I am doing another dessert this week because I have way to many frozen meals and I need to pare them down. Who doesn’t love more dessert? I’m still keeping these on the simple side because we have some friends we are entertaining this week and I have to change the brake pads on my vehicle. If I haven’t said already, I do my own car work. I was taught by my dad to do it. He said we could not drive unless we helped fix the car when it broke. I was motivated by having a car as a teenager at that time. Now, I just want to save money. With YouTube videos available, there’s no reason not to. Call me a YouTube mechanic.

This week’s recipe is for Peanut Butter Cheesecake Cookie Bars from Southern Living. I like this recipe because it doesn’t take a lot of time to make. Also, who doesn’t love cheesecake? One of the things I noticed about this recipe is the huge amount of sodium. Cream cheese, salt and peanut butter. I’m all for salty sweet, but we don’t need this much salt. That will be the big change. Swapping out the sugar is a must as well as the all purpose flour. This will turn out to be a tasty low carb treat.

Here are the original stats:

Here’s what I changed:

• I swapped the all purpose flour with almond and coconut flours to lower the carbs.
• I removed the added salt to lower the sodium.
• I replaced the sugars with their sweetener equivalents to reduce the carbs.
• I replaced the cream cheese with a plant-based variety to remove the dairy.
• I replaced the peanut butter with peanut butter powder to lower the fat and calories.

Here are the final stats:

Here is the final recipe:

Low Carb Peanut Butter Cheesecake Cookie Bars

Makes 20 Bars

Cookie Base

• Cooking spray
• 2 cups almond flour
• 2/3 cups coconut flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup packed brown sweetener
• 1/2 cup granulated sweetener
• 2 large eggs
• 1/3 cup peanut butter powder
• 1/3 cup water

Peanut Butter Cheesecake Topping

• 1 (8 oz.) package plant based cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup peanut butter powder
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 cup granulated sweetener
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease and line a 9- x 13-in. baking pan with parchment paper.
2. In a bowl, whisk together the flours, baking soda, and baking powder.
3. In a large bowl, beat the butter, brown sweetener, and granulated sweetener until light and fluffy with an electric mixer. Mix in the eggs, one at a time, then peanut butter and water until smooth.
4. Gradually mix in the dry ingredients until a soft dough forms.
5. Press the dough into the prepared pan. Bake the crust for 15 minutes or until lightly browned at edges. Remove the pan from the oven and set aside to cool on a cooling rack while preparing the cheesecake topping.
6. In a mixing bowl, combine the cream cheese, peanut butter, water, sugar, and vanilla. Use an electric mixer on medium speed to beat until smooth. Mix in the eggs, one at a time, until smooth.
7. Spread the cheesecake topping over the cookie base. Bake 18 minutes or until center appears set.
8. Let cheesecake bars cool in pan 30 minutes. Transfer the bars to the refrigerator to finish cooling, at least two hours. Slice into bars.