Mini Oreo Cheesecake

So my sister has been bugging me to make her Oreo cheesecakes ever since I made mini pumpkin cheesecakes last November.  She's not a big fan of pumpkin and loves her Oreos.  I've been meaning to experiment with Oreo cheesecakes, but with my busy school schedule, I never got around to it.  During 4th of July weekend, I had the perfect opportunity.  The great thing about making your own desserts is that you can control the ingredients and the portion sizes.  These mini cheesecakes come out to around 170 calories so you can make your cake and eat it too!  And the best part is that this recipe is quick and easy.

  I decided to use the mini pumpkin cheesecake recipe and adapted it to create an Oreo cheesecake recipe.  I replaced the pumpkin with Greek yogurt, used reduced fat cream cheese instead of regular, and reduced the sugar. 

Keep your cream cheese at room temperature, this will help when you mix in the yogurt and sugar.  Most regular and Oreo cheesecake recipes that I've seen use sour cream.  So I decided to opt for the high protein, no fat content of fat free Greek yogurt because I've found Greek yogurt to have a similar taste to sour cream.  This will help to increase the protein and decrease the fat content of this cheesecake recipe.  As for the mini cheesecake molds, I would use a mini cheesecake pan which I have yet to invest in, but if you don't have one then you can also use cupcake liners in a cupcake pan.  I also found paper baking cups to be useful.  Place the liners, or baking cups, in a cupcake pan.  Scrape cream off of the cookies, and place cookies in each of the 12 cupcake slots.
Place the cream cheese, sugar, and yogurt in a mixing bowl and mix at medium speed until everything is smooth.  Add the egg and vanilla extract and mix again until smooth.  Crush 5 Oreo cookies in a Ziploc bag using a rolling pin.  Add the cookie crumbs to the cream cheese mixture and fold in.

Use a spoon to evenly distribute the cheese cake mix into each of the cupcake slots.  Place in oven and bake for 20 minutes.  The mini cheesecakes are done when the cakes do not jiggle after shaking the pan.  Let cool on a wire rack for 20 minutes and chill in refrigerator.

Make the Oreo whip cream by combining heavy whipping cream and 1 Tablespoon sugar.  Whip until stiff peaks form.  Use the cookie crumbs and fold into the whipped cream.  Use a piping bag or piping gun to top cheesecakes with the whipped cream.

Makes 12 Mini Cheesecakes
Ingredients
1 package reduced fat cream cheese, or Neufchatel cheese, 8 oz, softened
6oz fat free Greek yogurt, plain
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
6 Oreo cookies, cream removed
5 Oreo cookies, crushed

Whipped Cream
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 Tbsp sugar
Oreo cookie crumbs

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Place plain cookie halves in cupcake pans or mini cheesecake pans.
Place cream cheese, sugar, and yogurt in mixer and mix on medium speed until smooth.
Add egg and vanilla extract and mix on medium speed until smooth.
Fold in cookie crumbs.
Spoon Oreo cheescake mixture into each of the slots, place in oven and bake for 20 minutes.
Cool on wire rack for 20 minutes and chill in refrigerator.

Meanwhile, combine whipping cream and sugar and using a wire whisk, beat cream until stiff peaks form.  Fold in cookie crumbs.
Before serving, pipe whipped cream onto cheesecakes and serve.

SEPHA Diary: Day 5

It was our last day in Limon, Nicaragua and our last day with the FIMRC clinic.  In the morning, we went to a nearby town to give another prenatal talk with pregnant women.  The site was located at a preschool with highly energetic kids.  Two of our volunteers stayed to give the talk, while the rest of us moved to another nearby town to give physical therapy to developmentally delayed children.  Kids ranged from 3 months to 8 years old.  Jessica, our volunteer director, gave us handouts which showed how to provide physical therapy to these children.  Me and another volunteer, Doris, administered physical therapy on a 7 year old girl who had cerebral palsy.  In case you don't know, cerebral palsy is a nervous system disorder that causes physical disabilities such as difficulty with body movements and muscle coordination.  She was considered the ballerina of the group because her leg would fly up towards her head with ease!  Performing physical therapy was a task though, since she didn't relax and kept stiff most of the time.  She couldn't talk so determining if something was painful for her was a challenge. 

We found out that her diet only consisted of milk.  You could tell she was very malnourished by by her skin and bones.  Her mom was open to nutrition advice for herself and her daughter, so we gave a general nutrition talk as well as a cholesterol talk to all the parents present.  They seemed hesitant to participate at first, but once we brought out our food models, they became interested and asked a lot of questions.

