Cheesecake - Food Processor Style

So what is a girl to do when her mom hands her a pound of cream cheese that is getting ready to expire? Then you go to the grocery store and there store brand cream cheese is marked down to 50 cents per half pound. Well if the girl is me, you spend a dollar so you can pick up another pound of cream cheese and you run home and drag out the food processor!!!

This is the simplest recipe ever, and you only have to clean up the food processor. That's right, only one thing to clean up. Well, the pan the cheesecake is cooked in will need cleaning but that is much more fun to clean up :-)

Crust

16 graham crackers

6 Tbsp. butter or margarine softened

1/2 cup sugar

Drop graham crackers into food processor and pulse until crackers are finely crushed. Add sugar and cubed softened margarine and pulse again 6-8 times. Dump into 9 or 10" spring form pan, pat and press firmly into pan.

Filling

4 - 8 oz. packages of cream cheese

1 1/2 cups sugar

4 whole large eggs

1 Tbsp. vanilla

Cube softened cream cheese and drop into food processor with sugar. Pulse until well blended. Add eggs and vanilla and mix completely. Pour mixture into spring form pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 45 to 50 minutes. Leave cheesecake in oven with door cracked and oven off for another 30 minutes.

Refrigerate for a minimum of 4 hours or overnight. THEN EAT.

You may notice a little nibble missing from the end of my slice :-)

Also, don't be afraid to substitute ingredients. For example we were short on graham crackers so I substituted animal crackers for about half the mixture. Worked beautifully.

PS- Total price for this lovely cheesecake? Less than $ 4.00. I may make a second and freeze individual slices for those late night cravings. Yum!