Serves 24

ne of the best ways to cut the calories and fat from cheesecake is to make smaller portions. I made-over this cheesecake recipe for a customer at our Pasadena Gelson's. Using reduced-fat cream cheese called Neufchatel cheese, substituting pure pumpkin for half of the cream cheese, and using healthy ginger snaps for the crust, all help to lower the fat, saturated fat, trans fat, and calories in this holiday favorite. Ingredients: 1 package Reynolds foil baking cups 1 package Mi-Del ginger snap cookies (you'll use 24 whole cookies) 1 package Organic Valley Neufchatel cheese ½ cup Libby's 100% pure pumpkin puree ½ cup sugar 2 Eggland's Best eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla extract ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg 1/8 teaspoon ground ginger ¼ cup Melissa's organic dried cranberries Instructions: Preheat oven to 325°. Put foil baking cups in standard size muffin tin cups. Place one cookie in the bottom of each liner. Unwrap Neufchatel cheese and soften in the microwave. In a large mixing bowl, combine Neufchatel Cheese, pumpkin, sugar, eggs, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. Using an electric mixer, beat on high speed until smooth, about 5 minutes, scraping down the sides as necessary. Using a soup spoon, drop 1 spoonful of batter into each cup (batter should not be more than 1/2 inch from the top of the cup). Bake for 15 minutes, remove from oven and cool on a rack for at least 45 minutes. When cool, arrange 3 dried cranberries on top of each cheesecake. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour before eating. Each individual cheesecake contains: Calories Fat Saturated Fat Cholesterol Sodium Total Carbohydrate Dietary Fiber Sugars Protein Vitamin A Vitamin C Calcium Iron 75       3 g     1 g     21 mg  65 mg  10 g     1 g     7 g     2 g     14% DV 0% DV 2% DV 2% DV