Craving cheesecake, but still want to get your skinny jeans on? Then you will love my Skinny Cherry Cheesecake Smoothie! Sweet cherries, light cream cheese and biscuit crumbs; this smoothie might be low on calories, but it definitely doesn’t scrimp on flavour!
Man, oh man, you do not want to miss out on today’s recipe!
Shut the front door. You can have cheesecake for breakfast.
And it won’t be detrimental to those bikini bodies we’ve all been working so hard on. 😉
Don’t be fooled by the packet of biscuits – this recipe only uses 1/2 a biscuit, yes HALF! However, it’s just enough to fool you that you’re devouring a big ol’ slice of cheesecake.
The other secret to this smoothie? Lightest Philly. Light is no longer light enough, it seems; now they make Lightest.
Now, a lot of the time I’m not one for light versions of anything, I usually think they taste a bit rubbish and I’d rather have less of the full fat version. BUT…
Lightest Philly is actually delicious and you don’t notice the difference between that and normal Philly. I use 1/4 cup in this recipe which is less than 60 calories.
There are only 4 ingredients to this recipe, 5 if you need to use sweetener – I didn’t as my cherries were plenty sweet enough.
All you need is skimmed milk, thawed frozen cherries, lightest philly and a digestive biscuit/graham cracker. That’s it!
That blob of philly on top – just for garnish, not required at all to make these smoothies taste absolutely divine!
So, a little background as to why I’m trying to make healthier recipes at the moment…
I’ve really been trying to look after myself recently and think about what I eat/drink. If you’re a regular reader, you’ll know I’m having some gastro problems as the moment and going through various tests to try and find out what is going on.
For weeks I was pretty much confined to eating rice cakes and ryvita, but I was desperately craving proper food. Every time my boyfriend made dinner I was almost drooling, it is boring living off of crackers!
So, since I had to go through food groups and eliminate them, I found that I feel better in myself with less sugar. I started looking at packets and was shocked to see just how much is crammed in everything. I’m not going refined sugar free and I’m not going to stop making you all glorious brownies, cakes and cookies; I just want to explore some healthier options whilst it’s too hot to bake.
I also feel that if I’m reducing sugar elsewhere, when I make said cookies/brownies etc I can really enjoy them as they will be a treat and not a whole heap of sugar on top of what I already eat!
So, basically what I’m saying is, don’t fear! I’m not changing this blog into a healthy blog, but as I’m going through this journey myself, if I happen to make something skinny which tastes awesome then I may share it with you!
Enough about serious stuff already… how do we make this creamy, satisfying smoothie?
Place some thawed cherries, skimmed milk and philly into a blender and blitz until smooth and creamy. Easy as pie and perfect for breakfast on the go!
The cream cheese makes this ultra creamy and adds just a little tang, the milk thins it out a little, to make it easier to drink and the cherries are perfectly sweet and juicy and add loads of fresh flavour. To finish, I crushed half of a digestive and then sprinkled it on top.
This smoothie does not taste artificial or overly sweet at all, it really is the perfect start to the day!
How does this measure up to a slice of the real stuff? A slice of cherry cheesecake has around 440 calories.
This smoothie? Under 220.
Yes, in a slice of cheesecake you would get a different ratio of fruit to cheesecake, but I think that in smoothie form, having the cherries as the star of the show with just a little cheesecake tang makes this drink pure perfection!
Go grab your blenders and make this ASAP!
Enjoy 🙂
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Skinny Cherry Cheesecake Smoothie
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup Lightest Philadelphia or other low fat cream cheese
- 1/3 cup skimmed milk
- 1 cup frozen cherries, thawed
- 1-2 tsp sweetener, if required
- 1/2 a digestive biscuit/graham cracker, crushed
Instructions
- Place the philly, skimmed milk and cherries into a blender and blitz until smooth, light and creamy, about 1 minute on high speed.*
- Taste and then add a little sweetener if required. Blitz for 10 seconds to mix in the sweetener.
- Pour into a glass and sprinkle biscuit crumbs on top, serve immediately.