Striving fora Flat Tummy

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Who wouldn’t want to have flat stomach? Though beauty should be seen on the inside, we cannot actually deny the fact that having a flat stomach is sexy and admirable to every woman who has. You know that working out in the gym is one great idea but you are already losing your track of time to go to a gym and do some workouts. You want to wear your favorite figure-hugging dress but are worried about your flabby stomach bulging out. Well, you still have a last option. While you cannot reduce fat, you can lose belly fat by decreasing your total body fat percentage.

Does it really have to be time consuming? Wouldn’t it be better to have something to work on to achieve a flat tummy without having to alter your daily activities and will help you experience the change for at least seven days? We’ll I’ve got something that may help you out. Just read through the following steps and follow them carefully and you’re off to flat tummy you’ve always wanted.

Here’s first you can do; if you want to build muscle and burn fat at the same time, you have to perform circuit training, three days per week. How can you achieve this? Indulge in full body exercises like lunges, push-ups, and pull-ups, 1 set is equivalent to 15 repetitions. Don’t forget to do a one-minute jumping rope after each set of workout. You should be able to burn around 500 to 600 calories per workout. You can do it at night or anytime you may wish at home or any place you find appropriate so it will never bother your busy schedule in the day.

You have to work on your abdominal muscles strictly at least three times in the week. if not, your workout will not take effect and would just be useless. Crunches and leg raises for three sets of 20 repetitions should be done. Also, do planks by holding your body in a push-up position on your elbows for 30 to 60 seconds for four sets.

The kind of food you will eat in this period is also vital in bringing about any change. Natural foods like fruits, vegetables, whole grain breads and pastas, chicken, beef, fish and low fat dairy should replace processed foods which are full unwanted cholesterol and sugar. You can have some applications in the internet to have a calorie-count of the food you take every meal of the day.

To minimize water retention that normally makes your tummy bulge, start lowering your sodium intake. This means you need to avoid salt. You can flavor your food with other herbs and spices instead. Other herbs and spices are actually beneficial to health as some contains antioxidants that are needed by your body cells for regeneration.

Stressing and anxiety can cause the over-production of a certain hormone called cortisol, which encourages weight gain about the belly area. When you are among those people who eat a lot when they get stressed up, you should learn to control your stress level. You can do relaxation techniques or exercise instead of eating to avoid gaining weight.

From there, you are on your way to achieving your flat tummy. It may take some time but the effects are worth it. The steps above will not only give you a flat stomach but a healthy body as well.

Pumpkin and Spinach to Enjoy

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We often know that vegetables are boring to eat plainly. This connotation cannot be taken out so lightly as from our childhood, we are too afraid of having a taste of our leafy friends. Actually, I don’t like vegetables myself but one thing’s for sure is that you will neglect it if you never happen to eat it in your lifetime. Vegetables are often viewed by the young ones as a so boring and tasteless food, but there are certain ways that we can encourage them to eat some veggies and that is through exposure and by creativity. Many cartoonists have introduced spinach and pumpkins as cartoon figures, may be their own goal is to encourage the children to eat vegetables, but this strategy will never work on our pre-teen ladies that are so smarty and wise of what they see. But contrary to that one method have a greater chance of making this young ladies and gents to eat vegetable and it is through creativity. Every mom have been bothered on how they may force their children to eat veggies, but through artistic and creative serving of veggies, they may be fooled of what they think is meat but actually what they eat was vegetables enveloped in attractive colors. Here is a recipe of Pumpkin and Spinach Cannelloni for your kids.

