Blueberry Banana "Cheesecake"/Smoothie Cake

It's true that "you are what you eat," and thanks to Instagram I've been able to see the health-recovery journey of many people and learn a thing or two. There are many incurable health disorders that, if you eat a well balanced and purposeful diet, can be less stifling to your daily life. Everybody should strive to be healthy to some degree, but it's often difficult because of learned habits of craving what we call 'junk food,' or food with little or no positive nutritional value. 

Over the past year I've realized that healthy food is not just the reason you wanted a dog (don't pretend you never tried to feed your pet all the greens your parents forced onto your plate). Although I am not vegan or vegetarian anymore, now that I'm experimenting in the kitchen more often, I tend to prefer vegan/vegetarian recipes so I'm not eating so much cheese, oils, or fried and frozen foods. It helps me expand my understanding of the possibilities I have to make my meal healthy, down to the kind of flour I use. Fruit, with natural sugars and sweet flavors, are practically candy by themselves. Coconut products are heaven because you can use it to replace almost anything, from sugar to oil to flour to water to milk. Then there's nuts, which make butters and milks and more. The list goes on forever.

I found a recipe for Blueberry Banana Cheesecake off of an Instagram account I follow and, with a few changes for personal preference, it turned out delicious.

Recipe:

(BASE)

- 2 cups Almond Meal

- 1/2 cup Chia Seeds

- 3 tbsp Trader Joe's Speculoos Cookie & Cocoa Swirl 

(some kind of nut butter or something similar)

- 1 cup Oats

- handful of shredded coconut

- 1/2 cup Coconut Sugar

- 2 tbsp Coconut Oil

(FILLING)

- 6 ripe peeled Bananas

- 1 pack of Blueberries

- 2 cups Plain Greek Yoghurt (on the search for a vegan replacement for this)

- 2 tsp Cinnamon

- 1/2 tsp nutmeg

How:

1. (BASE) Blend all ingredients together in a food processor or with hands until gooey but firm. Press into a large, deep baking tray (preferably a Springform Pan). I pressed it down, then scraped the top to give it some crumbles for the filling to cling to.

2. (FILLING) Blend all ingredients together in a food processor/blender until smooth, then pour into the pan evenly on top of the base.

Hailee was my chef-mate during this process. It's always more fun to cook with friends.

Oh, and you're going to need big mixing bowls for this. Trust me.

Special thanks to Colton for providing the snacks.

3. Bake at 320 degrees F (160 degrees C) for about 50 minutes.

4. Place in fridge / let cool, then serve with any topping you please. I used Peaches and Spearmint. 

It has the consistency of cheesecake, or as my friend Josh said, 'fruit mousse.' 

So if you use your imagination, it's Blueberry Cheesecake! Otherwise it's basically just a really cool cake-shaped breakfast/dessert smoothie- and the best part is that it's super healthy for you. 

Enjoy!