Adventures in Baking: Cheesecake & Chocolate Cobbler

As I mentioned in my post Monday, I am back to my regular workout/healthy eating routine. I also mentioned the odd fact that I can’t start a new routine unless it’s a Monday – the beginning of the week.

So since Monday was my “starting” day what did I do on Sunday afternoon knowing that I’d be running my little heart out the next afternoon and lifting weights with Jillian Michael’s after my day of work??!?! I made dessert....highly caloric dessert.

I actually made more than dessert – I made a whole meal for M. who was studying away at the library for the bar exam. I made grilled chicken with white wine mushroom cream sauce, twice baked potatoes and homemade baguettes. While this was all delicious – I also wanted to make a special dessert for M. – he deserves it with all of the studying he's been doing!

So I decided to try out a recipe for something called “Chocolate Cobbler” and then for me, since I’m not a huge chocolate overload fan (gasp!), I made a chocolate chip raspberry cheesecake (I know, could I pile on any more calories in one day?!). It was my first attempt at making both of these desserts and while I was a little bit skeptical of the recipes (they can’t be that easy, can they!?) I dove right in.

First I made the cheesecake. I put together the ingredients for the crust, and the filling and popped that baby in the oven! About an hour and half later I pulled out a beautiful (and most importantly, set) chocolate chip cheesecake! Instead of leaving the cheesecake the way it was – although I’m sure it would have been just as delicious – I grabbed a carton of raspberries, threw them in a saucepan with some sugar and water and made a little raspberry topping. Yum.

Once I picked up M. from the library later that evening and we plated up our dinners, I popped “his” dessert into the oven. I had already pre-measured the ingredients so it was quicker than quick to put together. 40 minutes later we had a bubbling, gooey, chocolaty masterpiece – chocolate cobbler to be exact. I served it up to M. with some good vanilla ice cream and I’m pretty sure he was in heaven.

At that point I also cut a slice of my cheesecake which had been chilling in the refrigerator for a couple of hours – yum! It was delicious and even though I have always been intimated by the thought of making cheesecake, the process turned out to be incredibly easy!

So for another attempt at baking…I give myself an A+ :)

Also, I mentioned a delicious sandwich that I enjoyed last weekend at one of our fav. restaurant and craved it so much (all thanks to writing that post) that I recreated that same sandwich at home on Tuesday night. Turkey, bacon, avocado, mayo, balsamic onion marmalade (which I made from scratch before picking up M. from the library) and grilled bread. YUM!...Maybe I haven't really started the whole healthy eating thing after all?! Oops! :)