Strawberry Cream Bread

I've been seeing strawberries on sale a lot recently at the grocery store.  My family never tires of eating them fresh out of the container, but I'm always on the lookout for other ways to use them.  I thought this recipe was interesting since I had never seen or thought of using strawberries in a bread.  This was really easy to make and was really tasty.  The original recipe at One Perfect Bite also includes a recipe for a Strawberry Cream Cheese Spread.  However, we already had an open strawberry cream cheese that I wanted to use up.  The cream cheese on the bread was an awesome idea!  This was a great breakfast for the kids served with some yogurt and fruit.

Strawberry Cream Bread
recipe from One Perfect Bite

Yield: 1 loaf

Ingredients:
1/3 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
3 tablespoons sour cream
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup strawberries, cut in pieces

Directions:
1) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan and set aside.

2) Place butter and sugar in a large bowl and beat until light and fluffy. Add eggs and mix to blend. Stir in sour cream, blending well.

3) Add flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Mix to incorporate. Do not over beat.

4) Stir strawberry pieces into batter. Spread in prepared loaf pan. Let mixture sit in pan for 20 minutes prior to baking. Bake for 50 – 55 minutes. Transfer pan to a wire cooling rack. Let sit for 10 minutes before before before removing from pan. Slice and serve.

Family Rating: 2 thumbs up.

SRC Reveal: Strawberry Shortcake Pancakes

It's reveal day for Group A at The Secret Recipe Club.  This month I was assigned the blog Crumb.  Blogger Isabelle proclaims, "I'm a 30-something coffee-chugging, booty-shaking, bargain-shopping, cookbook-collecting, photo-snapping, trucker-swearing, farmers-market-loving self-taught cook with a Boy and two cats to feed."  I looked through Isabelle's recipes and as soon as I saw this one knew it was the one that I was going to make.  We had not had pancakes for dinner in a long time and strawberries were on sale at the grocery store!  But she has so many great looking recipes on her blog that I will be back!  As for these pancakes, the only change to the recipe below that I made was that I only used vanilla extract rather than 1/2 tsp. vanilla and 1/2 tsp. of almond extract.  I never thought of adding strawberries into pancake batter. The kids of course loved these!  Breakfast for dinner is always a hit....but whipped cream too?!! Extra special!  I served these pancakes with sausage and pineapple to complete our dinner!  Super tasty!

Strawberry Shortcake Pancakes
recipe very slightly adapted from Crumb

Ingredients:

Strawberry-Yogurt Pancakes:
1 cup flour
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
Pinch salt
2 eggs
½ cup plain Greek-style yogurt
⅔ cup milk
2 tbsp melted butter (plus more for the griddle)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup finely diced strawberries

Toppings:
Whipped cream
Chopped strawberries
Maple syrup

Directions:
1.In a large mixing bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

2.In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs, yogurt, milk, melted butter and vanilla until combined. Pour into the bowl of dry ingredients, and stir with a whisk until the batter is smooth and lump-free.

3.Heat a large skillet or griddle over medium heat. Grease lightly with butter. When the butter starts to sizzle, drop in ¼ cup portions of batter.

4.Dot the surface of the pancakes with chopped strawberries. Cook for about 2 minutes or until a few bubbles start to form on the top, then gently flip over and continue cooking until underside is golden brown, about 1-2 minutes longer. Transfer the finished pancakes to a baking tray in a warm oven. Repeat this process until the batter is finished, re-greasing the pan as needed.

5.To serve, stack two or three pancakes onto each plate. Garnish each stack with a spoonful of chopped strawberries and a dollop of whipped cream. For those with a sweet tooth, drizzle with a little maple syrup or dust with icing sugar before digging in.

Family Rating: 2 thumbs up.

Strawberries & Cream French Toast Casserole

I think this is finally the last of my Easter posts!  I'm slowly catching up on posts but am continuing to try lots of new recipes!  Knowing that we were going to be super busy getting Easter dinner ready I had wanted to make something easy for breakfast.  (We had our traditional Polish Easter breakfast with hard-boiled eggs, kielbasa, and my mom's home made Easter bread with honey the day before.)  I saw this recipe and thought the kids would love it.  I liked that I was able to prepare this the night before and just had to bake it in the morning.  The kids love strawberries and enjoyed this, just like I thought they would. 

