These decadent looking Skinny Strawberry Cheesecake Parfaits are deceptively light compared to traditional cheesecake – the secret ingredients in this recipe are low-fat cottage cheese and non-fat Greek yogurt.

As most of you know, I don’t make a lot of sweets, but when I do, I try to lighten them up a bit. My boys love cheesecake, so to indulge their wishes, I made these Skinny Strawberry Cheesecake Parfaits the other day for a special treat. Traditional cheesecake recipes are packed with saturated fat, mostly from all the cream cheese. Some recipes also include sour cream and heavy cream in the cheesecake filling.

Over the holidays, I made a Skinny Berry Cheesecake Trifle that was a hit at our Christmas Open House Party.

Today’s recipe is a spin-off from that recipe. Instead of angel food cake, I used gluten-freegraham crackers as a layer in these parfaits. To lighten up this recipe from my holiday version, I also cut the sugar in half for this recipe and did not sweeten the strawberries, so this dessert is not overly sweet. If you like, you can add a little sweetener to your strawberries, but my kids didn’t miss it.

Making individual parfaits is a great way to manage portion control. Although I used regular size wine glasses to make these parfaits for my boys, I used a mini wine glass for my own. This is a nice treat when you’re craving Strawberry Cheesecake, but don’t want all the fat and calories of the full-fat version. It’s light, not dense.

My boys really enjoyed these Skinny Strawberry Cheesecake Parfaits, and my youngest son came back looking for another the next night, but alas, they were all gone.

Ingredients

• 1 cup non-fat or low-fat (1% or 2%) cottage cheese
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup non-fat Greek yogurt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 teaspoon powdered sugar

• 6 squares gluten-free graham crackers, broken into pieces
• 2 cups strawberries, cup into bite size pieces

Directions

1. Place cottage cheese in a food processor and process until smooth. Add 1/2 cup powdered sugar, yogurt, and 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla and process until mixed well.
2. Beat heavy cream until light peaks form. Add 1/2 teaspoon vanilla and 1 1/2 teaspoons powdered sugar. Continue to beat until stiff peaks form. Fold whipped cream into cottage cheese mixture until blended.

1. Sprinkle a few graham cracker pieces in the bottom of four serving glasses. Top with some strawberries. Add a dollop of Skinny Cheesecake Filling. Add another layer of graham cracker pieces, strawberries and Skinny Cheesecake Filling. Garnish top with some graham cracker crumbs and a strawberry half.

Source : http://jeanetteshealthyliving.com/