Easy Strawberry & Pudding Tart with No-Bake Graham Cracker Crust

Easy Strawberry & Pudding Tart with No-Bake Graham Cracker Crust

I'm a big fan of strawberries & whenever they have a sale going on at the market, I'm sure to buy a few cartons.  One of the ways I enjoy using my sweet, little red gems is to turn them into a simple, comforting strawberry dessert.  One of my favorites is a ~ Strawberry & Pudding Tart.  It requires no baking, can be made with regular, sugar-free or fat-free options ~ mix & match to your hearts content.  It's easy to prepare & sure to please.  Yippee!  

The recipe for the no-bake graham cracker crust is awesome for quick pie/tart making. The hardest part about this whole recipe is waiting for it to set-up in the fridge ~ that's my kinda dessert!  I make a 'faux glaze' for the strawberries using a mix of cooled strawberry jello and strawberry jam, usually using sugar-free jello.  You could easily use your favorite strawberry glaze instead.
  

Easy Strawberry & Pudding Tart with No-Bake Graham Cracker Crust
makes one pie

Ingredients

for the tart filling

• 4 cups sliced strawberries (or more if you like :)
• 1/3 cup prepared strawberry jello, regular or sugar-free, cooled but not set ((make up a small box of jello per box instructions, take out 1/3 cup cooled liquid (for the tart) & then use the remaining for traditional jello))
• 1 small box Instant French Vanilla Pudding mix, regular or sugar-free  ((prepared for 'Pie Filling' ~ per box instructions))
• 3 Tbsp strawberry jam

for the no-bake graham cracker crust

• 10 sheets plain graham crackers 
• 3 Tbsp milk 
• Pam cooking spray
• whipped cream, optional

Directions for graham cracker crust 
 

Blend graham crackers in food processor until they turn into a fine crumb.  Add in the milk & mix until fully incorporated.  Spray pie pan with Pam, pat the moistened crumbs into the pie pan & set aside ~ then proceed with the tart filling.  

Directions

Blend the cooled (but still liquid) strawberry jello with the strawberry jam ~ in a large bowl until jello/glaze is completely mixed.  Add the strawberries & gently toss until fully covered with jello/glaze mixture.  Set aside.

Fill the prepared graham cracker crust with the French Vanilla pudding/pie mixture ((that has been prepared for 'Pie Filling', per box instructions)) in an even layer.

Spoon the strawberries over the pudding/pie mixture, in an even layer, mounding in center if necessary.  Place in fridge & let set for a few hours to firm up.  Serve with whipped cream, if desired.  Enjoy!

Fresh Berries! Get 'em while they're still cheap!

Homemade Raspberry Vinegar ~ making your own flavored vinegar is so easy & it allows you to really get creative with different fruit/herb flavors.  Check out how easy it is to make raspberry vinegar ~ here.  The post has lots of pictures, recipes for using the raspberry vinegar, as well as gift tags to download.  How cool it that?  :) 

Our local markets have been competing against each other & have been having a lot of good sales in the produce department lately ~ featuring tons of different fruits.  Woo-hoo!

I've been buying many different kinds.  Besides enjoying the fruit simply cut-up or just eating them out of hand, here are some other ways we have been enjoying them...

Strawberry Tofu Mousse ~  It's so cool how tofu can transform into a mousse.  It's an easy non-dairy, lower fat way to enjoy a mousse... & did I already mention it's easy?  :)   Check out this simple recipe.

Easy No-Bake Blueberry Pie ~ I always like the sound of that, especially when the weather is REALLY hot, like it's been here for most of the summer.  Check out the simple recipe ~ here.

Fresh Raspberries ~ We love eating raspberries; plain, with a little sugar or sometimes I just pour a little fat-free half & half or French Vanilla coffee creamer over the berries. Yummy!

Strawberries Marinated in Madeira ~ such an easy & elegant way to serve strawberries for dessert.  Check out the recipe over at Downton Abbey Cooks.  If you're a fan of the TV show, you will LOVE Pamela's site.  It's awesome!

Hope everyone gets a chance to enjoy all of the great end-of-summer prices, too!  Cheers!

Low-Fat Blueberry Oat Bars

I bought a lot of blueberries a while back & still have a bunch in the fridge.  They're starting to look a little worse for wear & really need to be used up.  I thought they'd do better in a cooked recipe then just for eating fresh, so I went on a hunt for a good recipe that highlighted blueberries.  I ran across a recipe for Blueberry Oat Bars from ~ FatFree Vegan Kitchen ~ that sounded good, so I gave it a go.  I tweaked her recipe just a bit ~ I added some lemon juice/lemon zest to the blueberry mixture & sprinkled some whole oats on top of the the whole thing just before I baked it.  I also came up with 12 servings instead of the 16 she has noted.  16 slices just seemed too small a serving ~ but, it would keep the calories down...

