Chocolate Peanut Butter Breakfast 'Cheesecake'

At my shower, my mother-in-law gave me the fabulous gift of a newborn photo session for the baby.  The original photographer's studio was unfortunately ruined during Sandy, so she had to schedule with a new one & we had the shoot at my in-laws house yesterday.  (BTW- considering the fact that Mara is no longer a sleepy, pliable newborn it went surprisingly well.  I am SO excited to see the pictures!)

The photographer is a mother of two children (3 and 5 years old) and one of her first questions for me was, "How are you adjusting?"

My immediate answer was "Good!" with raised eyebrows & a happy little smile.

And I realized right after I said it... that's not true at all.  (And she probably knew it!)

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to say that having a baby is not the most incredible thing in the world.

Every day I look into the eyes of this adorable little person and think, "Holy crap.  We created her."

But I'm not gonna lie... this mom business is exhausting.  "Adjusting" to not sleeping and spending your days & nights tending to an extremely needy little critter is no easy task!

As a person who functions best with about 8 hours of sleep per night, six weeks of catnapping is really not cutting the mustard.  (Also I would just like to say for the record that the next person who tells me "Sleep when the baby sleeps!" is taking their life in their hands.)

It was also not helping matters that our munchkin was having terrible gas pains that were making her miserable.  Sleep, eat, cry, repeat - this was how it went for weeks.  We tried everything to help her, even the pediatrician was out of ideas.  Then my dad pointed out that as a wee Maggie, I too cried all the day long.  Eventually they discovered I had a sensitivity to lactose.  He said my mom had to stop breastfeeding & switch to a soy formula, and then I was "a very different baby."

At Mara's one-month checkup, the pediatrician noticed the gas situation right off the bat, and actually told me to avoid dairy... (and vegetables... and anything else that might potentially be gas-producing.  Which is, like, everything under the sun.)

Like a good little mommy I tried to avoid it but a) it's in sooo many things you don't even realize, and b) telling me I can't have dairy is like telling me I can't breathe air.  I pretty much live for cheese and Greek yogurt.

So after a week of us BOTH being absolutely miserable, I called the pediatrician back and said nothing I had tried was helping.  She was fresh out of ideas, so I started doing some poking around on the internet about lactose sensitivity.  As a last resort, I decided to try two days of strictly hypoallergenic formula - and lo and behold we had a much calmer and more pleasant Mara.

So, long story longer... I'm not sure she'll be enjoying any 'breakfast cheesecake' anytime soon?  Especially not of the peanut butter variety.

But at least I can again.

 :) :) :)

Please note:  This is a breakfast, not dessert.  So don't expect the ingredients below to magically morph into a 1,000-calorie slice of heaven from The Cheesecake Factory, ok?  It still beats a a bland bowl of oatmeal any day!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Breakfast "Cheesecake"

• 1 6-oz. container plain, nonfat Greek yogurt
• 3 T. creamy peanut butter
• 2 t. honey
• 1 1.76-oz package chocolate BelVita breakfast biscuits (4 biscuits), crushed

Mix yogurt with peanut butter and honey in a small bowl.

Reserve a bit of the crushed biscuits for topping, then divide remaining crushed biscuits between 2 separate, small serving bowls/cups.  Top each with half of yogurt mixture, then reserved biscuit crumbs.  Serves 2.

Original Recipe