Strawberries and Cream Mini Muffins

Strawberries and Cream Mini Muffins

1 cup strawberries, diced

1/2 Tablespoon lemon juice

1 cup flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 cup vegetable oil

4 ounces low fat cream cheese

1/4 cup orange juice

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 egg

powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Add baking cups to mini muffin tins. Put strawberries in small bowl, toss with lemon juice.

 In medium bowl stir together flour, sugar, and baking powder.

In another small bowl whisk together oil, cream cheese, orange juice, vanilla, and egg.

Pour over dry ingredients, stirring just until combined with a spoon or spoonula. (If you don't switch you'll be digging the batter out of the whisk.)

  Fold in strawberries.

Scoop into mini muffin tins (I use small cookie scoop.) Bake for about 9-10 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Remove from oven and cool in the tins on a cooling rack for 5 mins. Take out the muffins and continue to cool. If serving right away, let them set for 5 minutes before dusting with powdered sugar. If serving later wait until you are ready to serve to dust.

Strawberries and Cream Trifle

Strawberries and Cream Trifle

8 oz cream cheese, softened
3 cups milk
2 pkgs sugar-free pudding (cheesecake or white chocolate flavor)
8 oz tub sugar-free whipped topping
Ladyfingers
Fresh sliced strawberries
1 to 1-1/2 cups milk with 1/2 to 1 teaspoon vanilla

Beat cream cheese until creamy. Add milk and pudding mixes and beat until thickened. 

Fold or mix in whipped topping. 

 These are the ladyfingers my HyVee carried.  They also come more crisp and cookie like (those need a little extra soaking.)

In separate bowl mix milk and vanilla. Dip lady fingers in milk mix and line trifle dish.  Top with almost half of the pudding mixture.

Then 1/2 of the fresh sliced strawberries.

Add more ladyfingers dipped in milk.

A little bit of the pudding just to coat ladyfingers.

 Strawberries...

Rest of the pudding...

Top it with the whipped topping.  You can also put it in a decorator bag to make the top fancier. Cover and put in fridge to set up.  Needs several hours for best results but if you can't wait you could dig in now.  ;-)

**I used a 6x9" baking dish here and only 1/2 of the recipe.

Freezing Berries and Bananas

Freezing Berries and Bananas

We use a ton of bananas in our house.  I bet we go through two bunches a week.  I try to head to town just once a week and that means buying ahead on bananas and hoping they don't ripen too fast or that all they have are the greenest bananas you've ever seen.  Sometimes if I am lucky the stores have bagged bananas at a lower price, like $1.99/bag or the the other store has them for 39 cents/lb which is about 20 cents cheaper than regular price right now.  Bags are about 8-9 lbs.  They may look speckly but so far they are all still very firm. 

I take the peel off and hunk them.  Place them upright on a freezer paper lined jelly roll pan and put them in the freezer. When they are thoroughly frozen, at least all day or I wait until the next day, I put them in a freezer ziploc bag for use.  I tried the first time to see if they would turn brown and they didn't so I have frozen some several times since. We use them in smoothies, and protein shakes.  No need for ice (filler) or worrying about the bananas getting too soft or if the store only has green bananas.

I also freeze strawberries on sale (or hopefully soon from our own patch) and the wild black raspberries we have in our backyard.

Last year I bought a flat of cherries and blueberries and did the same.  I used my vacuum seal bags to keep them crystal free in the freezer. 

Try it and save some money!