Pumpkin and Spinach Cannelloni

Total Yield: 4 servings

Preparation Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:

  1. Preheat the oven until it reaches at 180°C. Lightly grease a 1 1/2-litre (6 cup-capacity) ovenproof baking dish.
  2. Cook the pumpkin in a large saucepan of boiling water for 10 minutes or until tender. Drain, mash roughly and thoroughly with a fork then set aside to cool slightly.
  3. Blanch the spinach in boiling water for 30 seconds. Rinse in cold water and drain well. Squeeze out excess moisture then chop roughly.
  4. Place the pumpkin, spring onions, spinach, cottage cheese and nutmeg in a large bowl. Season with pepper. Mix together until all ingredients are properly mixed with each other or after it gained it consistency.
  5. Spoon 4 tablespoons (1/3 cup) filling in the middle of each lasagna sheet. Fold sheet to enclose filling. Spread 1/3 cup (80ml) pasta sauce in the bottom of prepared dish. Place cannelloni on top in a single layer. Repeat with remaining sheets and filling.
  6. Pour the remaining tomato sauce over cannelloni, season well with pepper and sprinkle with cheese. Bake for 30 minutes, or until cheese has melted and is bubbling. Serve with a green salad.

Nutritional Facts

Energy: 1580kJ

Calories: 378cal

Protein: 26g

Fat: 7g

saturated: 4g

Carbohydrates: 50g

sugars: 19g

Dietary Fibre: 9g

Sodium: 880mg

Calcium: 320mg

Iron: 4mg

Full of cheese and veggies, this pumpkin cannelloni is the perfect midweek meal full of flavor and goodness. This meaty and yummy dish will surely satisfy your children meaty cravings without knowing that it is mainly composed of vegetables. try it now on Sunny Sunday picnics while sipping your favorite juice and your family unknowingly enjoying your vegetable dish.

 

Fitness in Pole Dancing

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If you are actually looking for something unique and cool stuff for fitness, pole dancing may e just right for you. You may think that pole dancing is easy by just seeing the people who do it but it really requires a lot of training and exercise to be able to do those movements gracefully and fluidly. I tried lifting my body as I hold onto a pole and I fail. It was really hard. Pole dancing can really increase your strength, flexibility, agility and rhythm as you do dancing along with the music. If you are looking for something to release some sweat, this is the exercise that can really give you that sweaty workout. Pole dancing is not really just an art but also a fitness routine that you can enjoy and can give you a lot of benefits such as :

Lessons are learned as you finish a move

That is, when you are done mastering a task, you can expect a lot more to do. You’ll never get bored of doing the same old stuff. You can start with a spin and go for another movement afterwards. The practices makes you easily gauge how far have you gone from a beginner as you go step by step.

Provides tangible goals to increase motivation

Concrete, achievable goals, with highly desirable rewards, increase motivation. In pole dancing you are provided with an endless supply of attainable goals such as: to climb to the top of the pole, to do a hands-free outside leg hang, to string 5 moves together without stopping. As you learn each step, you aim to go further and better.

It comes with a combination of different exercises.

Pole dancing is both an isometric and isotonic workout… rolled into one! Isotonic contractions are exercise movements in which opposing muscles (such as biceps and triceps) contract throughout a controlled movement. For example: lifting weights or doing pushups, or pulling yourself up into a pole spin. Isometric contractions are exercise movements in which your muscles push against a solid object, while a static position is held, and the angle of the joint does not change.

Provide great fun and excitement and addictive.

Pole dancing is so much fun that you truly want to turn up to class and exercise! This is perhaps one of the biggest reasons women flock to pole as a form of fitness, and also the reason why so many stick to it! Because pole dancing is so enjoyable and rewarding, it quickly becomes an addiction! Your self-esteem sky-rockets, you feel great, you look great – and the sweet taste of victory quickly becomes addictive. Each time you accomplish a move, you are inspired to do better, to push harder, and to achieve more tricks. It’s like a little dangling carrot in front of your nose and it works wonders for motivation.

This is a fitness routine for all.

Everyone can try it. With the right training of the basics, you can surely excel. Pole dancing provides routines that are suitable to your age and fitness level. By the time your body has achieved the right fitness level, pole dancing can still offer you more exiting movements or routines that you’ll truly enjoy.  Try it and see for yourself.

