• Sweet Treat from My Husband

    Chocolate Covered Strawberries

    There are so many reasons to be thankful for my husband!  Not long ago he picked up a box of Dole’s Strawberry Dippers and brought them home for me.  Such a sweetheart!  The Dole Strawberry Dippers are frozen strawberry halves covered in dark chocolate!  Absolutely…..DELICIOUS!!!  Thank you baby for the special surprise!  He knows me well!  YOUR THE BEST!!!

  • Fresh & Healthy: Deep Freezer Goodies – Purple Grapes, Blueberries, Bananas, Green Grapes, & Strawberries

    Freezing Seasonal Fruit - Blueberries, Bananas, Strawberries, Purple & Green Grapes

    This summer we were able to stock up on some fresh produce, including fruit.  Thanks to friends sharing their goodies, time picking produce as a family, and clearance items at our local grocery store we have been able to fill up a section of our freezer with delicious fruit.  The girls have been enjoying Smoothies the last couple of months and were super excited to stock up on some of these great items.  They are already planning on having smoothies after school because they will not be able to share them with me over lunch.

    Here is a great Smoothie Recipe:

    There are many variations to smoothies, may be sharing a couple more favorites over the next few weeks.  Add a handful of fruit you have on hand, a little cream (milk or yogurt), blend,  and you have a smoothie.  If you want a little extra sweetness you can add a touch of honey.  Usually after adding the fruit that is plenty sweet for us but we have tried a variety of different ones.

    Another great use for strawberries is as a healthy sauce!  When we have pancakes or waffles we blend up a cup or two of fresh strawberries to use as a dipping sauce in place of the traditional syrup.  It is healthier and fresher plus the whole family enjoys it.

  • Fresh & Healthy: Flash Freezing Fresh Strawberries

    Our family went Strawberry picking recently so we have been busy making strawberry goodies.  The day we picked the strawberries we separated them out into containers for the ones we wanted to eat immediately and ones we wanted to freeze to eat later.  We chose to flash freeze our strawberries whole.

    How to Flash Freeze Fresh Strawberries:

    • Rinse the Fresh Strawberries with cool water
    • Place on wax paper in a pan
    • Cut off the stems of the strawberries
    • Put the strawberries on the pan evenly spaced so they are not touching each other
    • Put the pan in the freezer until the strawberries are completely frozen (usually takes several hours for them to freeze completely)
    • Once the strawberries are frozen put them into freezer bags (I usually put them into Quart or Gallon, 2 cups or more at a time)

    When you flash freeze the strawberries they will not stick together when you take them out.  You can take as many or as little strawberries as you like throughout the year. Here are some of the pictures of the process below:

    Rinse the fresh strawberries!

     

    Line the pan with wax paper.

    Cut off the strawberry stems, place on wax paper & stick in the freezer!
    Layers of Flash Frozen Strawberries!

    Bags of Flash Frozen Strawberries - measured and dated for future meals!