Summer Treat - Sorbet Pie

Someone at work recently made this delicious sorbet pie. They found the recipe in a Cooking Light magazine but when I searched online, I couldn't find it on their website.
Here are some reasons I love this treat -
It's only 3 ingredients
You can make it ahead of time and freeze it
It's easy
It's relatively healthy

This dessert is great for summer because it's so refreshing and fruity. You can also vary it with different flavors of sorbet or even add fresh fruit to the top. I could not even get a picture of this full made because it was half gone immediately when I put it out at a recent get together!

Sorbet Pie
from Cooking Light Magazine
Ingredients

Oreo pre-made pie crust (you can make your own but if you are short on time like me, the pre-made crust is the way to go!)
Your choice of sorbet (I used strawberry for one layer and mango for another)
Cool whip

Instructions
Let sorbet sit out on the counter for about 10-20 minutes or until it's softened
Spread sorbet into pie crust - you can do one flavor or layers of different flavors
Cover with tin foil and freeze until ready to serve
Just before serving, add top layer of cool whip - or if some people don't like cool whip, allow the ones who do to add it to their own slice
Enjoy!

Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries

It has been SO long since I've posted a new recipe. I've made quite a few new things lately so I'm going to do a few posts in a row.
First up, cheesecake stuffed strawberries!

I first saw these on the Novice Chef's blog and new that I had to make them someday. I love cheesecake, I love strawberries, I love chocolate. I knew it was the recipe for me. So I made this recipe when I was headed to a get together at a friend's home. They went over SO well, everyone raved about this treat. I felt a little guilty taking so much credit for them because it seriously is one of the easiest recipes ever.
One tip, I suggest making them a few hours before you serve them and refridgerating them. After you first assemble them, the cheesecake filling is a little soft and tends to ooze out, so it's best to cool them in the fridge and let it harden a bit.

Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries

Ingredients

2 large crates of fresh strawberries
1 box of Jello no-bake cheesecake
1 potato peeler

Directions
Wash strawberries and cut tops off. Using potato peeler (this was Novice Chef's recommendation and it worked so well!) carve out inside of strawberry from top.
Mix Jello no bake ingredients according to package instructions. This usually is just the powder and milk.
Put cheesecake mixture into a plastic ziploc bag and cut corner to create a squirter. Squirt cheesecake into hollow strawberries, overfilling strawberry slightly.
Dip tops of strawberries with overflowing cheesecake mixture into graham cracker crumbs.
Refridgerate for appx. one hour so cheesecake slightly harden.
*optional* Melt chocolate chips and drizzle over tops of strawberries

Oreo Cheesecake Bars

I'm very behind on blogging but I've been so busy lately. I was also sick for about 3 weeks so no cooking or baking for me! But right before I was laid up, I had a little ladies night at my home for some of my coworkers and friends to come eat, drink, and hang out. We had such a nice time and everyone brought delicious treats or wine. I made my pulled bbq chicken sliders and for the first time, I made oreo cheesecake bars. I am obsessed with cheesecake but I've only tried making it a few times and each of those times it just came out "ok". This time, I wanted to do something different. I found the recipe by just googling cheesecake bars, and I came across this one from KraftFoods.com. Not only was it delicious, but it was also very easy to make. And I was really excited because I got to use my magicbullet food processor to grind up the oreos for the crust. I will definitely make this again for any future get togethers. I hope you enjoy it, too!














Oreo Cheesecake Bars .. from Kraftfoods.com

What You Need!

1 pkg. (1 lb. 2 oz.) OREO Cookies, divided

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter or margarine, melted

4 pkg. (8 oz. each) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened

1 cup sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

1 cup BREAKSTONE'S or KNUDSEN Sour Cream

4 eggs

Make It!

HEAT oven to 325ºF.

LINE 13x9-inch pan with foil, with ends of foil extending over sides. Process 30 cookies in food processor until finely ground. Add butter; mix well. Press onto bottom of pan.

BEAT cream cheese, sugar and vanilla in large bowl with mixer until well blended. Add sour cream; mix well. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating just until blended after each. Chop remaining cookies; stir 1-1/2 cups into batter. Pour over crust; top with remaining chopped cookies.

BAKE 45 min. or until center is almost set. Cool completely. Refrigerate 4 hours. Use foil handles to lift cheesecake from pan before cutting to serve.

Cake Truffles

I have made lots of chocolate chip pumpkin breads in the past, but this year I found some really cute tin buckets from Target in the $1 section so I wanted to fill them with some goodies. I found this recipe on another Shauna's blog, which was originally adapted from Bakerella's blog (she is crazy talented) and I am SO glad I made these cake truffles.
I have never had such a positive response to my cooking or baking. Ever. I literally had teachers coming to my classroom the entire day and next several days seeing if I had any leftover. I also had a teacher tell me that her day wasn't going very well until she ate one of these truffles. I promise you I am not exaggerating with you, people loved them so much that I started calling them crack truffles instead of cake truffled (yes, I have a weird sense of humor).
Anyway, I will definitely be making these for years to come and I like this recipe because 1. It's easy 2. It looks hard and 3. You can make so many different variations of it.

Here is the recipe from Foodietwoshoes' blog

Cake Truffles

adapted from Good Things Catered, originally from Bakerella

1 box of cake mix (I used red velvet for one batch, and double chocolate for another)
1 can of frosting (I used cream cheese frosting with the red velvet, and chocolate with the chocolate)
1/2 tsp. almond extract

1 bag of dark chocolate morsels
crushed almonds for sprinkling on top

Prepare a 9×13 baking pan and bake your cake according to directions and let cool completely.

Slightly crumble your baked and cooled cake into a large mixer bowl, add the frosting and almond extract, stir to combine completely.

Take small amounts of cake mixture and roll into 1-inch balls, placing onto a parchment or wax paper lined

baking sheet.

When all cake balls are rolled, place baking sheet into fridge overnight (this will form a crust around the edges and make the cake mixture much easier to work with)

In a double boiler, heat the chocolate morsels until they are completely melted and smooth.

Line a backing sheet with parchment or wax paper. For each truffle place a small dollop of the melted chocolate on the paper, place the cake ball on top of the chocolate and then spoon more chocolate over the top of the ball so it drizzles down the sides. Sprinkle crushed almonds over the top. Continue this proce

ss with each cake ball.

When finished, place the pan in the refrigerator until the the chocolate is completely cooled and set. You can then remove them from the paper and serve.

And here are my little cake truffle gifts for my coworkers...