasts for plentiful for month/s at a time.
- Sweetener of choice, crushed tablet/s of either: Equals (Ace-K/aspartame based) / Hermesetas HMC cubes (the old one as Sucralose based) / or ALDI’s Merryfield brand (Stevia based): $6 for average simplicity sake. I’m not here debating whether all these sweeteners are heat stable or not – one study says yes, and the other says no. My pragmatic conclusion? I’d crush the tablets BEFORE serving.
- (optional) Baking soda & cream of tartar: just out of experimentation I’ve been trying to make a cheesecake that “rises” but so far failed. Hence, these two are optional ingredients.
Tallying up the price – it takes approximately $37AUD as “Recipe Initial Investment”. And it takes $THREE to make each cake.
Theoretically, you could make up to TWELVE (12) cheese cakes from this initial investment of $37. You know exactly what goes within it. If you earn a very comfortable $75,000 Australian FIAT dollars per annum (excluding tax) – you should be able to comfortably make this perhaps three cakes (3) every week. Every week, of the year.
What’s $468 Dollars ($3 times 3 = $9 per week; $9 times 52 weeks per year = $468) per year means to you? That could be a holiday for sure. But a very frugal holiday in paradise indeed – without food.
Execution.
Preheat your oven to 150 degree Celcius.
Go combine all ingredients (use 150g of yoghurt first of all I will explain why later), before blending it all with a mixer be sure to gently first soften any solid chunks.
The main difference between this and the initial version – is that you HAVE to add plenty of water – up to 100ML worth to ensure that the pysllium and the xanthan gum swells up well.
If you do find the overall mixtures is too “broken up”, add slightly more xanthan gum (tiny pinch at a time) with perhaps 2 tablespoons of water. The goal here is to ensure the overall resulting mix is as fluid like as possible, not dispersed or broken to chunks. This may take time and practise.
About a minute or two worth of mixing, it’s time to bake. Bake for 25 minutes at preheated 150 degrees celsius. After this 25 minutes have passed – turn down the heat to 50 degrees celsius and bake for another 30 minutes.
Take out and let cool to surrounding temperature before storing in fridge for at least six hours before serve. The psyllium + xanthan should resembles a thick enough finish of a cake.
Now – that you’ve used up 150g of yoghurt, chances are – the familiar cheesecake palatability is missing. This is where you’ll need to spoon out a further 15g of greek yoghurt to help achieve that on top of each serve.
Next, you also need to now add the sweeteners. Crush the tablets.
World Peace.
Version 2.0 Macros
One batch, one cake = 4 serves. The entire cake comprises of 648 calories. 20g of carbs (most are added from fibre), 40g of fats, 52g of protein. Split into four (4) serves you will get 162 calories, 5 grams of carbs, 13g of protein, and 10g of fats.
Nearly HALF the calories off the initial version; but thanks to the added “bulk” from water + pysllium + Xanthan = makes this a more frugality friendly version. Humility approved.
| Nutrition Facts | |
|---|---|
| Servings 4.0 | |
| Amount Per Serving | |
| calories 162 | |
| % Daily Value * | |
| Total Fat 10 g | 15 % |
| Saturated Fat 6 g | 31 % |
| Monounsaturated Fat 0 g | |
| Polyunsaturated Fat 0 g | |
| Trans Fat 0 g | |
| Cholesterol 47 mg | 16 % |
| Sodium 320 mg | 13 % |
| Potassium 18 mg | 1 % |
| Total Carbohydrate 5 g | 2 % |
| Dietary Fiber 0 g | 2 % |
| Sugars 5 g | |
| Protein 13 g | 25 % |
| Vitamin A | 1 % |
| Vitamin C | 0 % |
| Calcium | 11 % |
| Iron | 1 % |
| * The Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet, so your values may change depending on your calorie needs. The values here may not be 100% accurate because the recipes have not been professionally evaluated nor have they been evaluated by the U.S. FDA. | |
To up the fat content and finish – I serve mine with flaxseeds and if the austerity budget allows – 15g worth of peanut butter, or 15g brazil nuts and raspberries. With cinnamon on top.
Feeling constipated or gassy the next day?
My thoughts on fibre is neither for or against. Try lessening the amount of pysllium husk next time, but try adding more of the xanthan. Experiment the amounts.
Mix the whey 1/2 and 1/2 with gelatin powder. There seems to be compelling reasons to balance between muscle-meats intake with gelatinous rich sources to aid gut health.
Mineral supplementation is also a must. If 50% of the population in one of the world’s populous countries are deficient in magnesium; then it pays to have a good Magnesium supplement in order. Lacking Potassium may also be another factor; though I’d warn this to be the more difficult to manage than magnesium; too much of one can lead to dangerous side effects.
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