Cheesecake Cupcakes

• 2 - 8oz. cream cheese (softened)
• 2 eggs beaten
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 Tb lemon juice
• 1 tsp vanilla
• Vanilla Wafer cookies

Combine first 5 ingredients and beat until really fluffy. In a cupcake pan with paper liners put a Nilla Wafer and layer on 2 heaping tsp batter on top. Bake at 350 degrees 10 - 12 minutes. Cool then top with topping of your choice. (fresh fruit or pie filling) Refrigerate. Yields 24 delicious, easy to serve mini cheesecakes.

cheesecake sopapillas

I first ate these a few weeks ago and knew I must try making them. I consider myself to be a crescent roll snob and don't really like to ever cook with canned crescent rolls. Imagine my surprise when I found out that that is what these are made from. It reminds me of a cream cheese danish only 10 times yummier.

I used a recipe that only called for 1 package of cream cheese, but after a search I found most recipes call for 2 packages and some call for 3. Just decide on how much you want this to be like cheesecake. The other recipes also called for vanilla in the filling which I would probably do next time because I tend to go a little heavy on the vanilla.

I made this when we had some friends over and I made mexican food. I also halved the recipe and it exactly fit a 8x8 pan. I didn't want a bunch of leftovers, but I shouldn't have worried about it. I also used reduced fat crescent rolls and cream cheese. I know it was still rich, but I tried to cut out calories wherever I could. It still turned out fabulous.

Cheesecake Sopapillas

from quick-and-easy-dinner.com

2 cans Pillsbury crescent rolls or recipe creations (I used reduced fat)

2 cups sugar, divided

1 package of cream cheese (8 ounce) ( I used neufchatel)

1 stick of butter (I did use real butter)

sprinkle of cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350. Bring cream cheese and butter to room temperature.

2.Spray 9X13 pan with cooking spray. Press a roll of crescent dough into the bottom of the pan, pinching the seams together. (This is were recipe creations would be nice, but my grocery store didn't sell it.)

3.With a hand mixer. ( I used a fork and my own hand-baby sleeping.) Combine cream cheese and 1 cup of sugar until soft.

4. Spread the mixture over the dough.

5. Take the second can of dough and put it over the top. Don't worry if they don't go all the way to the edges.

6. Mix the butter with the sugar. Spread it over the top. Sprinkle with cinnamon.

( I just mixed butter with some cinnamon sugar and spread it over the top.)

7. Bake for 30 minutes.

Enjoy it warm or cold.

Strawberry Swirl Cheesecake

I made this last night for a dinner party and fell completely in love with it. I had no idea that cheesecake is a difficult dessert to master, good thing, beacause I would never have found out how not so difficult it could be.

1 cup graham cracker crumbs

1 cup + 3 Tbsp. sugar, divided

3 Tbsp. butter or margarine, melted

5 pkg. (8 oz. each) cream cheese, softened

3 Tbsp. flour

1 Tbsp. vanilla

1 cup sour cream

4 eggs

1/3 cup seedless strawberry jam (I used some regular raspberry jam-still good)

PREHEAT oven to 325 degrees F. Combine crumbs, 3 Tbsp. sugar, and butter and firmly press mixture into bottom of foil-lined 13x9 in baking pan. Bake 10 min.

BEAT cream cheese (I added sour cream at this point on accident, turned out just fine), flour, and vanilla in a large bowl using electric mixer on medium speed until fully blended. Add sour cream (like I said, I added it early); mix well. Add eggs one at a time, beating on low speed after each addition, just until blended. (I had not used my Kitchen Aid in a long time, and forget to scrape the side of the bowl to make sure it was well blended, make sure you do that). Pour over crust. Lightly drop small spoonfuls of jam over top of batter. Using a knife, cut through batter several times to create marble effect.

BAKE 40 min. or until center is almost set. Cool. Refigerate 4 hours or overnight.

Makes 16 servings