With all this talk of dieting and worrying about the freshman fifteen, college students need a way to enjoy sweets without feeling the guilt afterward. This recipe for light peanut butter pie isn’t heavy on fat and calories, but tastes like it is. As always, this recipe is easy on the wallet, especially considering it makes two pies or 18 servings. Very quick and easy, the hardest part will be waiting for these no-bake pies to freeze before digging in.

Ingredients:

2 premade chocolate pie shells “9”

1 cup powdered sugar

8 oz. cream cheese

½ cup peanut butter

½ milk

16 oz. Cool Whip

Chopped peanuts and/or chocolate chip morsels for topping

Instructions:

1. Let the cream cheese soften at room temperature or there will be lumps in your pie.

2. Beat cream cheese, then add the powdered sugar and beat until smooth.

3. Add the milk and peanut butter, beat until smooth.

4. Fold the Cool Whip into the mixture. Folding instead of beating the Cool Whip will allow it to stay fluffy and light.  Beating it would take all the air out of the Cool Whip and make the pie very dense.

5. Smooth the mixture into the pie shell.

6. Evenly sprinkle topping over the mixture and freeze for a minimum of 3 hours or overnight.

Tips:

Try Oreo pie shells for an extra dose of chocolate. It’s hard to wait for it to freeze overnight, but if eaten too early, the filling is too runny and doesn’t taste as great. When it has finished freezing, let the pie thaw for an hour before serving.  This will make it the perfect consistency to cut and serve. If it is still difficult to cut through, try running a knife under hot water before divvying up the slices.