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 4th 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!
| Skinny No-Bake Strawberry Cheesecakes | Print |
- for the cheesecake
- 1 cup (140g) fresh strawberries, puréed
- 6 tbsp (84g) Greek yogurt cream cheese, softened
- 6 tbsp (90g) plain nonfat Greek yogurt
- ¾ tsp vanilla crème stevia, or to taste
- for the crust
- ¼ cup (8g) crisp brown rice cereal
- ¾ tsp honey
- ½ tsp unsalted butter or coconut oil, melted
- To prepare the cheesecake, add the strawberry purée to a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until it has reduced by half. Transfer to a small bowl and cool completely to room temperature. Add the cream cheese, Greek yogurt, and stevia to the bowl. Beat with an electric mixer until smooth. Cover and chill for at least 1 hour or up to 2 days.
- To prepare the crust, add the brown rice cereal to a food processor, and pulse until it turns into fine crumbs. Transfer the crumbs to a bowl, and stir in the honey and butter until fully incorporated.
- To assemble, add ¼ of the crust to the bottom of 4 miniature parfait glasses, and gently press it down using the back of a butter knife (or other flat surface). Transfer the cheesecake filling to a zip-topped bag, cut off one corner, and pipe on top of the crust.
Neufchâtel (⅓-less fat) cream cheese may be substituted for the Greek yogurt cream cheese.
Other granulated sweeteners may be substituted for the stevia; however, they may affect the cheesecake texture. Liquid sweeteners such as honey or maple syrup would add too much liquid to the cheesecake filling and make it runny. You’ll need the equivalent of 6 tablespoons of granulated sugar.
Regular rice cereal may be substituted for the crisp brown rice cereal.
Maple syrup or agave may be substituted for the honey.
I used these miniature 2-ounce parfait glasses.
The cheesecakes are best if served as soon as they’re assembled, but you can also prepare them up to an hour in advance and chill them in the refrigerator until ready to serve. If they sit for much longer, the crust starts to turn soggy.
{gluten-free, clean eating, low fat, low calorie, lower sugar, high protein}
Cheesecake in a glass! Wow, first time I see it and it looks delicious!
Thanks Amber!
Gorgeous!!
Thanks Andrea! ♥
Yum! I had a few years around high school and college that I had my mom make me a cheesecake as my birthday cake! Super rich, yet delicious. These look fantastic.
That sounds like such a fun birthday dessert Melissa! My roommate in college said cheesecake was her favorite cake then too, so she always requested one at her birthday. 🙂