Skinny No-Bake Strawberry Cheesecakes

 
About a year and a half ago, my friend Heather invited a few local food bloggers to her house for dinner one weekend. In this digital age where many of our friendships are virtual—whether through blogging, Instagram, Snapchat, or something else—it’s always a big treat to meet those people face-to-face and spend time together “in real life!”  

Since she lived just a few miles down the road, Trish picked me up to carpool a few cities up the freeway to Heather’s home. When we arrived, Heather immediately greeted us with hugs and a table piled high with gourmet appetizers: soft French cheeses, fancy crackers, salami and prosciutto, sliced baguettes, crudités with dip, and fresh fruit.

That’s the one thing you can count on with food bloggers… We always eat really well when we get together!
 

 
Once the other ladies arrived, we each walked around the appetizer table to fill up a plate, then followed Heather outside to her back patio, where we sank into comfortable lounge chairs around a steel fire pit. While we laughed and chatted, her husband filled wine glasses for a few of the ladies and started grilling meat on the barbeque for dinner.

After the sun went down, he served us a platter of skewers, threaded through either tender marinated chicken or juicy slices of steak, along with lightly charred vegetables straight off of the grill. I snuck seconds and thirds of both types of meat—and I probably ate more protein that night than anything else! It tasted like five-star restaurant quality!

But with a huge sweet tooth, I still saved room for dessert. Glory had prepared a recipe from her cookbook, Glorious Layered Desserts, for us to enjoy: her fresh fruit cheesecake mousse, served in individual cups with lots of juicy berries. Heather’s two kids brought the desserts out to us on the patio, and we slowly savored spoonful after spoonful of the sweet treats as the perfect ending to the evening.
 

 
When I recently looked through my cookbook collection and spotted Glory’s, the memories from that night resurfaced. When I started craving that dessert, I headed to my kitchen to make a slightly healthier version but with the berries already mixed in: these Skinny No-Bake Strawberry Cheesecakes! They’re light and creamy, with lots of sweet flavor from the fruit, and they’re incredibly simple to make!

Perfect for Valentine’s Day… Or the 4^th of July… Or a dinner party… Or a random Monday night!
 

 
Let’s start with the star of the show: the cheesecake! This healthier cheesecake base is a combination of Greek yogurt and Greek yogurt cream cheese. I found my Greek yogurt cream cheese at Safeway (their own Lucerne brand), and many Walmart stores sell the Franklin Foods brand as well. If you can’t find it, Neufchâtel (⅓-less fat) cream cheese will work as a substitute.
 

 
Next comes the fruit! I used fresh strawberries, but frozen and thawed would work as well. You’ll purée those in a food processor or blender, and then you’ll cook the purée in a small saucepan on the stove until it has reduced by about half. You must cook the strawberry purée! The strawberries contain lots of water, which would make the cheesecake too runny. I promise it’s worth the extra step!

The cheesecake filling is sweetened with one of my new favorite ingredients: vanilla crème stevia. Stevia is a plant-based, no-calorie sweetener that’s clean eating friendly. It’s very concentrated, so a little goes a long way! I buy SweetLeaf, and it comes in a small bottle with an eyedropper. You can find it at many health-oriented grocery stores, as well as online. (And you’ll use it in all of these recipes of mine too!)
 

 
The crust is a combination of three ingredients: butter, honey, and brown rice cereal. Yes, I know it sounds strange—rice cereal as a cheesecake crust?? But I promise it works! And it keeps these cheesecakes clean eating friendly too, whereas your typical graham cracker crust would not. This is the type that I buy, and you can find it at many health-oriented grocery stores, as well as online. My local Safeway grocery store just started carrying it too!

Note: If you can’t find crisp brown rice cereal, regular rice cereal would work!
 

 
Simply pulse the rice cereal in a food processor until it turns into fine crumbs; then mix it with the melted butter and honey. Since rice cereal isn’t as sweet as graham crackers, you’re using honey to make this crust taste more traditional—and it also helps hold together the crumbs!

To assemble the cheesecakes, press the crust into the bottom of your parfait glasses (these are the ones that I used!) using the backside of a spatula, butter knife, or anything that’s mostly flat. Transfer the cheesecake filling to a zip-topped bag, snip off the corner, and pipe it on top. Add a sprinkle of extra crust, a few slices of fresh strawberries, or even this chocolate drizzle, and…
 

 
Time for dessert!
 

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