Mom's no-bake cherry cheesecake

One of my favorite desserts growing up was this cherry cheesecake my mom made. It was usually for summer time or special occasions but now that I'm making it for my own family, we tend to have it a bit more often.

Yup, that's all cream cheese; I choose to turn a blind eye to the calories.

Um, and whipping cream...

This last picture just did not turn out right. I have no idea why the cherries are orange? Whatever color, this is sooo good.

The recipe:

Graham crust prepared to package directions (sometimes I use Oreo)

2 250g pkgs cream cheese

1 cup whipping cream

1/2 cup sugar

Cherry pie filling*

Press crust into 9 x 13 dish* and chill. Blend cream cheese, whipping cream and sugar; beat until smooth. Pour over crust and smooth for even coverage. Spoon pie filling on top and chill for about an hour.

*I've never tried but I'm sure you could use any type of pie filling or even fresh fruit as your topping.

*I've always used a 9x13 dish but you could also use a 9" pie plate and have your crust come half way up the sides.

declutter challenge: late to the table

I've decided to join Amy and many other bloggers in their quest to rid their homes of 730 items of clutter in 365 days. I of course, am slow to the table and missed the first two months. But fear not! This house can use an overhaul and with four kids Im sure I can manage a measely 2.39 items per day.

I didn't really keep very good track through out the month of March but I did write down every little thing I got rid of when I cleaned out my bathroom cupboards.

So, the list:
5 bottles of nail polish
3 broken/old eye shadow pots
2 bottles of soothing cream for breast feeding
6 eye/lip liners
3 tubes lip gloss
4 bottles of lotion
concealer
mascara
expired peroxide
mini baby lotion
2 bottles of perfume I don't like
old travel size toothpaste
dried out package of face wipes
2 old medication bottles
old makeup case
baby wash that causes irritation
toothpaste that kids don't like
various bath beads/salts
shower glove?
single shower cap sample
various knick knacks

My total for the month of March is 42.

Way behind where I should be at this point, but also a good start!

Swistle's Muffins

One of the very first bloggers that I found was Swistle.

Awhile ago she posted a muffin recipe and at the time, I rarely made muffins from scratch. I don't even know why, really. So when I saw her recipe, I decided to try it and am I ever glad I did.


The great thing about this recipe is that it's really just a base. You can make any flavour of muffin, in any size you wish. Our favorites are pumpkin, cinnamon apple, or banana chocolate chip. Sometimes, I even mix a little of everything in.

Mmmmm, we like cinnamon!

When bananas go on sale, I buy double what I know we'll eat and I freeze them. They end up looking a bit gross but they're fine. An added bonus for this recipe is that when you freeze the bananas, their insides turn mushy so they're much easier to mash.

Anyway, on to the recipe:

Swistle's muffins

3.5 cups flour

2 cups sugar

2 tsp baking soda

0.5 tsp baking powder

0.5 tsp salt

1-6 tsp spices (optional)

1.5 cups chocolate chips (optional)

4 eggs

2 cups mashed stuff (apple sauce, pumpkin, banana, baby food)

1 cup margarine/butter, melted

1-2 tsp extract (optional)

1 cup nuts (optional)

1 cup dried fruit (optional)

In seperate bowls, mix wet ingredients and whisk dry ingredients. Add dry mixture to wet and stir until combined. Divide into mufin tins. Bake in a preheated 350* oven for about 20 minutes. Cooking time will vary depending on the size of your muffins and your oven.

This usually makes about a dozen large-ish muffins and a dozen mini muffins, which are then gone within a few hours around here.

Happy baking!