I need one of those bumper stickers, “I brake for cheesecake”.  But since I work from home and don’t do much driving these days, I decided that I would break for cheesecake.  Especially if it’s pumpkin cheesecake, which is what I baked some of today!  I decided to go for the individual serving size approach, hoping that would help with my portion control problems.  So I made some cupcakes,

And broke out my good old heart tin!

The recipe is simple and relatively healthy.

Cottage Cheese Pumpkin Cheesecake

2 cups cottage cheese
1/2 can pumpkin
1 whole egg
1 egg white
1/4 cup cream cheese
1 scoop protein powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1/4 cup cane sugar
2 tbsp maple syrup

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Blend all the ingredients together in the blender until smooth.  Pour into a baking dish (or cupcake tin) sprayed with non-stick spray.  Bake for 35-50 minutes, depending on dish or tin you are using to bake.  Let cool for 10 minutes.  You can eat warm, or also taste great chilled!

And all that before lunch.  I’ll admit, I polished off the three heart-shaped ones before lunch

Lunch was a roast beef salad.

• romaine lettuce
• broccoli
• egg whites
• roast beef
  
• cheddar cheese
• edamame
• ranch dressing

Mid-afternoon, I snacked on a 100-calorie pack of chips ahoy crisps.  My mom got these on the airplane on the way here, and since she doesn’t really eat sugar or wheat, she passed them on to me.

They are ok… they taste good, but just are kind of airy and empty.  They never help fill me up or make me satisfied, I feel like I am just crunching on empty sugar.  I prefer things that are more substantial.

I also had a rice pudding snack.  Apparently it was a good afternoon for empty, non-substantial snacks

But then I redeemed myself with a healthy before-dinner snack:  sweet potato fries!

This was from another leftover my mom bought while at my house and didn’t eat.  She got a couple of sweet potatoes at Whole Foods.  I don’t really like potatoes, but I do like sweet potatoes.  I’m not sure why exactly I never buy them, but will have to make more of an effort.  These were delicious!

For dinner, I had some clam chowder soup.  I threw in some bowtie pasta to give it a little more substance.

Also, S and I split this plate of artichoke and cheese pastries.  They were melt-in-your-mouth good.

And my dessert was incredible.  I bought this new flavor of ice cream.  It is seasonal, and is actually the store brand here at Nob Hill Foods – Sunnyside Farms.  It was…

SUGAR COOKIE ICE CREAM!!

This is definitely my favorite seasonal flavor.  Sorry pumpkin, peppermint and egg nog… sugar cookie definitely takes the cake.  It is vanilla ice cream with sprinkles and chunks of sugar cookie:

NOW I can go to bed happy.