no-bake summer berry cheesecake jars

At this point, I can say with confidence that summer has officially begun.  In the course of just a couple weeks, my life has transformed from cold, slushy, and super busy to being sunny, warm, and free.

Suddenly, I'm craving strawberries and looking forward to the long summer days to come.  I'm also getting more and more excited every day about the fresh fruits and veggies that soon will be coming our way.  I've been taking the pup for long walks outside while enjoying the beautiful weather--I didn't think it could happen, but I think I may actually be wearing him out!



It's crazy the impact that a little sun can make on your outlook on life.  I'm definitely not depressed in the winter, but realizing how much happier I've been lately, I know that the whole seasonal affective thing is for real.  The lack of work for the next month doesn't hurt, either =)

Kick off your summer with some berries and Mason jars.  Don't worry, you won't even have to turn on your oven.


No-Bake Summer Berry Cheesecake Jars
Serves 2

Ingredients:

• 3.4 oz Jell-o instant pudding mix (cheesecake flavored)
• 2 c cold milk
• 3 sheets of graham crackers, crumbled
• 3-4 oz blueberries (about half of a normal container)
• 1/2 pound strawberries (about half a container)

Prepare the pudding as you normally would (whisking the pudding mix and the cold milk together for 2 minutes then refrigerating the pudding).  As the pudding is setting in the fridge, crumble the graham crackers.  I did this by putting them in a zip-top sandwich bag and rolling them with a rolling pin.  Wash the berries.  Cut the leaves off the strawberries and dice them into small pieces, so they're about as big as the blueberries.  Refrigerate the berries until you're just about ready to serve them.  Using a spoon, carefully layer the pudding, the berries, and the graham crackers evenly into 2 Mason jars.  You probably won't use all of the pudding, but you'll use all of the graham cracker crumble and about half of the containers of berries.  Shake the jar gently after placing each layer, so that it'll flatten out.  Serve the cheesecake jars soon after preparing them, so that the graham cracker crumble stays crunchy.