An easy, healthy recipe with NO refined sugar!
Every afternoon before the sun sinks too low, I lace up my old raspberry red running shoes and slip my keys into my pocket. I turn left at the end of the driveway, sticking to the sidewalk until it stops at the end of the street, before cutting straight through the park, past the playground, and popping out at another street on the other side. I continue strolling along until the bike path appears, turning right to loop back around and pause at the mailbox to collect the Safeway circular, Comcast bills, and free catalogs addressed to our house’s previous tenants.
Some might say I’m a creature of habit.
I usually dial my mom to talk while I walk. With my only other conversation companion during the day being a 15-pound Chihuahua, my extreme introverted self takes a vacation during those phone calls, and I babble on for nearly 20 minutes straight about the science of instant oats, my “penguin”-perfect date night, and setting aside enough “me” time for a lively sports-watching dinner, all while Mom’s patient ears turn numb.
But on the rare occasion where I feel particularly brave, I break out of my comfortable routine and turn right instead of left, tracing a route towards the other side of town that takes me past one of my favorite family’s houses, where I drop off containers of cookies, cake, and monkey bread. We chat in their kitchen, quickly losing track of time as we laugh, and I always leave feeling like a real person again. Not just one who talks to dogs.
Just like my predictable afternoon walking routine, I established one for breakfast too: I always start my day with a banana. I store my stash on the countertop next to the sink, replenishing it with a trip to TJ’s whenever it dwindles down to 3. (TJ’s normally stocks very green bananas…) As the perfectly tasty nutritious treat, I never thought I’d deviate from it…
Until a crazy idea flashed through my brain during my morning run. What about a banana cheesecake… For breakfast?
Modeled off my other breakfast cheesecakes, these individual-sized Banana Breakfast Cheesecakes are smooth and creamy—and still secretly skinny! Packed with protein and bursting with banana flavor, they’re naturally sweetened and contain NO refined sugar. With less than 200 calories, these luscious treats are the perfect healthy, guilt-free way to start your day!
The easy crust consists of just two ingredients: instant oats and unsweetened applesauce. Do not substitute regular old-fashioned oats; they’re thicker and cannot absorb liquid as quickly, which results in a tough crust. But good news: you can make your own instant oats! Add the same amount of old-fashioned oats (or gluten-free oats, if preferred) to a food processor and pulse 5-8 times until coarse. So simple!
I added ¼ cup of mashed banana to the creamy cheesecake filling. The banana actually plays 3 roles: (a) flavor {obviously!}, (b) binder {instead of an egg—so you can lick the spatula!}, and (c) sweetener. Brown speckly bananas contain more natural sugar than their green or plain yellow counterparts, so pick the spottiest one you can find! To round out the sweetness, I added a touch of honey too.
These low fat cheesecakes also require a little cornstarch. The cornstarch helps the filling thicken and set; without it, the cheesecakes would be too liquidy. Although many recipes call for flour, I opted for cornstarch instead to keep these cheesecakes gluten-free.
Bake the skinny cheesecakes for 19-22 minutes—no more! The centers should still jiggle a bit when you gently wiggle the pan. Because we leave the treats in the muffin cups, the warm pan continues to cook the centers as they cool; baking them longer would result in tough gummy cheesecakes. Nobody likes the taste of those!
Loaded with fruity flavor and a whopping 13.6 grams of protein, these creamy Banana Breakfast Cheesecakes still taste like a sinfully sweet treat. Each smooth bite easily slides down your throat, and their luxurious texture fooled my taste testers. Nobody believed they were a skinny, low fat morning meal!
After licking the fork (and plate) clean, I immediately started reevaluating my precious banana stash… So if you’re anything like me, get out of your breakfast rut and bake these for a healthy treat to start your day!
| Banana Breakfast Cheesecakes | | Print |
- ¼ cup instant (quick-cooking) oats
- 2 tbsp unsweetened applesauce
- 6 oz fat-free cream cheese, softened
- 1 tbsp honey
- ¼ cup mashed banana
- ½ tsp cornstarch
- ¼ tsp vanilla extract
- Preheat the oven to 300°F, and lightly coat 2 jumbo-sized muffin cups with nonstick cooking spray.
- In a small bowl, stir together the oats and applesauce. Divide the mixture in half, and press into the bottoms of the prepared muffin cups. Bake at 300°F for 8 minutes. Cool in the pan.
