Low calorie, fast, EASY assorted cream “pie” desserts

Another day, another fast dessert hack. From my blog, you would wonder whether I actually bake or cook at all; this little southern girl ADORES doing everything from scratch, but everyone has a recipe for that. I like to share FAST fixes for those OMG moments when you need a quick fix or you’ve got an insatiable hankering. Now these are a regular night favorite because 1) they’re easy 2) they’re extremely customizable 3) they’re easy on your waist (all under 150 calories) 4) They’re cheap. 5) They’re FAST! These delicious little “pies” take less than three minutes.

So, what are we shopping for?  As with many of my hack recipes, these things are easy to keep on hand.

• Pretty custard dishes (a necessity)
• Multi-layered pudding cups- Hershey’s Smores cup, Jello Lemon Meringue, Banana cream pie, strawberry shortcake, etc. These can be found on the jello aisle or in the refrigerator case near the yogurts
• Graham crackers if you’re creating a dish, mini pie shells if you want the individual dessert (of course the shells are higher in calories)
• Extras (chocolate sprinkles, lemon wedge, bananas, caramel, chocolate syrup)
  

You can make these as lite or indulgent as you would like.

1. Crumble a graham cracker (or 1/2 if you want to save calories) into the bottom of the dish or place mini pie shells on a plate
2. Put the topping (each of the mentioned cups above has a topping- cream, meringue, etc) into a another dish (scoop it into the dish upside down so you can tump it back on top)
3. Go back to your dish with the graham crumbles and add a layer of bananas for the Banana pie, some chocolate chips for the chocolate pie, strawberries (dried or fresh) on the strawberry cheese cake, whatever you have on hand
4. Scoop the fill (the chocolate pudding from the smores, the lemon gel in the lemon, the banana pudding from the banana cup) into the custard dish or the pie shell.
5. Add another layer of Graham crackers or fun topping (this is a good place to add more bananas or some chocolate sprinkles)
6. Tump the topping (the whipped cream, meringue, etc) from your extra dish on top 
7.  Add sprinkles, syrups (caramel works well on the banana cream pie, chocolate fudge or syrup on the chocolate smores), and you can even add a cookie or piece of chocolate for more decadent or fancier dessertsAnd voila! This takes less than 3 minutes and you can make several options. They’re fun for kids to make themselves, fun to customize, and they look really cool when you set up a large array of options at a party.  I keep the Banana, Strawberry cheesecake, lemon, and Smores on hand at all times. People always comment on how many pie cup options I have and how long it must have taken me 🙂 We’ll let them keep believing (as long as they don’t read this).