Blueberry Cheesecake In A Jar with Homemade Agave Granola

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Get ready for just enough sweetness, just enough tang, and the absolute perfect amount of creamy goodness. Because it's made in a jar, you can pop it in your purse (or a picnic basket!) and enjoy it later! Did I mention it's the healthiest version of cheesecake I've heard of to date?!

I might have figured out the key to life. I love love love cheesecake. And while there's probably no way to make it entirely healthy (I mean, cheese is in the name, and it requires a helluvalot of cream cheese and additional cream), I think I may have found the solution, here. Low fat cream cheese, half and half instead of heavy cream, and truvia in place of most of the sugar. There's still 1 tbsp of regular sugar, so feel free to omit that if you'd like, but I found that it added just the right amount of sweetness to combat the aftertaste that stevia products can occasionally have.

This recipe is delicious. I made it for Justin and I before going on a date night picnic to Wicker Park and found it to be the perfect treat. It's sweet, but not to sweet. Tangy, but not too tangy. And all together wonderful. Many of you asked for the recipe -- so here it is!

Blueberry Cheesecake In A Jar with Homemade Agave Granola

Ingredients:

• 2 Mason Jars
• 1 Large Oven-Safe Pot
• 1/4 cup Truvia or Stevia Extract Powder
• 1 tbsp Sugar
• 1 Package Low Fat Cream Cheese, room temperature
• 1 Egg
• 1/8 cup Half and Half
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• 1/2 cup Blueberries
• 1/2 cup Homemade Granola (or use your own store bought granola, even crumble a honey and oats Nature Valley bar on top!)
• Honey or Agave Nectar, for drizzling 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Fill a large pot of water half full. Be sure to use a pot that is oven-safe (you'll be putting the whole pot into the oven later) and fill it deep enough to cover half of your mason jars, once you add them.
3. Combine sugar and cream cheese and mix together until smooth. 
4. Add the egg and mix well until everything is the same color and consistency.
5. Add half and half and vanilla and mix well.
6. Take the boiling pot of water off of the heat. 
7. Pour the mixture into the mason jars. This recipe should give you two 1/2 full jars, depending on the size of your jars. Screw on the tops and place them carefully into the pot of hot water so that they are standing up.
8. Place the entire pot in the oven and bake for 22-26 minutes, or until the edges look firm.
9. Remove from the oven and let cool. Before serving, add a layer of homemade granola and blueberries. Drizzle with honey or honey-flavored agave nectar. Refrigerate until serving!

Wicker Park Picnics, Wine, and Cheesecake In a Jar

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Believe it or not, with all of my creative planning blessing suffocating people around me, I hadn't yet started a creative date night tradition. Shame on me! 

It finally hit me last week when Justin and I realized that, after a week long vacation with my whole family, a work Summit, and a visit from my girlfriend, we hadn't been able to have lovey time focused on each other in weeks. I'm not a fan of this way of life, friends. Where is the love?!

So, I decided to plan a Date Night. A secret one (of course!). I made Justin a picture frame and started a Composition Notebook in which I wrote him a letter about the things I love about him and then explained our date... which started with a VERY heavy Under Armor bag that I needed him to drag to Wicker Park.

Why?! Because it was picnic time, of course! Enter beautiful paper plates from Target, some plastic silverware wrapped in napkins wrapped in leftover tissue paper from my Birchbox arrivals!

And this guy. Look how happy :)

Oh, right. And a bottle of Kendall Jackson Chardonnay that we pre-corked and brought in mason jars. You see, apparently (I should have thought of this but didn't), you can't just haul alcohol into public parks. You have to be sneaky. And since a wine bottle and wine glasses were obviously out of the question, I was still determined to find a classier, more romantic way to guzzle that KJ. A way that didn't involve Red Solo Cups.

And so, in these times we live in, it seems that everything is more romantic with mason jars. Thus, it was the perfect way to go! Sneaky sneaky. Looks like apple juice, doesn't it?

The entertainment, so to speak, consisted of a fairly lively baseball game. Here's how Wicker Park goes: before dark, baseball. After dark, basketball. Despite the fly balls, I'm a fan of the baseball crowd. If you catch my drift. Hipsters sitting on blankets with their shoes off. I'll take it.

I'm also a fan of diagonal pictures. Diagonal pictures of my cute as heck boyfriend with his cute as heck Target plate, his cute as heck mason jar chardonnay, and some to die for picnic dinner.

Quinoa salad. This one is delish. Quinoa, red pepper, corn, black beans, feta, onion, avocado, and a hefty serving of spicy as heck pico de gallo. Mix it up and serve. It's pretty perfect for picnics because it's not too temperature sensitive and can be prepared entirely beforehand.

Plus, it's darn filling.

As was dessert. This delicious cheesecake in a jar. Blueberry cheesecake. Mason jar. Agave toasted granola.

I know, you're drooling all over your keyboard. It's okay, I am too. We're in this together! And don't fret, because I'll hook you up with the recipe tomorrow! I know the girl ;-)

She happens to be a mason jar aficionado (seriously, read the About Me page on her blog. It's on there). She fills them with Kendall Jackson and Blueberries and Cheesecake, Oh My!

She also happens to be semi obsessed with reading. And feels exactly the opposite way about bugs. Which is why she ran all over town the day of the picnic looking for a big tarp to lay down at the park. Because having a blanket between the ground and you just isn't enough. You need a tarp, people, a tarp!

Back to speaking of myself like a normal person would. I also bought us some reading and writing materials. The Composition Book, with Justin's name on it, is now the official Date Night book. We started with the letter from me to him, an explanation of our date and geocaching (which we tried - and I met the hugest rat I've ever seen in an alley), and a challenge to each draw one scene we saw at the park. Hopefully we'll keep the tradition alive and end up with a whole book of letters, dates, and random pen sketches of people and things around us.