The big question that crossed my mind with this one was: Is it OK to drink your cream cheese? I mean, it’s one thing to indulge in a sinful, rich cheesecake via normal routes, but drinking the actual cream cheese? So I did a impromptu person-to-person poll, asking as many of our blog’s most fervent supporters (you know, people like family, friends, and coworkers I don’t want to launch from….er, never mind) - is it OK to drink cream cheese? Is that excessive? Is it plain wrong?

Thankfully, they all immediately said, nope, go for it! And you just gotta love that.

I still had a lot of the fresh strawberries our parents got at a strawberry farm recently and I knew they needed to be used up quickly. Even though I’ve never tried the wildly popular strawberry/rhubarb combination, it seems there’s such an overwhelming amount of those kinds of recipes. So I was pretty susceptible to this recipe when it leaped out at me from a magazine.

The big question now, though, was: Does it taste like a strawberry cheesecake? And, fellow followers of the fabulous Cheesecake….YES, YES IT DOES.

Get out your blender and dump in some milk, almost a whole block of softened cream cheese, a little sugar and six whole sheet of graham crackers (not 6 individual crackers separated, but, again, the whole sheet, 6 of ‘em) and vanilla extract. It takes seconds to transform this into your base, with some saved for topping each smoothie.

It comes out like this bubbly, slightly thickened mixture and the graham crackers mixed in surprisingly well. And even better, it wasn’t gritty.

With some of the initial cream cheese mixture saved for later, dump your slightly thawed frozen strawberries into the blender.

Geeeet ready! It’s almost smoothie time.

In goes a little of this…

Then you gently top it off with a little of that…

Then you top it off one more time with a little of this!

Congratulations! It’s now time to drink your cream cheese! It’s pretty darn good, too. This tastes exactly like what we thought strawberry cheesecake as a drink would. It’s a decadent smoothie, true, but it’s also really good. And slurpable. And great for summer! Put on your swimsuits, sunscreen and grab one of these on your way to the pool. Enjoy!

Strawberry Cheesecake Smoothies

from the Kraft Food & Family Magazine, Summer 2013

Prep Time: 20 minutes Level: Easy Makes: 3 8-ounce smoothies

• 6 oz. (3/4 of 8-oz. pkg.) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened
• 1-1/2 cups milk
• 1/3 cup sugar, divided
• 1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla
• 7 graham crackers, divided
• 2 cups frozen whole strawberries, slightly thawed

Blend cream cheese, milk, 3 Tbsp. sugar, vanilla and 6 crackers in blender until smooth. Pour all but about 1/2 cup of the cream cheese mixture into liquid measuring cup. Reserve for later use.

Add strawberries and remaining sugar to remaining cream cheese mixture in blender; blend until smooth. Pour into 4 glasses.

Pour reserved cream cheese mixture gently over strawberry mixture in glasses. Crumble remaining cracker; sprinkle over smoothies.

Serve immediately.

Notes:

We were confused if the recipe meant 7 full sheets of graham crackers as opposed to 7 individual, separated crackers, but we went with the full sheets. In doing so we realized this must have been the right way because you could taste just the right amount of the crackers. The other way you’d probably not be able to taste them much at all, especially if your berries have a strong flavor like ours did.

There was only enough of the strawberry mixture for 3 small 8-ounce smoothies, so you might need to double the recipe for more than three people or if they’ll be wanting a bigger smoothie.

Make sure to gently pour the cheesecake mixture on top of the strawberry mixture, or it will just blend right into the strawberry part. Holding the pitcher of cheesecake mixture close to the glass seemed to help.

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