- In a medium bowl, cream together the cream cheese and honey until smooth. Mix in the banana, cornstarch, and vanilla. Spread the filling on top of the cool crusts. Bake at 300°F for 19-22 minutes, or until the centers still jiggle slightly when the pan is gently shaken. Cool to room temperature in the pan before covering with plastic wrap. Refrigerate at least 3 hours before serving.
{gluten-free, low fat, low calorie, high protein}
I have a question. Do you think banana pudding mix could be substituted for the banana in this recipe? I am looking for breakfast ideas but need them to be low carb and would love to add something like this to my breakfast routine.
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe Elizabeth! I don’t actually recommend that substitution. However, we can try to lower the carbs in this recipe in other ways! What’s your preferred no-calorie sweetener? We can modify the recipe to use that to replace the honey and the applesauce, if you’d like! 🙂
These were soooo delicious! I omitted the banana and added chocolate protein powder. I think I found my new treat!
I’m so glad you loved these breakfasts cheesecakes Amanda! That means a lot to me that you’d call them your new favorite treat! 🙂
Unfortunately, the calorie count is way off on these cheesecakes. 3 ounces of the cream cheese on its own is 420 calories. I am still going to make them and cut the serving size in half.
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe Laura! The nutrition information is calculated with fat-free cream cheese. Did you calculate with a different type of cream cheese — maybe Neufchâtel or regular full-fat? 🙂
You’re right. I used low fat and not fat free. Sorry, my mistake. I will have to check my grocery store for fat free cream cheese. Thank you for the reply!
My pleasure, Laura! I’m glad it was an easy fix to figure out. 🙂 If you’re based in the US, then I highly recommend checking Walmart — I’ve found they’re one of the few stores that almost always has fat-free cream cheese in stock!
Hello !
I want to try this recipe and i wanna know if i can substitute banana with applesauce and add cacao powder to make choco cheesecake ? (banana let a strong flavor)
Thank you
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe, Cheima! I actually have a chocolate version of this recipe here. I’d love to hear what you think if you try that! 🙂
I do not have a jumbo muffin tin. Could I use regular muffin tins? How many do you think this would make?
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe, Christine! I’ve actually answered this a few times in comments above yours. I know it can be really easy to scroll right past those! 😉 If using regular muffin tins, you can probably get around 4-6 regular-sized cheesecakes, depending on how thick you want the filling to be. I’d start checking them about 5-8 minutes earlier than the time required for a jumbo muffin tin. They bake pretty quickly, so just keep a watchful eye on them! 🙂 I can’t wait to hear what you think of these cheesecakes!
My apologies. I looked back through all the comments clear to the beginning, because I hate when people ask repetitive questions, but I guess I missed it. Thanks for your quick reply!
No need to apologize, Christine! I know it can be easy to miss, especially with over 100 comments to scroll through. 😉 It’s my pleasure, and I can’t wait to hear how your breakfast cheesecakes turn out!
I am allergic to bananas….. do you have any suggestions on an alternative? I was going to try canned pumpkin.
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe Jen! I actually have a chocolate and peanut butter version here and a maple version here, if you’d like a recipe that doesn’t include any banana! I think canned pumpkin should work, but you’ll probably want to increase the honey by a touch if the filling doesn’t taste sweet enough to you before baking. (You can also add a touch more cornstarch if you add more honey to make sure the filling sets properly!) 🙂 I can’t wait to hear what you think if you try any of those three options!
Thank you so much! I will definitely be trying chocolate peanut butter! I bought stuff for pumpkin so I am going to try them tomorrow and let you know! 🙂
It’s my pleasure, Jen! I’m always happy to help! 🙂 I’m so excited to hear how your breakfast cheesecakes turn out!!
Love your recipe! Just a little grammar spelling note: the banana plays three roles. Thanks for the recipe!
I’m so glad you enjoyed these breakfast cheesecakes Kathryn! And thanks for catching that — all fixed! 😉
Do you think it’s okay to add a little protein powder to these, to up the protein content? I am a bodybuilder and these would be really ideal if they were just a bit higher in protein. Maybe one scoop (adding 25 g total to each batch) would be nice. Or . . do you think it will ruin the consistency?
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe Paul! Since all protein powders behave differently in baking recipes, I can’t guarantee the results. (I actually have a Protein Powder FAQ page here!) If you decide to try, I’d love to hear what protein powder you use and how that modification turns out!