Getting Your Sleep

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Sleeping is one of the essentials of living a healthy and active life, it is the way that we can help our body rest from all the pressures it experienced in the environment, it helps us in performing certain body functions for the continuum of the balance in the body. Being one of the essentials of living or maintaining life, sleeping has a very big impact not only to the mental health of an individual but as well as the physical health that may greatly affect the normal functions of the body. To make you further understand the importance of sleeping to the body, I am giving you the valid reasons to introduce to you that sleeping in a proper balance is important.
Sleeping boosts brain power. Many may have not known it but while sleeping, we let our brain rest for a while after all the work that you’ve done for the whole day. After a goodnight sleep, you let your brain have all of your ideas and memories arranged in a proper manner, letting you organize and plan your thoughts well and you can come up with an idea faster than the usual. Aside from that, sleeping lets you organize your decisions well, and makes your decisions clearly effective.


Sleeping keeps your heart healthy. Sleeping lets you regulate your heart beat, and makes your heart function well and your blood circulation balanced and well-maintained. Sleeping protects your heart from the risks of hypertension and irregular heart beat rhythm such as atrial fibrillation. Also, while sleeping, it makes your heartbeat relaxed and regular, but if it isn’t, you must call your doctor immediately as it may be manifestation of heart function failure.
Sleeping reduces effects of stress and increases tolerance towards stress. Sleeping lets the entirety of the body rest, therefore regenerating all its damaged parts and giving room for a little endurance to hard work. It is not only continued exposure that increases your tolerance to stress, but as well as proper sleeping and resting habits. Sleeping also helps to keep you alert and active while working in your office.
Sleeping gives you a higher resistance to diseases. While resting your body, several hormones are released in your body which helps you maintain a high immunity towards disease causing viruses and bacteria. While increasing your body’s immune system, it is repairing and helping your cells regenerate faster, therefore increasing your toleration with such diseases.

Sleeping keeps you in the proper shape and in the proper health. While oversleeping can cause your weight to increase in a short nick of time, proper and enough sleep keeps your weight  and shape just right therefore introducing a healthier and fitter body. At the same time sleeping help your bodily systems to balance hormone secretion which can greatly affect your weight and your shape at the same time.

Now that you know how important proper sleeping is, it is time for you to make up with the loss that your body have, and sleep properly starting this day. But aside from sleeping, exercise can also give you a healthier state of body and mind.

 

 

 

Money Matters

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Money is one of the important aspects in maintaining a worry-free life. Nowadays everything must be bought in order to obtain something. Life as we know is hard when it comes to allocating and spending the money that we have into the basic needs that we need to acquire. Making a concrete budget plan is fairly not simple and not an easy task for moms and we all know that, oftentimes these financial problems may lead to serious family disagreements and misunderstanding. So as a woman, we must never lose knowledge of how to budget and allocate the finances of the family. Budgeting is as important as earning the money, you will never be able to wisely use your resources if you do not know how to budget. Might as well, here are some of the important tips in budgeting the money for the expenses of the family.

1. Make a Budget Plan

The very first step in making a budget plan is to gather and know all your expenses may it be daily, monthly or yearly, just gather all the bills, the memos and all the established expenses like food and water to be able to sum up all your expenses and make your own custom budget plan which is strictly dependent on your own expenses and finances. You must also include there the cash flow of which indicates where your money is coming from and where your money is spent or where your money goes. This wil surely help you to know all the possible aspects to be included in your budget plan.

2. Set Financial Goals

Being stressed monthly is just simply exhausting, but you see, there are ways to lessen your financial burden it is just by setting goals for the family to achieve financially, it may you will cost cut all the expenses this month, or you may say that you must be able to save a specific amount of money for a target time or date. Setting financial goals is as important as saving the future of your family, so practically, saving a lot or spending a lot may greatly affect the outcome of your family.