I think this dessert is sorta like a cross between an 'oaty' cobbler & a cookie bar, especially with the 'jammy' blueberry filling in the middle.  It would be nice as an after school snack  (school is just around the corner!) & I know we'll enjoy it, especially with a little whipped cream on top or maybe some ice cream on the side.

If you don't have fresh blueberries, I'd go ahead & use frozen, about 2 cups.  Don't let a little thing like not having fresh blueberries stop you from trying a low-fat treat like this.  :)

Easy Apple Crisp

Apple Crisp ~ This is the recipe J & I made, using his Alpha Bakery Children's Cookbook.  I ordered this cookbook from Gold Medal Flour, w-a-y back in 1998.  That was six years before I had J...and another five years before we started making recipes from it.  It was worth the wait ~ the recipes are fun & colorful, easy to make, directions are easy to follow & they taste great!

If the type on the above picture recipe is too teeny-tiny for you to read, (heehee, I need my reading glasses to read the book, fat chance me reading the picture :)  here is a very similar recipe from the Betty Crocker site.  The kids version above includes walnuts.  We like walnuts.  Walnuts make us happy.  Include some walnuts.  :)   

Impossibly Easy French Apple Pie

Impossibly Easy French Apple Pie ~ One word - YUM!!! This is a really easy recipe from Betty Crocker.  The recipe called for regular Bisquick, but I used Heart Healthy Bisquick instead.  I also used skim milk & light margarine instead of the full fat options ~ every little bit helps.  :)

I'm not much of a baker & pie crusts make me cranky, so I just fell in love with this recipe.  All you do is pour the prepared Bisquick mixture over the sliced apple/spice mixture & bake.  It's SO easy & is a really friendly option for those of us who are baking challenged.  This apple pie lasted no time at all ~ we all enjoyed it, VERY MUCH!!  :)   Hope you try the recipe, I'm sure you'll love it, too.

Low Fat Crock Pot Apple Pie

Low Fat Crock Pot Apple Pie ~ I found this recipe while surfing on the web.  Making an apple pie in the crock pot sounded interesting, so I thought I'd give it a try.  Sad to say, this was only so-so when we had it warm out of the crock... but, after sitting in the fridge overnight ~ Ooh, la, la!  It was REALLY good. 

When it's chilled, this dessert reminds me of all the good bits left behind in the pie pan. Taste wise, it had the correct flavor for an apple pie ~ but texture wise it comes out more like a soft cobbler than a pie.  This dessert was off to a shaky start, but was a happy surprise the next day, so it gets a thumbs up.  I'll definitely make this dessert again.  :)

(Almost) Homemade Classic Apple Pie ~ homemade apple pie filling with a store bought crust

(Almost) Homemade Classic Apple Pie ~ homemade Apple Pie Filling with a store bought crust ~ When J & I bring back apples from the orchard, Roy always likes me to make an apple pie.  When Roy was growing up in England, he & his brothers would pick apples off the apple tree in their backyard & then his Mom would make homemade apple pies.  Roy remembers those pies fondly & wants J to have the same sort of 'picking, making & eating homemade apple pie' childhood memories...

Well, you might remember me mentioning this before ~ the fact that I am a challenged baker...  I can make a few things well, but when I stray too far off the dessert baking path, (like I can do with non-baking cooking, with no problems) well...I run into problems.  Like with baking 'from scratch' pies (i.e., the apple pies Roy likes) ~ I've tried making a pie crust a few times...it was NOT pretty.  Well, maybe it was pretty...awful.  As I remember it, the crusts all turned out tough.  Never one to give up, I knew there was more than one way to bake a pie, so I turned to the fastest way I knew how.  I went to the store, hit the freezer aisle & bought some frozen pie crusts.  Problem solved.  Works for this gal!  What also works for this gal is the two for $1 Apple Pies at McDonald's.  I admit it, I really like them.  (I totally agree with Carrie from SATC on that one)

Now, all that being said, I do make the Apple Pie Filling from scratch, no canned pie filling for me.  Funny, I have no trouble with the fruit filling aspect ~ just the flour part trips me up every time.  My cooking motto: Play to your strengths & downplay your weakness.  :)

Here is the recipe I use for the Apple Pie Filling, it's taken from an America's Test Kitchen Cookbook.  Just skip right past the part on making the crust (it's already thawing out on the counter, right?) & go directly to the 'For the pie' instructions.  You'll be enjoying your (Almost) Homemade Classic Apple Pie in no time!