Tropical Fruit Cheesecake Parfaits

Now that we are into the school year, I am always trying to think of fun easy snacks for the kids. The afternoons are so busy, and I never like spending a ton of time coming up with a snack. When I heard about DOLE Jarred Fruit, I knew it would be an easy way to incorporate fruit into the kid’s snack. Dole was nice enough to sponsor this post, and I am excited to share this Tropical Fruit Cheesecake Parfait recipe with you!

Using the DOLE Jarred Fruit, made this recipe pretty simple. My 4 year old was excited to help, and I was excited to have him in the kitchen with me. It was easy using the fruit, because it’s already cut up into bite sized pieces, which means I didn’t have to worry about Austin wanting to ‘help’ and use a knife (yikes!). After using about 1/2 cup of fruit in the recipe, we were able to twist the top back onto the jar, and toss it in the fridge for tomorrow – I love that! It was also really easy to find at the store; right next to all the other canned and jarred fruit. We opted for the Tropical fruit variety, but any of the other 5 varieties would work with this recipe. You can check out Dole’s website for more information on the different varieties. Okay, now let me show you how easy it was for us to make this delicious 3 step snack!

First you need a handful of ingredients:

DOLE Jarred Fruit – tropical variety

4 ounces cream cheese, softened

4 ounces fat free condensed milk

2 TBS sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tub frozen whipped topping

1/2 cup granola

whipped cream for topping

Next, you need to make it! It’s simple:

1. In a stand mixer or high speed blender, add cream cheese and condensed milk, mix or pulse until completely combined. Add sugar and vanilla, and continue to mix or pulse until incorporated. Add the frozen whipped topping, and mix until combined; set aside.

2. Place 1 cup of DOLE Jarred Tropical Fruit into a bowl (liquid drained), add 1 cup cheesecake filling to the bowl, and fold to coat fruit with mixture.

3. In a fancy glass (my son thinks they are awesome), add 1/4 cup of granola to the bottom, then half of the fruit/cheesecake mixture (should be about 1/2 cup) on top of the granola. Add whipped cream and a couple of granola crumbles to the top. Repeat for 2nd glass. Serve and enjoy!

Then, you can toss any left over fruit into the fridge for future snacking – so easy! My son is a super picky eater and he went crazy over this snack! I love squeezing in healthy fruits to his diet, and he thinks he is getting a real treat – it’s the best! It’s also really great because DOLE Jarred Fruit is naturally fat-free , cholesterol free, and always packed in 100% fruit juice. It’s also super easy on the wallet at only $2.99 per jar!