Mini Cheesecake Bites

83. Try a new recipe every month(19/33)

I am officially more than 40 weeks pregnant. Wow, my children sure are timely aren't they?! So, while I wait SO PATIENTLY for this child to come out why not make cheesecake bites? Seems like the only logical thing to do. Right?...

I chose the pink and blue cupcake liners for our team green baby. Come on baby!!! We are all waiting!!!

I used this recipe slightly modified from A Helicopter Mom.

Ingredients
For the Crust:

• 1 cup graham cracker crumbs 
• 6 Tbsp butter
• 6 Tbsp sugar

For the Filling:

• 2-8 ounce packages of cream cheese, softened to room temperature
• 3/4 cup white granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice
• 1 can cherry pie filling

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F

1. To make the crust mix the graham cracker crumbs, butter and 6 Tbsp of sugar together in a bowl. Go ahead and mix it with your hands. Get dirty! The dirty method is way faster and more efficient. 

Side note: Did you know they sell Graham Cracker CRUMBS now so you can be super lazy and not crush up your own graham crackers?! 'Who is that lazy?', you may be asking. This girl sure is!

2. Press about a teaspoon of the crust mix into the bottom of a paper or foil lined mini-cupcake tin. 

Another side note: I actually lined my mini-cupcake tin (that makes 24 mini-cupcakes) with the little foil cupcake liners and lined 6 slots of my regular sized cupcake tin with paper liners and they both come out nice and clean when you try to take of the liners after baking. I still wound up with extra crust mix even after making the 6 full-size cupcakes. You could probably get another 12 mini-cupcakes if you wanted to stick with the bites.

3. Make the filling by beating the cream cheese, sugar, eggs, vanilla extract, and lemon juice in a mixing bowl. You want it to be smooth and creamy with no lumps or chunks. Fill the cupcake liners with the mixture (pretty much to the top is fine).

4. Bake for about 15 minutes. 

Yes, this is yet another side note: Mine probably should have baked for a bit longer, maybe because I'm higher altitude? I also left the full sized cupcakes in for about 20 minutes. You can start to see the edges turning a nice golden color when they are ready to be taken out.

5. Let them cool completely then top them with some pie filling. 

64. Go swimming once a month (16/29)

I didn't get any pictures this time around, but E took C swimming Tuesday night while I was in my prenatal yoga class. C goes swimming every Tuesday and Thursday at daycare so this was actually his second time in the pool that day. The poor boy only lasted 45 minutes in the pool then came home and totally crashed. He couldn't even keep his eyes open while we were tucking him in for the night!