After our talks, we headed over to lunch at Amparo's, a nearby restaurant and house?  The tables were set up outside on the porch, and the floors consisted of tree stumps (love all the natural decor of these places we've been to).  The hostess offered us drinks (mainly orange soda or Pepsi).  I know what you're thinking. 
"But don't nutritionists and dietitians promote avoiding soda consumption?"  We do because soda has a lot of unnecessary sugar and it is linked to many chronic diseases.  But by the end of the week, Pepsi sounded so good because it was always served ice cold which definitely sounded tempting due to the heat and humidity we've been in.  It wasn't an everyday thing, and I always say "consume in moderation".  The meal consisted of chicken served in a sauce, vegetables, rice, tostones (fried plantains) and this corn meal with vegetable side dish.  The dish was really flavorful, and I was surprised to not see any beans on my plate today.

lunch

After lunch, half of us went back to the physical therapy building to give it a makeover with some paint while the other half went back to the clinic to leave a mural.  After an hour and a half of sweat and muscle power painting, we managed to get one coat of paint on the entire building (inside and out).

had to leave our mark, CSULA....MyPlate mural

Definitely was my workout for the day.  We headed back to the clinic to see the finished product the girls made....and it came out beautifully.  The mural was a MyPlate model on the outside clinic wall so people will know how to eat healthy while waiting for their appointments.

All of us, with 2 PA students from USC and 3 volunteer ambasadors

After we said our goodbyes to the clinic volunteers and staff, we headed back to our hotel and decided to have dinner on the beach.  We had to try the best fish tacos in town (I've had better in Ensanada) but they were still really good, and the salsa had a nice kick.

fish tacos

We picked up a few souvenirs (the girls looked for sea shells while I looked at rocks) and then packed for our departure to the city the next day.

It was a really great experience volunteering in Nicaragua and I have all of you to thank for allowing me to experience this adventure.  Learning about different cultures and how they manage daily tasks is truly an eye opener for me, and it reminded me a little of India.  Their access to, or lack of, fresh fruits and vegetables in the rural area was definitely surprising since I would assume most people grow their own produce.  Due to the rainy season and recent droughts, farming in Limon was not an option.  If they wanted produce they had to wait for produce trucks to come into town with deliveries, but even then that was not an option since storms prevented trucks from coming into to town due to blocked roads.  They also could travel to a larger town, located 2 hours away, but most people did not have access to transportation or couldn't find the time.  As I ponder on their lifestyle, I think about how it is here in the U.S.  We have an abundance of fresh fruits and vegetables, yet most people take it for granted, consuming fast food or processed foods.  Maybe once in a while, we can all appreciate and eat a salad?

SEPHA Diary: Day 4

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July weekend (I know, it's a little late).  I had a great time relaxing with my family, but now let's get back to Nicaragua, Day 4 (in case I forget).  This day, were going to visit a prenatal group.  As part of the prenatal group's baby shower, two of my classmates were going to give a presentation on general nutrition for pregnant women.  They both worked really hard on their poster boards and Tammy even learned some Spanish to communicate with the locals.  She also did a great job demonstrating a few exercises the women can do to ease their pregnancy.  After the prenatal talk, we gave a short nutrition talk with preschoolers whose teacher was at the prenatal meeting.  The preschoolers were very interactive with our presentation (although they didn't quite understand all of the components of MyPlate).  The also sang us their national anthem and Grethel, one of my classmates who is also from Nicaragua, joined in. 

Demonstrating exercises

 After our talks we went to lunch at a host family's house then headed over to the clinic to observe with the pediatrician.  Again, we took measurements of children's weight, height, head circumference and temperature and documented the data on their charts.  I also observed developmental assessments performed by Amanda, the volunteer ambassador for FIMRC. 

Measuring head circumference

That day, there were a lot of sick children with high temperatures.  Towards the end of the day, half of my classmates visited schools and gave nutrition talks, while the other half of us stayed at the clinic.  During this time, lightning began to flash.  We weren't really worried it was going to rain, since the previous days we've seen lightning but never any rain.
This time, however, we saw lightning and then heard thunder and in a matter of minutes, it began to pour.  It felt really good to feel the cold drops of water on my skin since it was still hot.  Towards the end of our shift, our volunteer director received a call informing us that our driver's wife was in labor.  On our way back to our hotel, we told our driver to drop us off at a nearby intersection so that he can meet his wife at the hospital (the nearby hospital was about 2 hours away).  We thought our hotel was only a short walk away, so walking shouldn't be an issue....boy were we wrong.  It took us about another half an hour to get to our hotel.  We did not realize how muddy the dirt was (since it just rained).  It literally felt like quick sand with every step we took.  At one point me and two other girls had to get locals to help us cross a small puddle (especially since I didn't want to slip and fall into the mud, that would've been a great blog post).

