“This is a story of about how my life got flipped, turned upside down. Now I’d like to take a minute just sit right there, I’ll tell you how I fell in love with a bagel and cream cheese.” –The lesser known and less-catchy, but more delicious, version of the Prince of Bel-Air theme song. You’re welcome.

First things first: background story. Always with the background stories. I love bagels. I was raised by Jersey parents, I know bagels. Chewy, yet with a slightly crunchy crust and toasted with butter but never with cream cheese for me. But then I got my celiac diagnosis and bagels make me gain ten pounds every time I eat one, so bye-bye bagels. I went five years like this. At one point I did find a frozen bagel at the grocery store, but alas, ten pounds later, bye-bye bagels (the other, more commonly used theme song of my life).

Then one hungover morning a friend and I were talking about bagels (a favorite pastime of mine) and it came out that he has never eaten a bagel that didn’t come out of a bag of the shelf of a grocery store. WHAT?! I calmly (well, probably not) told him that grocery store “bagels” aren’t bagels, they’re just bread with a hole in the center. And we swiftly drove to a magical (for Arizona) place I just heard about that same week: Chompie’s—a New York style deli with gluten free bagels.

Somehow through this very magical moment of introducing real bagels to a friend, I ended up buying one of Chompie’s house-made cream cheeses despite never eating cream cheese on my bagels. I chose garlic, got it home, slathered on a corner of my bagel just to test it out and oh my goodness, slathered it on the whole dang thing. This wasn’t cream cheese, this was something to heavenly to simply be called “cream cheese.” The garlic was overpowering in the best way possible. It even had a little kick from all the fresh garlic thrown in. But then a gluten knife got stuck in the container, never for me to eat again. But I craved it all week until I finally whipped it up at home.

Let me say this: I think it’s probably illegal to even call this a recipe. It only has three ingredients and it’s so, so easy. You might be thinking, well so is buying a tub of garlic cream cheese at the store. But trust me on this, that’s not nearly as good as this fresh garlic flavor and it will only take you five minutes to whip up. Plus, I found a way to make it (slightly) healthier. Have you guys seen that new Greek yogurt cream cheese at the grocery store? It’s partially made with Greek yogurt to cut the fat and increase the protein without sacrificing flavor or texture. Greek yogurt for the wine yet again. That’s 0ne health food trend I’m never quitting.