Blueberry Delight

I mentioned the other day that Shane's not a huge fan of cake. So I never make it for his birthday. Instead, I ask him what he wants. Both this year and last year the answer has been "That blueberry stuff, please!" The recipe comes from his mom (who got it from her friend, who heard about it from....) and now I'm sharing it with you in two forms. There's the actual recipe I was given, and the zero-waste, whole foods recipe. Please, however, forgive me. I can't remember a lot of the amounts for things and at this point the recipe is just in my head.

Blueberry Delight

Graham crackers (about two packets?)
Melted butter

Crush the graham crackers, or put them through a food processor until they're in tiny pieces.

Mix with just enough melted butter to form a graham cracker crust. Press into the bottom of a 9x13 baking pan.
Open a few cans of blueberry pie filling. Pour the blueberries on top of the crust.
Next, mix two packages of cream cheese with two cups of Cool Whip and one cup of sugar. Mix until it's no longer lumpy, then smear over the blueberry concoction.
If desired, you can crush more graham crackers and pour over the top for garnish. Put in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours or until cold.



Here's the zero waste/whole foods recipe:
Several days beforehand, make graham crackers. Then make the graham cracker crust as before.
Pour 1 large bag of frozen blueberries into a pan, adding a little bit of water, a small amount of corn starch, and 1/4 cup of sugar, until it forms a syrup-y, thick-ish consistency.

Make whipped cream: 1 carton of heavy cream, whip it until it's forming peaks and it's the consistency of whipped cream. Add some homemade cream cheese to it, and 1/2 cup of sugar. Whip together until it's no longer lumpy and press into a pan as with the other recipe.

The other serving option: instead of putting it all in one big pan (since Shane snacked on the graham crackers, and I wasn't sure I'd have enough for that) I made individual portion sizes in our custard cups. It was surprisingly easy, and I didn't think it was much more work to do it that way than in the big one. They were a big hit! We invited a few friends over before going out (costume karaoke at the Pub!) and this made handing out dessert and then cleaning up super easy. (In our house, big dishes and pans can sometimes sit in the sink for a while, waiting for someone to finally give in and clean them. Small ones are super easy to put in the dishwasher so they get cleaned faster.) Besides, did I mention that they were cute?
Before you start to think that I'm some sort of ridiculous superwoman (that would be soooo the wrong impression), I didn't actually end up making it all the second way. I wanted to, but didn't. For one thing, we already had cream cheese in the fridge. For another, I found some Cool Whip in our freezer from my over-estimation last year of how much we'd need. So the only parts that were really homemade were the blueberry part and the graham crackers, but I think that's enough for now. Shane was, as usual, baffled about why I went to the trouble of making something as basic as graham crackers. I reminded him that we're not giving gifts to each other, so this is my way of showing my love and appreciation for him.
So there you go. An easy (even when you do everything from scratch, since you can spread it out over time), delicious dessert that's always a hit. Enjoy!