Our taxi (or riksha)

Love the pebbles on the ground, and the log benches

When we finally reached our hotel, we thought it was best to take a taxi to a nearby restaurant instead of walking.  When I saw our taxi pull up, I realized it looked very similar to taxis in India, which are called rikshas.  When I got out of the riksha (after taking a pic with it of course) I saw a label that had Indian writing on it.  They must have imported it straight from India (when I showed my parents the photo they were very surprised and excited, go figure).  We heard so many good things about this restaurant, La Scala.  It is owned by a couple, an Italian man and an Argentinian woman, who decided to open up a pizza place in this rural area of Nicaragua.  I thought we hit the jackpot, because pizza sounded amazing at the time (I know, we're in Nicaragua so we should be eating Nicaraguan food, but you can't pass up pizza, especially one made by an Italian).  The decor of the restaurant was beautiful (I kept mental notes for my future backyard).  All the furniture was made of wood and the ground was made up of stones; it was very calming. 

Love the color of the furniture

The menu was filled with typical Italian dishes, like caprese salads, focacia bread, and let's not forget the pizzas. 
Most of my classmates ordered the vegetarian pizza, while I ordered the salami pizza (I'm such a carnivore). 

Vegetarian pizza

When the pizza came out, it smelled delicious with Italian spices and basil aromas, and the crust was just perfect, not too chewy and not too crunchy.  The salami was the best part about my pizza; I've never tasted salami this good (I'm getting cravings as I type this).

Salami pizza

 After devouring the entire pizza, I still wanted to order dessert because they had banana flambe on the menu and I've never had it before.  After some persuasion, we ordered one to split between all of us.  The dessert didn't look too appealing, but it was tasty.  You could really taste the rum in the flambe, which is a good thing if you like rum.  I would definitely go back for the pizza....or just the salami.

SEPHA Diary: Day 3

Day 3 was a short day with FIMRC.  We were supposed to give a diabetes talk (which I was really excited to give) but it was cancelled by the doctor of the clinic.  So instead, we gave multiple general nutrition talks to kids of different grade levels at their school.  The preschool children were, by far, the cutest group we gave our nutrition talk to. 

Preschoolers - don't they look cute?

They were excited, energetic, and eager to participate during our demonstration.  It took a little more effort to get the high school students to participate but when we brought out our food models (which are fake, plastic food that looks like real food, typically used to demonstrate proper portion sizes), they became more eager to discuss the topic.
After our talk, we drove over to a little town near the beach called San Juan del Sur.  We stopped by a stand that sold purses, clutches, and key chains, however, these weren't ordinary purses.  These bags were made by women who collected plastic bags from the beach in order to decrease the amount of plastic bags ending up on the beach, which potentially can hurt the sea turtles on the land.  You're probably wondering, how can plastic bags be turned into purses and look decent?  Check out the pic below.

I would have never thought that was made with plastic bags.  It did surprise me to see that these locals were also practicing sustainability in their community.  But then again, most third world countries are able to utilize every resource available to them.
After we each bought a bag or two, we headed over to a local restaurant for lunch.  We were all surprised and excited to see we had beets (well one beet) on our plate.  The last few days we were deprived of vegetables because of the lack of availability by the restaurants and also, vegetables are not typically a big component of Nicaraguan cuisine. 

See the beet?  Not really sure what the name of this dish is

I was also surprised to see that they had beets available here but not other vegetables that are common to the United States, like broccoli or cauliflower. 
Our volunteer day came to an end at 2p.m. and we were allowed to do other activities for the rest of the day.  Most of us decided to lie in hammocks at our hotel and relax before heading to dinner at a local tourist resort called Rancho Santana.  After a short walk from the beach to the resort (which included some men shouting "I love yous") and crossing a bridge, we entered the resort and took a minute (or five) to enjoy the view from our table in the restaurant.  The restaurant, La Finca y El Mar (The Farm and The Sea), grows their own produce on their ranch and obtains seafood straight from the nearby ocean, talk about fresh.  The menu  consisted of some dishes typically found in the U.S., like garlic chicken, but there were some dishes that were unique, such as eggplant yellow curry or coffee rubbed pork loin.  We ordered Tostones con Queso y Frijolles (fried plantains with cheese and refried beans) for an appetizer. 

Tostones con Queso y Frijoles

The combination of the crispy fried plantain, the tangy-ness from the cheese and creaminess from the beans was very pleasing on the palate.  Most of us decided to do the three course meal for $20, which is a really good deal considering most entrees were $15.  For my first course, I ordered the fish cakes accompanied with curry sauce.  The fish cakes and curry sauce reminded me of yellow curry dishes found in Thai restaurants; it was very delicious.