Strawberries & Cream French Toast Casserole
recipe slightly adapted from Pink Parsley

Ingredients:
8 cups cubed French bread
6 eggs
1 1/4 cups milk
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
1/4 cup sugar
pinch of cinnamon
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups sliced strawberries, divided
1 Tbs sugar, for sprinkling

Directions:
Lightly grease a 9x13 inch square baking dish.

In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, heavy cream, sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla. Mix in the bread and the strawberries. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan, cover, and refrigerate several hours or overnight. When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees and scatter the remaining 1/2 cup of strawberries over the top.

Bake 35-45 minutes, or until the custard has set. During the last 10 minutes of baking time, sprinkle 1 tablespoon of sugar over the top.

Allow to cool 5-10 minutes before serving.

Family Rating: 1 1/2 thumbs up.

Spinach, Strawberry, and Hearts of Palm Salad

For the barbecue I didn't want to make a garden salad.  There were several guys and salad just doesn't seem like "man" food.  I'm not so sure Spinach Strawberry salad does either but this was the one that I ended up making.  I've made Spinach Strawberry Salad before and the family has enjoyed it.  I had a can of Hearts of Palm in my cabinet that I had bought intending to make a recipe and then I never did.  When I saw that I could use them in this recipe I was happy.  I honestly didn't know what a heart of palm was to tell you.  But according to Wikipedia, hearts of palm are the vegetables harvested from the inner core of certain budding palm trees like the coconut tree, Acai palm, and sabal. The flavor and texture remind me of a canned artichoke.  They added a nice flavor and texture to the salad and was definitely a "different" addition. 

Spinach, Strawberry, and Hearts of Palm Salad
recipe slightly adapted from foodnetwork.com courtesy of Paula Deen

Ingredients:
1/3 cup cider vinegar
3/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup vegetable oil
1/2 small red onion, grated
1 1/2 tablespoons poppy seeds
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 1/2 pounds baby spinach, washed
1 can hearts of palm, drained and chopped
2 cups strawberries, stemmed and sliced

Directions:
For the dressing, combine the vinegar, sugar, lemon juice, and salt in a small non-reactive saucepan and heat over medium heat until the sugar dissolves, stirring frequently. Remove pan from heat and let cool to room temperature. When cooled, whisk in the oil, onion, poppy seeds, dry mustard and paprika until thoroughly combined. Set dressing aside. In a salad bowl, combine the spinach, hearts of palm, and strawberries. When ready to serve, add some of the dressing, and toss gently. Serve the remaining dressing alongside the salad so diners may add more, if desired.

Family Rating: 1 1/2 thumbs up.

Fresh Strawberry Muffins

My sister lives in Maryland so unfortunately, we don't get to see her and her family very often.  My niece turned one in the beginning of May and my sister asked if she could host a small birthday party at my house for her.  Of course I said yes!  A couple of days after they returned to Maryland we got an edible arrangement from my one year old niece, thanking us for helping to make her birthday so special!  Knowing that my kids don't eat melon, my sister ordered an arrangement made of pineapple, grapes, and strawberries....lots of strawberries!  After we stuffed ourselves silly with the strawberries over a couple of days, we still had a few left.  I didn't want them to go to waste, so I found this recipe and made some muffins.  I wasn't sure if my daughter would like them because of the warm/cooked fruit.  But she did like them a lot.....like we all did! 

Fresh Strawberry Muffins
recipe from A Recipe A Day

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
2 cups flour
2 tsps baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups chopped strawberries
3 tsps sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Preparation:
Cream butter and sugar. Add egg and mix well.

Sift flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl. Add flour mixture and milk alternately to butter mixture. Add vanilla. Gently stir in strawberries.

Spoon batter into muffin pans.