3. Get Rid of your Debts

When you set your goals you must first learn how to manage your debts, cause aside from the fact that having debts is overwhelming, it is also risky if you have debts, as these debts may turn into sudden or accidental expenses which are totally risky for the finances of the family. The bottom point is that you must eliminate or get rid of all your debts may it be little by little or one time big time as it will really help a lot in saving and budgeting the family’s expenses.

4. Plan for Financial Emergencies

It is truly stressful if an accident happen to the family, may it be life threatening or pocket killing. Budgeting for sudden or accidental financial emergencies is like helping yourself in the future. Giving priority in saving money for future expenditures is like this, but this may save you from the stress and burden that you may fell if you didn’t plan for financial emergencies

5. Budget your Food

It may seem a little bit hard for us , but planning for a pocket-friendly food budget is one of the most important steps in budgeting the money , as most of what we earned falls into our food expenditures.

6. Travel Budget or Staycation

Most families just can’t help themselves in having a vacation, but grab a hold of yourself if these events happen in your family as they may greatly ruin your budget.  Instead of going into expensive amusement parks and Vacation resorts, try staying at home and make the most of your time with your family, watch TV together, eat and play games and have fun with each other’s company.

One advice that I will give to you when it comes to budgeting money, is that no matter how hard you save your money as long as you can’t discipline yourself from spending, all budgeting is just for nothing, so remember to limit shopping, limit travels and budget your money wisely.

Potato and Spinach with Frittata

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Here’s is another “must-try” recipe for you. Have you ever watched “Popeye the sailor man”? I did when I was a kid, it is a cartoon in which a sailor becomes strong when he eats a can of spinach and wins over his enemy. I actually wonder why it has to be spinach when there are a lot of vegetables to be used.  So for this recipe, you may wonder what’s with spinach that it has to be included in this recipe. Is it really healthy? Up to what extent? What benefits do you actually get from spinach? Would I really be strong like Popeye when I eat it?

Spinach is almost a non-caloric food but is exploding with different nutrients. Its nutrients that as we say give “superpowers” are vitamins, including A, C, K, and folate; minerals, including calcium and magnesium; fiber; beta-carotene and others. Among the World’s Healthiest vegetables, spinach comes out at the top of our ranking list for nutrient richness. Rich in vitamins and minerals, it is also concentrated in health-promoting phytonutrients such as carotenoids (beta-carotene, lutein, and zeaxanthin) and flavonoids to provide you with powerful antioxidant protection. Enjoy baby spinach in your favorite salads or make a salad made exclusively of baby spinach. Spinach is one of only three vegetables that we recommend boiling to help reduce its concentration of oxalic acid. In addition to that, Spinach can also help fight against inflammation and cancer and is also good to your bones. Try this recipe to be able to enjoy Frittata while experiencing the health benefits of spinach.

Here’s what you’ll need:

  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 small russet potatoes (about 3/4 pound), peeled and thinly sliced
  • 1 small onion, thinly sliced
  • 9 large eggs
  • kosher salt and black pepper
  • 1 10-ounce package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed of excess liquid
  • 4 ounces white Cheddar, grated (1 cup)
  • 4 ounces thinly sliced deli ham, cut into 2-inch pieces
  • 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1 head red leaf lettuce, torn into bite-size pieces (6 cups)

How to make:

  1. Heat oven to 400° F. Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a large ovenproof nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add the potatoes and onion and cook, tossing occasionally, until the potatoes are tender, 12 to 15 minutes.
  2. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper. Mix in the spinach, Cheddar, and ham.
  3. Add the egg mixture to the skillet, stir once, and transfer the skillet to oven. Cook until the eggs are set, 12 to 14 minutes.
  4. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk together the vinegar, mustard, the remaining tablespoon of oil, and ¼ teaspoon each salt and pepper. Add the lettuce and toss to coat. Serve with the frittata.

