Strawberry Cake Bread

I love fresh fruit, and one it's not uncommon for us to take extra fruit and freeze it to use in the colder months. The other day I pulled out a bunch of strawberries from the freezer with the intention of trying (for a second time) to make Strawberry Cake Bread. I found the Strawberry Cake Bread on a blog I like to read, Eco-Babyz (link takes you directly to the recipe).

I tried this once before with fresh strawberries, but it didn't turn out as moist as desired, likely because I wasn't using frozen strawberries (which Ana at Eco-Babyz does, including all the juice from them). This time I used the frozen berries and the juice. I accidentally added an extra CUP of strawberries this time (kids were distracting me), but it turned out great. So great, in fact, that my hubby and I ate half of it that night, and the rest the following morning. So much for self-control, eh?

Anyway, the recipe (as I made it)!

Strawberry Cake Bread

• 2/3c melted butter
• 3/4c brown sugar
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1t vanilla
• 1t baking soda
• a pinch of salt
• 1T flax seed
• 2c flour
• 2 1/2c frozen (thawed) strawberries cut into halves or quarters

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 350F, and oil a loaf pan and an 8x8 pan.
2) Mix everything but the strawberries in the order listed.

3) Fold the strawberries into the batter and divide into the pans.

4) Bake for 1 hour and 10min (though test the 8x8 pan at about 45 minutes, and every 5 minutes after, until a toothpick comes out clean since it won't be as deep as the loaf pan). Serve cool (or slightly warm).

A big thank you to Ana at Eco-babyz for sharing this fabulous recipe. To view her post with the original recipe, click here.

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff was not compensated for this post. All opinions are my own and may differ from your own. Original recipe was from Eco-Babyz, and was slightly modified by Thoughts of Fluff. Post may contain affiliate links.

Thursday Tips: Salvaging (Fresh) Fruit

Sometimes we end up with too much of a fruit in our house. This usually happens around the time of really good sales, for us. We all have seen that stage in fruit, such as strawberries, where you're looking at the container and you know it needs to be eaten now or they just are going to get mushy and gross.

Solution?

PUREE IT.

I had strawberries ripened to their tipping point, so to speak, and saved them another whole week. I'm not guaranteeing you that your fruit will last forever if you puree it, but if you wash up what isn't going to get consumed that day (assuming it is the last day it seems like it would be good), blend it up, and place it in the refrigerator in a sealed container, you'll get a few more days out of it.

Pureed fruit is not only awesome for adding into baked goods (like donuts, breads, cakes, muffins, etc.), but you can add it into smoothies, stir into yogurt, or use as a topping. My favourite is spreading the pureed strawberries on top of pancakes. Tastier than jam/jelly/preserves!

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff was not compensated for this post. All opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own. Post contains affiliate links.

Hidden in Fruits

I'm not a perfect mom, and I know and accept this. I can't keep the house miraculously clean (or even remotely decent, it feels!), I can't get both children calmly and quietly to bed every night, and I can't manage to cook completely from scratch all the time.

I would love to make all my children's food from scratch. Sometimes I just can't do it. Something comes up, we lack ingredients, it's later than I realized.... it happens.

For times like that, I keep box sides on hand. The other night, when we had that delicious beer battered fish, we ate it with a box of Horizon Organic Mac 'n Cheese. So no, I'm far from perfect, but I do make certain to at least have the most decent box foods available. We avoid HFCS, we avoid artificial flavours, and we avoid artificial colours. Whenever possible, preservatives, too.

At least, with the above mentioned items, I know there aren't artificial dyes and flavours in them. Is it as good as from scratch? Nope. Is it better than Fast Food? Yep.

...but what about things you expect to be okay?

In the grocery the other day, my husband was getting some pumpkin seeds from the 'trail mix bar' they have. I saw some dried fruits and decided I should get some. I grabbed a container and started putting in some dried apricots. Yum.

Dried kiwi? Oooo! I grabbed some and started to put it in the container when I noticed the ingredients on the label said it had blue colouring added to it. I put the tongs down.

Dried papaya! YAY! I grabbed for the tongs and saw that they added yellow 5 and yellow 6 to it.

Really? I just want dried fruit. I don't want chemicals! Sadly, I left with only dried apricots. I never expected there to be artificial colourings added to dried fruit, especially not dried fruit at the 'trail mix bar'. I guess the fact you scoop your own gave me the false impression it would be 'cleaner'?

Keep your eyes open when you're shopping. Eating clean is harder than it should be.

Disclaimers: Thoughts of Fluff was not compensated for this post. All opinions are my own and my differ from yours.