Easy No-Bake Cheesecake with Easy Fruit Topping

Hello, my fellow foodies! This recipe is, I realize, a tad late for Easter, but since you will be stealing your children's chocolate and jellybeans, you don't really need the sugar, right? Right. So--I found the recipe on a website and tested it out on my meal clients. It was such a hit, it was even requested that I make it for a family dinner to which I was invited.

Ingredients:

1 graham cracker pie crust

8 oz softened cream cheese

1/3 cup sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup sour cream

8 oz Cool Whip, slightly thawed

Beat the cream cheese til smooth; add the vanilla, sugar and sour cream and mix well. Fold in the Cool Whip and spoon into the crust. Chill for at least 4 hours.

Easy Fruit Topping:

A package of your favorite frozen fruit or berries or mix of fruit and berries

Some sugar

Dump frozen fruit/berries in a saucepan and heat over medium heat. Add about 1/2 cup of sugar and let cook down for a bit. Taste after a while and add more sugar if you want it sweeter. Keep cooking and stirring til it reaches the consistency you like. Let cool. Serve over slices of the cheesecake.

Cook's notes:

1. Seriously, buy a pre-made pie crust. It's not worth the hassle of crunching up graham crackers and forcing them to stick together with butter in a pie pan. The pre-made generic brands are less than $2.

2. If you leave the cream cheese on your counter for a couple hours, it should be the right consistency but if you use a stand mixer, like a Kitchen Aid, once you start beating it it will soften up just fine.

3. "Fold" means to GENTLY incorporate an ingredient, usually with a silicone spatula, into an existing base so it remains light and fluffy. I will admit that in this case it's not a big deal and you could just scrape the Cool Whip into the mixer and let'er rip for 30 seconds or so until mixed. This is not a fussy recipe.

4. You will have leftovers. I have no idea who came up with the measurement ratios but they did a lousy job. You can either make two smaller cheesecakes and top them with a LOT of berries or hide the remainder from your family to savor while watching the guilty T.V. show of your choice.

5. Use a hand-held potato masher to break up the fruit as you're cooking it down and try different mixes; I got rave reviews with a Dole tropical fruit mix--and buy the "no sugar added" kind as you're adding your own sugar. Besides, you want to taste the fruit, don't you? A little bit?

Eat well,

Holly