Combine sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle over muffins.

Bake at 400º for 20-25 minutes.

Makes one dozen muffins.

Family Rating: 2 thumbs up!

Strawberry Cake II with Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting

My daughter recently turned 6.  Her birthday turned into a three day event with cupcakes at school the day before her birthday, her party with her friends, and then a week later her family party.  For school she requested funfetti cupcakes with funfetti icing.  Super easy, I wasn't going to complain!  For her birthday party she wanted a strawberry cake.  Not strawberry shortcake, but a pink cake with strawberries.  I found this recipe and she approved.  Based on reader reviews I didn't end up using the frosting recipe included with the cake.  We made the Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting posted below the cake recipe and added a drop of red food coloring to make it pink.  The frosting was the star of the show.  There was a ton of cake left over, but we mostly picked on the frosting! 

Strawberry Cake II
recipe adapted from allrecipes.com - by Judalee

Ingredients:
1 (3 ounce) package strawberry flavored gelatin
1/2 cup cold water
1 (18.25 ounce) package white cake mix
4 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 pint fresh strawberries, 1/2 pureed

Directions:
1.Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease and flour 9x13 baking pan.
2.In a large bowl, dissolve the gelatin in cold water; stir in the cake mix, eggs, vegetable oil, flour and 1/2 of the strawberries. Beat for 5 minutes on the medium speed of an electric mixer. Spread into prepared pan.
3.Bake for 30 to 35 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the cake springs back when lightly pressed in the center. Cool cake in the pan on a wire rack.

4.  Frost with Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting (recipe below).

Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting
allrecipes.com - by Tom

Ingredients:
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
1 cup white sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream

Directions:
1.In a small bowl beat whipping cream until stiff peaks form; set aside.

2.In a large bowl combine cream cheese, sugar, salt and vanilla. Beat until smooth, then fold in whipped cream.

Family Rating: 1 thumb up.

Strawberry Tiramisu Trifle

This past Easter we went to my parent's house for dinner.  My mom was taking care of dinner and asked me to bring dessert.  Dessert with my family is challenging because my father doesn't eat peanut butter and my brother doesn't like cake.  My parents got me a trifle bowl (which I had asked for!) last Christmas and I don't get to use it very often.  The Weekend Chef actually found this recipe which sounded delicious. 

The days before Easter were super busy.  We had just gotten home from visiting my sister in Maryland on Friday, when we went grocery shopping.  Saturday we had an Easter party and then we went to my husband's aunt's house to celebrate Passover.  We woke up Sunday and our kids got their Easter presents and went egg hunting.  While I showered my husband started this.  While he showered I finished it so it could chill in the fridge while we went to mass.  Then we got home, I made the cookies (in tomorrow's post) and then we went to my parent's. 

Somehow this dessert was made in time for us to make it to Church in time to get a seat! While it did take a little time and was done tag team style, it was still pretty easy.  And it was delicious!  Everyone loved it and it will definitely be filed in the need to make again soon folder!

  Strawberry Tiramisu Trifle
allrecipes.com- Tammy Irvine

Prep time: 30 minutes
Yield: 12 servings

Ingredients:
1 quart fresh strawberries
1 1/4 cups cold milk
1 (3.4 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
4 tablespoons strong brewed coffee, room temperature, divided
2 cups whipped topping
1 (3 ounce) package ladyfingers, split
6 (1 ounce) squares bittersweet chocolate, grated

Directions:
1.Set aside three strawberries for garnish; slice the remaining strawberries. In a bowl, whisk milk and pudding mix for 2 minutes. Let stand for 2 minutes or until soft-set. In a large mixing bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth; gradually beat in 2 tablespoons coffee. Beat in pudding. Fold in whipped topping.

2.Brush remaining coffee over ladyfingers. Line the bottom of a 3-qt. trifle or glass serving bowl with half of the ladyfingers. Top with half of the sliced berries, grated chocolate and pudding mixture; repeat layers. Cut reserved berries in half; place on trifle. Cover and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.

Family Rating: 2 thumbs up!