You can do this for a total of 35 minutes and makes four servings. Each serving contains 500 calories, 32 g fat, 10 grams saturated fat, 517 mg cholesterol, 1,138 mg sodium, 31 grams protein, 25 grams carbohydrates, 5 grams sugar, 5 grams fiber, 5 mg iron, 405 mg calcium. You can decrease the amount of salt or choose the ham to decrease the amount of salt but your really don’t have to worry much as this recipe is sure healthy for you. Enjoy!

Speeding Up Metabolism

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Unlucky it may seem, there are really some people that no matter how much they eat, they end up not getting fat. While there are actually some who rarely eat a lot but end up gaining too much weight. As much as possible, all of us want to be at the optimum size not just to be appreciated by many but it is really much easier to do certain tasks when your body is not too big as what you think it is. So how come that we have to suffer all the weight gain while others doesn’t have to give a damn about it? The whole issue rounds up to the fact that some have fast metabolic rate while some are slower. If you are among those who easily gain weight, your metabolism might be slower such that calories are not automatically converted to energy but are rather stored as fats in your belly. You have to speed up that metabolism if you want to have your optimum size. Here are certain tips to help you out.

Do some intense exercise early in the morning. You do some running in place, jumping jacks, lunges, jogging outside, or any exercise that can make your heart rate increase. This will already help in regulating and can even help speed up metabolism. It is always best to do exercise before you start your day as it also help set your mood for the whole day.

Spicy foods can also boost metabolism.  Hot spices like curry, cayenne pepper, black pepper, cumin, and turmeric all help the body speed up your metabolism. There are also other “hot” spices that you may not think of as hot but they react in the body in this way. They include cinnamon, cardamon, ginger, and nutmeg. Using these spices to soups, stir-fries and other dishes, and you are rest assured that what you eat can help speed up that metabolism of yours.

Water works its own magic for your metabolism. Metabolism is a process that requires a lot of water to fuel up. It would be advisable if you choose alkaline water as it helps transport nutrients better to the whole parts of the body. Try drinking a lot of water and see how your metabolism speed up like magic.

Provide yourself with essential minerals such as zinc, copper, selenium and iodine. This will help keep your thyroid healthy. A healthy thyroid will work efficiently for digestion and metabolism. You can acquire these minerals in seafoods and nuts.

Don’t skip breakfast. No matter how much we want to lose weight, never let breakfast be left behind. No matter how busy you may be, make it a point to have something healthy to eat for breakfast. If not, your metabolism will go havoc and will ruin your diet making you fat. Always eat a healthy breakfast. This should include a healthy protein like eggs from pasture raised chickens and fruit bursting with antioxidants like blueberries or strawberries.

Resist eating too much at dinner time. Most of us eat more during dinner. However, our metabolism slows down by the time we reach bed time. If you like to eat more, try to take an early dinner or at least eat dinner three hour before bedtime.

Do weight training exercises. This will help your body gain muscle instead of fat. For women, it can make your body lean and strong. This will serve as a good way to consume energy in your body and prevent calories to become fats.

With all of that said, you are now ready to enjoy your life without worries on gaining weight. Just make sure that  what you eat is just enough to what your body can consume for the day.

Home-made Chicken Burger

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I am a big fan of burgers though beef is the one that can give you that mouth watering delicious taste, chicken is categorized among the healthy meat especially the breast part which contains whole white meat. Still, buying chicken burger in fast food chains could be risky since you really cannot say if it is really pure chicken meat. At the same time, the cooking method can increase the caloric content of your burger which is not good for your diet. So, I strongly believe that making your own chicken burger will ensure you to achieve optimum amount of nutrients your body really need. Plus, you can also add or alter other stuff to increase the nutritional value of your meal.

