Blueberry Lemonade Bites (lightened up)

Wow, it's been a whole week out of the kitchen and my sanity is feeling it, so I have multiple experiments going today! I am also looking forward to going to visit family for a week or so starting Wednesday...I need more people to test recipes on. Since the make-your-own hot pockets aren't done yet, let me tell you about the Blueberry Lemonade bites.

Now, to be honest, these were heavily inspired by a Kraft Food & Family recipe and a few similar recipes floating around, though I definitely lightened it up. Beware: these require delayed gratification. It's been a challenge all day! Takes about 15-20 minutes to get everything together, then about 4 hours in the fridge.

Makes at least 36 mini muffin size bites (I don't know exactly because I made 12 little ones and 6 big ones and disposed of some extra...I only need to eat so many)

mini muffin paper liners

4 sheets Low Fat graham crackers (not 4 little rectangles...16 little rectangles=4 sheets)

2 Tbsp butter, melted

1/2 packet Sugar Free Lemon Jello, unprepared

3/4 c. boiling water

2 oz. 1/3 less fat cream cheese

3 oz. frozen lemonade concentrate, thawed (or somewhat thawed)

4 oz. Cool Whip Free

1 c. blueberries

Use a food processor (or a zip lock bag and a coffee mug) to crush the graham crackers into fine crumbs, mix thoroughly with melted butter. Spoon into mini muffin papers, then pack down into the bottom of the paper. Pop in the oven at about 350 for just a few minutes. Remove and set aside (or in the fridge if you are impatient) to cool.

While the crusts cool, stir together boiling water and jello for two minutes until dissolved. Set aside. Use a hand mixer to soften cream cheese (No really, trust me, you are going to want to bother with the hand mixer), then beat in lemonade concentrate. Beat in dissolved jello mixture until thoroughly mixed (make sure this isn't too hot at this point). Fold in Cool Whip Free and blueberries (if you so desire). This took me a long time to get the Cool Whip to mix into the very liquidy mixture. I have an idea to fix this in the notes below.

Spoon lemony-blueberry mix into crusts. Refrigerate for 4 hours. The results are tart and lemony and yummy. The little crunch on the bottom is great and the fluffy, lightness on the top is wonderful.

Next time: After I was too far into this recipe to turn back, I saw a recipe for a similar idea that made use of yogurt. Next time I'll replace the cream cheese with Greek yogurt. I am actually thinking I could use 1 1/2 cups of vanilla Greek yogurt, stir the lemon Jello powder straight into the yogurt, then fold in 2 cups of Cool Whip Free...I'm just not sure how well it would set up. Anyway, what I did this time is good, but I'm more likely to have Greek yogurt on hand than cream cheese. I'll let you know how this works out when I get to try it this way, or you let me know if you beat me to it!

Check back soon for the results of 3 different types of homemade hot pockets :)