I’ve mentioned before that I’m not usually a fan of “healthy” desserts – mainly because they don’t taste like dessert and leave me feeling unsatisfied. However, after seeing yogurt cheesecake recipes popping up on Pinterest over and over again, I decided to make an exception and give it a try. Most of the recipes called for Greek yogurt, but I thought regular yogurt might work better as Greek yogurt can have more of a sour taste and I wanted my dessert to taste sweet! =) And I couldn’t have cheesecake without cherries, so I took dark, sweet cherries and thickened the juice slightly with cornstarch to make my topping. I didn’t have to add any sugar and it was sweet, thick and delicious! I used all-bran cereal to make the crust and while it doesn’t taste like a traditional graham cracker crust, it was good. I didn’t get any complaints from Jordan or Morgan either! And the filling was so good, I could eat it without any crust or cherries =). Enjoy!
Skinny Cherry Yogurt Cheesecake Pie
2 cups non-fat plain yogurt*
1 oz. box sugar-free fat-free cheesecake flavored instant pudding mix
8 oz light whipped topping
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all-bran original cereal*
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp unsweetened applesauce
2-3 tbsp water
16 oz. frozen dark sweet cherries, thawed
1/2 tbsp cornstarch
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place cereal in food processor and pulse to fine crumbs. Stir honey and applesauce into crumbs. Add water 1 tablespoon at a time until crumbs are moist enough to press into 9 inch pie pan. Bake for 15 minutes or until edges are slightly browned. Cool completely.
2. Drain cherries, reserving the juice. Place cherries in medium sauce pan. Stir cornstarch into reserved juice until smooth. Add back to cherries. Heat over medium heat until mixture thickens. (This will only take a couple of minutes.) Cool completely.
3. Whisk pudding mix into yogurt until smooth. Stir in vanilla. Gently fold in whipped topping. Pour into cooled crust. Top with cooled cherries. Refrigerate 4-6 hours before serving.
Notes:
1. I wouldn’t use Greek yogurt, as it’s a little more “sour” and I don’t think your pie will be sweet enough. However, if you really want to use Greek yogurt, you could always add a little sugar.
2. This crust does NOT taste like a traditional graham cracker crust. It’s good, just don’t expect it to taste like a graham cracker crust. However, you could easily substitute a store-bought reduced-fat graham cracker crust for a more traditional flavor combo.
Nutritional Info (1/8th of the pie): 180 calories; 1.4 g fat; 40.8 g carbohydrates; 7.6 g fiber; 6.8 g protein
Weight Watchers: Old Points 3; Points Plus 5
(I am not doing WW but I realize a lot of people are and so I plugged the nutritional info into several different calculators online and got the same number of points each time, so hopefully they are accurate.)