Fish Cakes with Curry Sauce

the view wasgorgeous

My second course was the pasta of the day, which was Penne Pesto del Mar (shellfish penne pasta).  It included lobster and shrimp, tossed in linguine covered in basil pesto.  The lobster and shrimp were fresh, and the basil pesto did not overwhelm the flavors of the shellfish.

I, next, ordered the brownie a la mode for my last course.  I haven't seen chocolate in three days so of course I couldn't wait to devour the brownie.

The entire meal was delicious and it was the first time since being in Nicaragua that I actually felt full.  The only downside of the evening was the walk back to our hotel, in the dark, along the beach.  No electricity required the use of our handy dandy phones and its flashlight app to prevent us from stepping on any of the hermit crabs moving in the sand.

Penne Pesto del Mar

Brownie a la mode

SEPHA Diary: Day 2

The second day of my volunteer trip, we had to present a food safety lesson to a group of men (well, one man) and women who had diabetes.  We set out to the town of El Remate from the FIMRC clinic at 8:30 a.m.  During this time, Nicaragua's weather tends to be on the rainy side, so the roads we encountered were very muddy, since all roads in Limon are dirt roads.  We came upon an unexpected dilemma, as our van got stuck in the mud during a slight incline. 

Our driver, scoping out the road to see if we can pass

Our driver examined the area and all 11 girls got to work pushing the van out of the mud.  It did not budge.  Luckily, one local man saw that we were unsuccessful and lent a helping hand.  And with the addition of his strength, we were able to free our van from the mud.  Feeling good about accomplishing this challenge (even though it really was due to the help of that one man), we continued to our destination.

we made it out of the mud

We finally arrived to El Remate and were greeted with herds of cows, chickens and pigs.  Jessica, the clinic director, discussed what they do at each diabetic meeting.  During each visit, weights, blood sugar readings, notes about when they last ate, and blood pressure readings are usually taken.  We were able to observe past history data of some of the patients and noticed one person had a blood sugar reading in the 400's (which is very very high), while others were able to control their blood sugar readings with time.  Jessica demonstrated how to receive a blood sugar reading while Fotini, one of the volunteer ambassadors who is also a nursing student, received blood pressure readings.  We then gave our food safety talk, which was facilitated by me but since mi espanol es muy malo, my friend, Grethel, translated.  I talked to them about proper handwashing procedures, when they should wash their hands, and the importance of storing meat.
We then gave a cooking demo using fruits and vegetables that were available in their area.  Since they were a diabetic group we thought it was best to show them how they can replace noodles in their spaghetti dishes (yes, pasta and tomato sauce is common here) with pipian, a nicaraguan squash similar to zucchini.  Side note:  a few of the women thought we were going to make guacamole; their version incorporates mashing hard boiled eggs into avocado (surprising, I  know).  Before tasting the dishes, each woman washed their hands which showed they listened to my talk (I was very excited).  Most seemed to enjoy both dishes; one women even gave a thumbs up.  The avocado mango salad is definitely something I want to recreate this summer.

Their wood fire pit stove

We utilized their wood fire pit outside to make the fresh marinara sauce using tomatoes, chili, and garlic.  We sliced up the pipian into thin spaghetti like strands and cooked it with a little bit of oil until it was soft.  Then blended the sauce and the pipian together.  We also made an avocado and mango salad using tomatoes, mangoes, avocados, and lemon juice. 

Top:  Avocado Mango Salad
Bottom:  Pipian in Tomato Sauce

After a successful meeting, we headed over to Limon to have lunch at a host family's house.  Three volunteer ambassadors who have been in Nicaragua for about a month stay at host family's houses.  The previous day we had chicken, gallo pinto, and a cabbage salad, served with bread.  Today we had pasta with tomato sauce, chicken and bread.  I am not used to eating so many carbs in one meal.  Amanda, one of the volunteer ambassadors, said that her host family only serves her bread which seems they believe having bread is an "American" custom since they don't serve it for themselves.

Lunch Day 2

Lunch Day 1

It's interesting to see how other cultures view American culture.  After lunch we went over to the clinic and observed the pediatrician assisting different patients.  Most children came in with malnutrition problems and digestive issues, such as constipation.  We then went over to the local school to give myplate/nutrition talks to children of all ages.  The best part was watching three girls perform "Gangnam style" during recess.  Who knew that song reached the rural area of Limon, Nicaragua?  And if you're wondering....no, I did not join them in their dance!

dancing and singing to Gangnam style, don't they look cute?