Recipe #6 Cheesecake Whip Parfait

This recipe is one I've been doing for a while and I just kind of spruced it up into this parfait.  The Cheesecake Whip is basically a whipped cream with cream cheese in it.  I find it tastes a lot like cheese cake because of the sugar and the vanilla that is added to the cream.  There is no actual baking done in this recipe unless you want to make homemade granola instead of buying it at the store.  That's what I did and it was wonderful. I guess you could say this dish was slightly inspired by a very large fast food chain's yogurt parfait with fruit.  But it's very different in taste.

Difficulty Level:  Easy

Ingredients for Cheesecake Whip:
1 Quart of Heavy Whipping Cream (or Heavy Cream)
8 oz. Cream Cheese at room temperature
1 1/2 cups of sugar
2 Tbsps vanilla

Ingredients for Parfait:
Cheesecake Whip
Pie Filling - any variety (tart fruits work best - cherry, strawberry, blueberry, blackberry)
Granola - store bought or homemade (about 4 cups)

Directions for Cheesecake Whip:
In the bowl of a stand mixer or in a large mixing bowl with a hand held mixer at medium to medium-high speed, beat cream cheese at room temperature until no lumps are visible.  Add in cream and whip until cream is thickened.  While continuing to beat cream, add in sugar slowly.  When all sugar is added in, pour in vanilla.  Continue to beat until stiff peaks are formed ( until the points stay up when you remove your beater from the whipped cream).

Directions for assembling parfait:
In a trifle dish or tall glass, layer granola, then whip, then pie filling.  Repeat until glass is full or trifle dish is full or until all of your ingredients are used up.  I used individual trifle bowls for the picture above, I only did one layer of each and used about 3 tablespoons of granola, 1/2 cup of whip and 2-3 tablespoons of pie filling.


What I learned from this recipe:
-You don't have to make everything from scratch.  Use the convenience ingredients at your grocery store to create really good and really simple dishes.  I made the granola, just to be able to say that I made homemade granola, but you can buy granola in the health food department or in the cereal aisle in your grocery store.  And you can also use fresh fruit to decorate the parfait, but the pie filling is an easy substitute if fresh fruits are out of season or out of your price range.
-Also, you don't have to have special dishes for these types of desserts.  You can make them in any drinking glass or just layer it in cereal or soup bowls you have around the house.  However, if you would like to invest in a trifle bowl, you can usually find them for a decent price at superstores like Wal-Mart and Target.

What is your favorite convenience food to use?  Do you use pie filling in other dishes that call for fresh fruit?  Or do you make savory dishes using pre-made ingredients, like biscuits in your chicken and dumpling soup?