My husband is off work Fridays and Saturdays. We did not have any plans for those two days so we just had a chill time at home. I needed something to pass the time so I resorted to cooking. What better way to spend the time! I started off Saturday with some multigrain pancakes for Joe and Chloe. I got started on dessert, a Paleo Cookie Dough Cheesecake, early because those cheesecakes take a few hours to set. And dinner was simple~ ribeye steaks marinated in Primal Kitchen Sesame Ginger and peppered bacon wrapped in asparagus. It was a delightful day of cooking from start to finish.
Seems kinda contradictory though to make a vegan cheesecake for dessert after a ribeye dinner! I mainly chose to make this type of cheesecake for the fact that it is paleo and uses only gluten-free ingredients. I do try to eat vegan meals on occasion though because I do enjoy them. My favorite vegan food to make is “nice cream”. It is a vegan ice-cream created with frozen bananas, coconut milk, and other fruits, etc. It is a simple, healthy dessert to create at home and a nice alternative to regular ice-cream.
In this post I will be discussing how I made the dessert and the dinner and I have broken it down into sections for you.
Paleo Cookie Dough Cheesecake – How I Created It
These types of cheesecakes often use a million ingredients. I might just be exaggerating a little. For inspo I used a recipe that I located on 40 Aprons. I have made similar cheesecakes a handful of times but wanted to go with a recipe so I would not mess this up. The ingredients are quite costly.
I had pretty much everything that I needed except for one major ingredient… vanilla extract. I know I have a tiny bottle of some around here but it was lost and I could not find it anywhere. So I had to improvise with almond extract. I knew that would change the flavor of the cheesecake but Google said it was an acceptable substitute.
I really enjoyed creating this. I just wish I had a much better food processor. *cries* Whenever I have to process nuts I can not get a completely smooth texture. This recipe uses quite a bit of cashews and I really wish I could have gotten the texture a bit smoother but it is what it is.
I think the chocolate ganache on here really was a great thing to top this with. I used a mix of coconut cream, coconut oil, and vegan dark chocolate chips to create it and I used my stovetop to warm & melt everything down.
I really could not wait for after dinner to try out a small slice so I cut a small slice for myself and gave it a whirl. Even with the almond extract, it came out fantastic! I was very pleased with the taste of this recipe. Even my husband, who hates cheesecake, tried a slice and said it wasn’t too bad. I could not get my daughter to try it because she has this thing instilled in her brain that she hates cheesecake like her daddy.
So I guess this delicious dessert will be consumed mostly by me! No complaints about that here! I actually do prefer a paleo & vegan, no-bake cheesecake over a traditional cheesecake. The base ingredients to make the cheesecake are raw cashews, coconut cream, and a bit of lemon juice. It is amazing how those ingredients come together to mimic a cheesecake. It works for me though and I love this healthier alternative. I do not feel too bad about eating this on occasion. It is a great once-in-a-while treat!
Sesame Ginger Ribeye Steaks
You know how the saying goes, sometimes simple is best? That is my philosophy of cooking a great steak. Often times you don’t even need a marinade but in this case I used a healthy marinade from Primal Kitchen~ the Sesame Ginger.
I want you all to know how amazing this dinner smelled while it was cooking. I couldn’t stop telling my hubby about the incredible smell coming from the marinated steak.
For the steak I used my trusty ol’ Lodge Cast Iron Pan. I did not use the grill pan this time around, just the regular one. I know I have said this in other posts but if you are new here I will say it again… get yourself a cast iron pan for steaks. You will get one heck of a juicy steak when cooking with cast iron. We do not even use our bbq grill anymore for steaks, we are strictly cast iron!
For a side dish, I had some big fat stalks of asparagus. To me, when it comes to asparagus, size matters! The thicker the stalk the better! I had the grand idea of wrapping some peppered bacon around the stalks. What a fabulous idea! We all love when that idea pops into my mind. Someone had asked me about cooking time for this roasted, bacon-wrapped asparagus. I did not time it but it did take longer than expected to get that bacon crisped up. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say 425-degrees for 20 minutes? We had some pretty thick-cut bacon from the meat counter at Kroger and it took quite awhile to get cooked to perfection. We had planned on grilling it actually, but we ended up getting a big thunderstrom that rolled in right around dinner time.
The steaks were simple to cook. We like our steaks medium rare and with a ribeye steak, it usually takes me 5 minutes per side to cook.
We will be having ribeye steak one more time this week. Kroger had an amazing sale on value packs of ribeyes. We got a 4 pack for $20 and that comes out to only $5 per ribeye. That is a deal that cannot be beat!
Primal Kitchen dressings and marinades and Primal Kitchen Coupon Code
I have been using the Primal Kitchen dressings and marinades often in my posts and I can not say enough good things about their products. I will always ensure that my pantry and fridge is stocked with their items. They offer a wide variety of items that can fit into your paleo, gluten-free, keto, or Whole 30 lifestyle. If you would like to save click through and use my Primal Kitchen coupon code GIVEITAWHIRL10. So far I have used several of their products and have not been let down by a single one. Each and every one of them gave my food fantastic flavor and the best part is that they only use clean, simple, and real ingredients in their foods.
Did you have any great meals this weekend? Leave me a comment and let me know! I always love hearing from my readers.
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