Red Velvet Cheesecake Minis

 

On Thursday night we had some friends over for dinner.

I obviously was quick to use it as the perfect excuse to break my cleanse.

I did, a little, and it was like heaven had been revealed to me.

Pita! Dips! Cheese! Pasta! *gulp* Cheesecake! Wine!

 

Our original plan was to have a lovely outdoor dinner on the patio and use one of our buildings rental BBQs. But ol' Ma Nature decided to veto that plan with rain and chillier than seasonal temperatures.

 

So we BBQ'd indoors!

 

On the menu was shiskabobs.

Chicken, orange peppers, onions, zucchini (some with muchrooms) and halloumi

& Spicy Italian sausage with yellow peppers and onions.

 

The appetizer was pita bread with 4 dips - hummus, tzaziki, spinach, and artichoke & asiago.

 

The sides were a pasta salad with a roasted red pepper & artichoke tapenade and a caprese salad.

 

 

 

Then for desert, since I was breaking my cleanse, I wanted to get as decadent as I could.

I made mini cheesecakes with a red velvet cake base. I tinted the cheesecake pink to go with the red.

They were pretty good but I used a boxed red velvet mix and it wasn't as rich as I was hoping for.

Could have been my fault for only making 1/3 of the box and probably messing up the ratios of ingredients a bit.

 

 

Anyway I won't post the recipe because all you need is a recipe for Red Velvet Cake like this one, and a recipe for Cheesecake, like this one.

 

Mix 'n' match with any and all of your favourite deserts and flavours.

 

In other news, I decided today that I couldn't go back to the sparse diet of the cleanse after allowing myself such indulgence. I did well during the day at work, fruit for breakfast, brown rice and veggies for lunch. But when I got home to the left overs from dinner I devoured them.

 

And subsequently am still - almost 12 hours later - dealing with the consequences.

I'm bloated and gassy and crampy and uncomfortable.

 

All signs seem to point to dairy though as the source of the trouble.

I did have cheese, dairy based dips, chocolate, and a mug of coffee that was easily 1/5 cream.

 

I think I'm lactose sensitive.

I won't say intollerant because I think I have to have a fair bit of it to make it an issue.

 

So back to the cleanse.

Tomorrow/today I plan to let my digestive tract have a break and then slowly start to include dairy but not so much that it gives me trouble.

 

But there's a good chance I'm stopping at Tim Horton's in the morning to get a donut.