Here’s what you’ll need:

For the patties:

  • 4 x 170g chicken breast fillets, cut into thirds lengthways
  • 600ml buttermilk
  • Sunflower oil, to deep-fry
  • 2 cups (300g) plain flour
  • 1 1/2 tbsp cayenne pepper
  • 1/3 cup (100g) whole-egg mayonnaise
  • 6 white bread rolls, split
  • Salad leaves, to serve (optional)

Homemade pickles

  • 1 telegraph cucumber, thinly sliced (a mandoline is ideal)
  • 1 red onion, thinly sliced
  • 1/4 cup (60ml) rice vinegar
  • 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
  • 1/2 tsp caster sugar

How to prepare:

  1. For the pickles, toss all the ingredients together in a plastic container with 1 tsp sea salt and some freshly ground black pepper. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight.
  2. Place chicken in a shallow ceramic dish and cover with the buttermilk. Marinate in the fridge for at least 2 hours or overnight.
  3. Half-fill a saucepan with oil and heat to 190C (if you don’t have a kitchen thermometer, a cube of bread will turn golden in 30 seconds).
  4. Combine flour and cayenne pepper in a bowl and season with salt. Remove chicken from the buttermilk, allowing the excess to drip off, then coat in the flour mixture, shaking off excess.
  5. In 3 batches, deep-fry the chicken, turning, for 6-8 minutes until golden, crisp and cooked through. Remove using a slotted spoon and drain on paper towel. Sprinkle with sea salt.
  6. Spread the mayonnaise generously over the rolls, then fill with the chicken, pickles and salad leaves.

Using a portion of avocado in addition to mayonnaise would make your burger even healthier. Avocadoes contain healthy cholesterols that are essential for your body. You may also opt to use whole wheat flour rather than plain flour which is high in glycemic index. You can also use whole wheat breads rather than regular buns. Since chicken burger patties have to be fried, you can pick among those healthy oils to fry your patties. Adding fresh lettuce and tomatoes would also be a perfect combination as it increases the nutritional value of your burger and is also delicious. This is a perfect recipe for lunch or dinner or in any time of the day you may wish. You can just store the patties in the fridge and fry it by the time you need a healthy meal to enjoy. Hungry? Go and try this recipe now!

 

Crochet for women

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In this fast-paced society, we all know that everything comes with the use of technology, but we never know that in the past we used to be more natural and more creative and functional. Unlike today, women of the past entertain themselves by doing arts and crafts and not by simply jogging or walking around the park unwillingly with their music player on just to please them to do the fitness thing. Everything about the past generation women are so creative and they tend to lavish themselves by basket weaving, painting, drawing, and many more arts and crafts that is possible to be done inside the home while waiting for the food to cook or while listening to the radio. Nowadays, we may only see this happening or being done by old women on their late 60’s and 70’ or by school children trying to comply with their academic requirements, but do you know that even in our generation we can still accumulate this artistic hobby in our daily life even though we are working and busy with our concerns. Here is some of the reason why you should start crocheting as a hobby and as a recreational activity.

It is easy to learn. While there are many arts and crafts that are not easy to learn, crocheting keeps its place as one of the easiest crafts to be done anywhere and everywhere. And unlike cross-stitching, which requires to follow a certain intricate pattern, crocheting is just as simple as making a scarf that you use to wear in winters, yes, it is easy to make.

It is a satisfying hobby. After finishing a certain task for craft for the first time, you will feel a distinct feeling of satisfaction. Finishing your first crochet artwork may be crafty, and needs a lot of guidance, but after the hard work you will really feel the happiness running through your veins. The simple feeling of satisfaction can really cause relaxation to the body.

It improves mental ability. Anything that involves creativity is something that can improve your mental ability. Anything that involves focus and concentration of interest introduce mental health and wellness. Crocheting at the same time helps in releasing certain hormones that are helpful in the body, these are mainly dopamine and serotonin which is helpful in having a goodnight sleep and helps you manage and experience less stress while working.

It can introduce social interaction. Some people do crochet in groups so that they may interact with other crocheting enthusiasts and share their creative ideas with each other. It also helps in establishing social connection which is very essential for us.

