Fun with Strawberries

Strawberries have always been my favorite fruit, or food in general.  Now, Alex says they are his as well.  Well...that and Pineapple.  So, we printed off a bunch of recipes that I mostly found on Pinterest and went with those when making foods with the strawberries we picked on our Strawberry adventure.

It was the first of many rainy days and the first of three days it has hailed at our house.  We were locked in the house with nothing but strawberries and recipes.

Sometimes there is nothing better than breakfast for dinner.  That is exactly what we did that night.  We had eggs, sausage, toast with strawberry jam and pancakes with strawberries.  Although there is no picture, the next day we made Strawberry Syrup for our pancakes.

After washing, cleaning and taking off the stems and an hour and half later...we were ready to go.  I have to say that my little Alex was so patient and good about "plucking off the green stuff".  You can say he is all boy and judge him for his fearlessness, but nobody knows his heart like I do.  He is all boy, but he is so sweet and loving.  I am one lucky momma to have a sweet little boy like him and I thank God for him every single day.

We first made some yummy Strawberry smoothies.  They were super easy to make and delicious with breakfast!  Lots of fresh ingredients and healthy!

After each getting a smoothie, we then the smoothies into Strawberry Pops (same recipe as the smoothie).  We used what we had for sticks and they were also delicious and easy to make!

Next we made Strawberry Lemonade.  Alex enjoyed using the juicer and his muscles.  Aiden loved watching his big brother and he got his turn with the juicer too.

The Strawberry Kabobs were a hit.  I don't have a picture with the added chocolate, but these were very easy for Alex to make independently and also gave him some practice with patterns.  

We made a Strawberry Pie that Andy took to work this week and relayed the message back that it was "deliciousness"  I liked the recipe, but substituted and made a graham cracker crust.

Last week Andy had a potluck at work and brought this Strawberry Pretzel dessert.  It looked good and was all gone at the end of the day.  That is my favorite part of baking.  I like the process and I like to taste the end product, but I more enjoy giving it away and not having it around the house.

Our last final strawberry recipe was for jam.  I started making this a few years ago and have tried doing it since.  I really enjoy canning and wish that we enjoyed more canned foods so I could make more canned foods.  The most difficult part of this was the cleaning of the strawberries, after that it was mostly easy.  Thank goodness for tips from Mom. :)

Here is our Strawberry Jam!

 

Now how much would I love it if my boys had the attention span to sit nicely and help me with strawberries all day?  I would LOVE it, but it's so far past unrealistic.  Especially for Aiden.  Aiden took two separate naps while we were working with strawberries and Alex took one.  They played so nicely the rest of the day including the time they built a fort.

So excited for more summer!