Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries

Oh sweet treats how I have missed you! So many weeks have been passing by and I really haven't been doing much good home cooking or baking lately...Shame on me! So I have to get back in the swing of things here. All of this gorgeous weather the past week has really gotten me into the summer mood! Time to open all the windows and let the beautiful spring air come right on in! The shorts have come out of hiding and it feels so great to wiggle my toes into my favorite pair of Old Navy flip flops! :)


Of course I know that this hot weather is just a tease and it will get colder again - But I am enjoying it to the fullest while it is still among us! Since Ben is away for work for 2 weeks I'm staying with Mom and Dad until he gets back and one of the things he said before he left was "You will have lots of time to blog now and try out some new things! That will keep you busy so you don't miss me as much." Yeah for some reason that didn't really happen;) The first week flew by so quickly and I have been keeping myself so occupied with other stuff that I completely forgot about this poor blog! I tried to think of a few foods that reminded me of summer since it has felt so much like June this week - One of the first things that came to my mind was Strawberries! So I ended up searching online yesterday for recipes with strawberries and came across this incredibly easy AMAZING recipe! I haven't seen anything like this before really so as soon as I saw the picture online I was ready to try these out! Seriously guys once you start eating them you can't stop...

I knew I wanted to share this recipe with you all right away because they are super easy to make and Sooo delicious! Strawberry cheesecake is one of my all time favorite desserts - So to have it in sweet little bites of perfection...totally made my Friday! 

So if you'd like to try these out here is all you'll need to get started --

Ingredients:
1 lb fresh strawberries (this was about 16 large strawberries for me)
4 oz cream cheese, softened
¼ cup powdered sugar
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 cup graham cracker crumbs

Directions:

1.    Cut the tops off of each strawberry and discard. Using a paring knife, hollow out each strawberry, removing the white interior.
2.    In a mixing bowl, combine the cream cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla extract and beat with an electric mixer until thoroughly combined. At this point you can either transfer the cream cheese mixture into a piping bag and pipe it into each berry, or do what I did and just fill each berry using a butter knife.
3.    Dip each strawberry, cheesecake side down, into the graham cracker crumbs, coating the top.  


Note: These taste best the day they are made, so if you are not planning to serve/eat all 16  in one day, I recommend making the cream cheese filling, crushing up the graham cracker, and storing them separately (the cream cheese filling in a tupperware container in the refrigerator and the crumbs in a ziplock somewhere dry). This way, you can just hollow out however many strawberries you plan to eat at once and stuff them with filling to order.

Hope you all enjoy this delicious light treat! You don't have to feel guilty while snacking on these since its pretty much mostly fruit anyway right? :) Have a great weekend everyone!