It is a good way to exercise your joints. Crocheting lets you move certain parts of the body, particularly muscles near the joints of the shoulders. It also gives you the flexibility as each and every movement in crocheting varies and it may really give you the endurance to endure tension or muscle stress.

It is a very good creative outlet. Of course, crocheting enhances your creative mind, like any other crafts but what is good is that it is very unique and simple to learn unlike painting and sketching. And also it doesn’t really require much time.

Craving for Cheesecakes

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We simply love cakes the way it is and the way it tastes is something that even individuals with hearts of stone are craving for. Truly, as time goes by their comes different variants of cakes but if you will ask me what is the best type of cake, I will say “it is the cheesecake”, it’s because not only of its taste but also the texture and the feeling when you eat it is something to treasure for years. Aside from that there are also a lot of variants of cheese cake that we can choose. From different flavors to different topping to different base ingredients. Cheesecakes are truly God’s gift to us like chocolates, the food for the God, maybe cheesecakes or cakes would simply be the pastries for the Gods.  If you are going to have yourself a cheesecake experience, better not go to the nearest bakeshop or patisserie to buy your cheesecake, instead go to the supermarket and find your way to make your own cheesecake, which is also customized and can be named by you. So here is a sample recipe that I will share to you to give you the head start in cooking cheesecakes.

Vanilla Cheesecake with Cherry Topping

Ingredients

  • Crust:
    • 3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
    • 1/4 cup sugar
    • 2 tablespoons butter, melted
    • 2 teaspoons water
    • Cooking spray
  • Filling:
    • 3 (8-ounce) blocks fat-free cream cheese, softened
    • 2 (8-ounce) blocks 1/3-less-fat cream cheese, softened
    • 1 cup sugar
    • 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
    • 1/4 teaspoon salt
    • 1 (8-ounce) carton fat-free sour cream
    • 4 large eggs
    • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
    • 1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
  • Topping:
    • 2/3 cup tawny port or other sweet red wine
    • 1/2 cup sugar
    • 2 (10-ounce) bags frozen pitted dark sweet cherries
    • 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
    • 4 teaspoons cornstarch
    • 4 teaspoons water

Preparation

  1. Preheat oven up to 400°.
  2. To prepare crust, combine first 3 ingredients, tossing with a fork. Add 2 teaspoons water; toss with a fork until moist and crumbly. Gently press mixture into bottom and 1 1/2 inches up sides of a 9-inch spring form pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 400° for 5 minutes; cool on a wire rack.
  3. Reduce oven temperature to 325°.
  4. To prepare filling, beat cheeses with a mixer at high speed until smooth. Combine 1 cup sugar, flour, and salt, stirring with a whisk. Add to cheese mixture; beat well. Add sour cream; beat well. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in vanilla extract. Scrape seeds from vanilla bean; stir seeds into cheese mixture, reserving bean halves.
  5. Pour cheese mixture into prepared pan; bake at 325° for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until cheesecake center barely moves when pan is touched. Remove cheesecake from oven; run a knife around outside edge. Cool to room temperature. Cover and chill at least 8 hours.
  6. To prepare topping, combine port, 1/2 cup sugar, cherries, and reserved vanilla bean halves in a large saucepan; bring to a boil. Cook 5 minutes or until cherries are thawed and mixture is syrupy. Remove vanilla bean halves; discard.
  7. Combine juice, cornstarch, and 4 teaspoons water, stirring with a whisk until well blended. Stir cornstarch mixture into cherry mixture; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer 3 minutes or until mixture is slightly thickened and shiny. Remove from heat; cool to room temperature. Cover and chill. Serve over cheesecake.

Now that you know how to make your own cheesecake, it is time for you to discover how you can innovate it and maybe use it to earn money and start your own favorite bakeshop. Just remember not to lose control of your sweet tooth as cheesecakes do have a lot of sugar and carbs.