Strawberry Overload

Good evening!

May I present Slacker Strawberry Shortcake—-

And, yes, it is totally the slacker version because I have a degree in pastry & baking and yet still relied on Bisquik Heart Smart Mix to make the biscuits! :O Sometimes a girls gotta do what a girls gotta do, ya know?!

Yesterday when we were at Greenwise getting out pizzas, Ryan not-so-casually proclaimed that he would love nothing more than strawberry shortcake. The strawberries were actually 4 FOR $5 (can you even believe?!) and he totally freaked and was like, “ahhhhhh do you know how to make that?! Please, please, please!!!!!” I was in a tired state of oblivion and sort of shrugged him off and we walked out strawberry-less. Well, today I felt sort of bad about it…I mean, I DID go to culinary school and Ryan NEVER outwardly states that he wants dessert. I mean, the guy is a Cold Stone addict and rarely eats anything I bake. I can’t shoot him down on his one and only request, can I?! So, today when he was out fishing, I ventured back to Greenwise, got the strawberries, the biscuit mix and the whipped cream.

Here are the supplies:

First, quarter 2 pints of strawberries—

Then, take a big handful of strawberries and put them in a small pot. Add about 1/4 cup sugar, a little vanilla (vanilla bean is best) and a tbsp of so of water. Turn the heat to medium and bring to a simmer. Once simmering, reduce the heat to very low and cook for about 15 minutes.

After 15 minutes, transfer the hot strawberry mixture to a blender. Be careful…don’t splash yourself!!!! Whirl until smooth and then put mixture back on the stove. Add a small spoon of cornstarch (optional, this thickens the sauce a lot) and bring the heat back up to a simmer, whisking constantly. After the mixture comes to a simmer take it off the stove and cool.

As for the rest of the quartered strawberries, sprinkle another 1/4-1/2 cup sugar over the top and mix well to combine. You could also add some orange zest, which I would have done, but I didn’t have any on hand. Put the sugared strawberries in the fridge and let set for at least an hour…the longer the better!

Lastly, make the biscuits. You could make your own from scratch or you could be a slacker like me and use the mix. All I did was add low-fat milk and I formed four little biscuits, which I baked at 450 for 7 minutes. When you are ready to serve the dessert (not before!), split the biscuits in half and pour a little bit of the strawberry sauce on half. Spoon over some sugared strawberries and a big dollop of whipped cream. Top with the other biscuit half and add another big dollop of whipped cream on top and more strawberries. To make it even taller and bigger (like I did for Ryan), layer another biscuit on top! Serve with additional whipped cream, more sauce and ice cream if you wish.

He LOVED it!!!!!!!!! Look how happy he is after fishing with this in one hand and a rum & coke in the other:

This afternoon around 1:30 I started to get a bad lack-of-protein headache so I had an early (and hefty!) snack of a 0% Fage topped with the other half of this morning’s Odwalla bar and a drizzle of almond butter. I swear, I can’t go one day without this stuff!!! This snack kept me full for the rest of the afternoon and my headache promptly disappeared.

And then for dinner, I waited until Ryan got home around 6:30 and he fried up the snapper he caught today—

While, I, in the spirit of Meatless in March, had a big spinach salad with grape tomatoes and goddess dressing

And a baked garnet yam with a Sunshine burger (topped with hot sauce and ketchup!)

I cooked the Sunshine burger on the stove this time instead of the microwave and the difference was remarkable. It was crunchy on the outside and chewy…SO much better!

After dinner we had dessert!! Now, I actually DON’T LIKE strawberry shortcake!! I know..who am I?! I love all desserts, really, but strawberry shortcake is just sort of “meh” to me because I don’t like the unsweet biscuits with sweet strawberries. Its just sort of weird. I like it more when it is made with angel food cake or something sweet. Biscuits just don’t seem to go in my book…but Ryan sure loved it! I do LOVE strawberries though so I went out and got myself some frozen yogurt from Berryism, a totally 100% all natural yogurt place down the street that does nonfat plain frozen yogurt with no added sugar. I got a small topped with dark chocolate chips and then I came home and topped it with the strawberry mixture and some all natural “cool whip” for a sundae!!!

Holy goodness, this was a-m-a-z-i-n-g!!!!!!!!!! And HUGE!!!!! So huge I really shouldn’t have eaten it all because I was full to the point of elastic waist pants but I just could not stop. I love it that it actually was “healthy”! The yogurt from this place clocks in at only 130 calories per cup and has live active cultures in it. Of course then you top it with chocolate chips, sugary strawberries and “cool whip” and its not so healthy anymore but still! 😉

Its only 9:00 but I’m about to go put on those elastic weight pj bottoms right now and snuggle with the boy. Tomorrow brings lots of fun stuff like getting to see Caitlin and Meghann again for a dinner of Thai food! Yay!