It’s Friday — recipe day for the Beyond Gorgeous folks.  Sometimes you just need a treat!  And when there is a potluck or big family get-together, it really helps to have something there you can eat with a clear conscience.  Here is my favorite.  It’s a scrumptious cross between lemon mousse and lemon cheesecake.

Lemon Cloud

• 3 oz box sugar-free lemon Jell-O
• 1 cup boiling water
• 8 oz package of cream cheese — softened
• sugar substitute to equal one cup sugar
• 12 oz. can evaporated milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

In a small bowl, dissolve lemon Jello in boiling water. Place in refrigerator until it starts to thicken. Place the can of evaporated milk in the freezer, along with the large mixing bowl, to chill. When Jello begins to thicken (about the consistency of egg whites) and milk is chilled, proceed with recipe.

In the small mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese and sugar substitute until well blended. Add the thickened Jell-O and blend until well mixed, scraping down the sides often.

In the chilled large mixing bowl, mix the well chilled evaporated milk and vanilla and beat until stiff peaks form. Fold in the Jello/cream cheese mixture and beat at low speed until well blended, scraping the sides of the bowl often. Since all the ingredients are white, it is hard to tell if the Jello is well distributed, so blend thoroughly.

Divide the mixture among six dessert dishes and chill for several hours. It may also be poured into a pie crust.

Note: Sugar-free Jello contains aspartame.  Readers who strictly ban the substance from their diets can experiment with lemon juice, natural sugar substitute and unflavored gelatin.  Let me know how you do it, as I haven’t yet managed to get it to work.  I would really like to know how to substitute this.

Also: Non-purists and/or people in a hurry can use Cool Whip instead of whipping the cream.  I can’t find the GI value, but it contains only 2 gm. of sugar per serving and only 2 gm. carbohydrates.  However, the sugar is in the form of the evil high fructose corn syrup, so the longer method will really be better for you.

The recipe is sugar free and if eaten without a crust, it is low glycemic.  It is not, however, low calorie so allow for the extra calories by cutting back somewhere else or adding more steps to your daily goal.

And here is a good pie crust recipe if you want to make Lemon Cloud into a pie.  It has a lower GI number than graham cracker crust, but is a yellow rather than a green.

Special K Pie Crust

3 cups Special K cereal (for 1 1/2 cups crumbs)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
natural sugar replacement equal to 2 tablespoons sugar
4 tablespoons butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place the cereal in a plastic bag and seal. Use a rolling pin to crush the cereal into crumbs, turning and shaking the bag frequently to make a consistent crumb. You will have 1 1/2 cups of crumbs.

Pour crumbs into a medium bowl and stir in cinnamon and sugar substitute. Pour in melted butter and stir with a fork until well blended and evenly distributed. Press the crumb mixture into an 9 in. pie dish. It will not stick as well as a traditional graham cracker crust, so just press gently. It will firm up after baking. Bake for 5 to 7 minutes, until set. Cool slightly, then fill as desired.

Keep in mind that the crust is medium glycemic, not low, so don’t eat the whole pie.

Enjoy!

Eating to live and living for Christ,
Susan Jordan Brown