Fruit Stuffed French Toast

My husband isn't real big on sweet breakfast - he is much more of an egg man but he even gave these stuffed french toast his stamp of approval!  It might be one of my favorite breakfast meals!  They are so delicious and are pretty easy to make!  Even better you can easily use different types of fruits in this recipe so get creative and try it with your favorite fruit!

Ingredients:

• French Bread Loaf
• 4 oz. room temperature cream cheese
• 3 Tbsp of your favorite Jelly or Jam (can also use fresh fruit)
• 4 oz. room temperature cream cheese
• 2 eggs
• 1 Tbsp cinnamon
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 - 2 Tbsp butter
• optional toppings: butter, powder sugar, fresh fruit, whipped cream, syrup

Directions:

• Preheat skillet to about 350 degrees.
• Cut bread into 3 inch slices then cut halfway into each slice to create a picket for stuffing.
• Place cream cheese and fruit spread (fresh fruit) into a bowl and mix together.
• In another bowl mix together eggs, cinnamon and milk.
• Stuff the fruit mixture into the bread pockets and pace on a baking sheet.
• Next coat stuffed bread with egg mixture making sure to cover all off the bread.
• Melt butter onto skillet and then add the bread to the skillet.  Cook each side until golden brown.

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Pear, Strawberry & Feta Salad

I love adding fresh fruit to my salads!  In this salad I used my homemade strawberry vinaigrette salad dressing over a green salad loaded with strawberries and pears!  The strawberries and strawberry vinaigrette add a delicious sweet taste to the salad while the pears add a fresh crispness to it!  It sure makes for a delicious combination!

Ingredients:

• Romain Lettuce
• Spring Mix Salad and/or Spinach
• Pear
• Strawberry
• Feta
• Slivered almonds

Directions:
It is a salad so be creative and add extras or however much of each topping as you like!  I started with Romain lettuce and added some spring mix.  I often add spinach to my salads as well but didn't have it this time!  For the extra toppings I sliced up some fresh strawberries and pears and added some feta cheese and slivered almonds.  Next I added some of my homemade strawberry vinaigrette to top it off!

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Strawberry Vinaigrette

How about a tasty fruit vinaigrette to pour over your salad!  Yummy!  This goes great with any salad especially those topped with nuts and fruits!

Ingredients:

• 8 ounces fresh strawberries; stems removed & halved
• 6 Tbsp. lemon juice
• 1 - 2 pinches stevia
• 2 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1/8 tsp. poppy seeds

Directions:

• Place strawberries in blender and process until pureed.
• Add lemon juice & stevia to blender and process until well blended.
• While processing gradually add vinegar and oil in a steady stream until thickened.
• Stir in poppy seeds.
• Transfer into a jar for storage.  Keep covered and in refrigerator.

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Healthy Strawberry Popsicles (Plain or Covered in Chocolate)

This week I am posting a much healthier dessert!  I am a sucker for a fresh fruit Popsicle especially when it is hot outside!  These are a healthy snack for a hot day!  They are delicious served just as Popsicle or when covered in magic shell (which I have yet to make but have been told it is very easy to make a healthy magic shell too)!

Serves 4 large Popsicle

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups fresh strawberries
• 1/3 cup of water
• 1 - 2 pinches of stevia (or 1 - 2 tsp sugar)
• Magic shell (if you wish to cover them in chocolate)

Directions:

• Blend the strawberries, water & stevia together to make 2 cups pureed strawberries.
• Pour into Popsicle molds
• Allow to freeze at least 5 hours or until completely solid.
• If you wish to cover them in chocolate pour magic shell over Popsicle.

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Strawberry Nutella Shake

What could make a strawberry milkshake better?  Nutella!  Don't get me wrong I still am in love with regular strawberry milkshakes but I thought trying something new and adding Nutella to it would be a great idea and it was!  This was one of my personal favorites for the strawberry recipes!

*Serves 1 large shake

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/4 - 1/2 cup strawberries (how much you use all depends on your preference)
• 2 large scoops of vanilla ice cream
• 1/8 cup Nutella

Optional toppings:
Nutella for bottom of cup, whipped cream, sprinkles & cherry.

Directions:

• Add milk, strawberries, vanilla ice cream & Nutella into a blender.  Blend until smooth.
• If you wish add a spoonful of Nutella to the bottom of the glass for a little extra Nutella flavor.
• Pour milkshake into glass and top with the optional toppings of your choice.

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Strawberry Season!

 For most of the country strawberry season hasn't even began but down here in Florida it is drawing to an end and soon the strawberry picking season will be over.  I live in Hillsborough county which I recently discovered is the number three strawberry producer in the United States!  That is pretty cool for me because it means lots and lots of delicious strawberries!  Last year my husband and picked 16 pounds of strawberries and surprisingly it only took us about two hours.  It was a new experience for both of us; we both had a lot of fun and actually I found it to be quite relaxing!  This year I went with a few of my friends and picked about 12 pounds of strawberries!  Only for $0.50 a pound!  You can't beat that price and they are some of the juiciest most delicious strawberries I have ever had!  I think that picking strawberries is going to become a yearly tradition!  In celebration of these delicious berries being in season I will be sharing a series of recipes made with strawberries over the next few weeks!

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Diaper Babies

When I went back home (Michigan) for Thanksgiving last year I had the opportunity to be introduced to two beautiful new additions to our family!  Jeff (brother) and Annette had their first baby last summer and my Renee (sister) and James had their sixth baby girl!  Usually if the family is all home for Thanksgiving this means we won't be around for Christmas so we tend to make it a Thanksgiving & Christmas holiday all in one!  I already had picked up a few baby things for both of the babies but I wanted to do something really cute to top it off.  That is when I found a tutorial to make what I call diaper babies.  If you ask my five year old niece, Josephine, they are not diaper babies but instead snowman babies!  She is too cute and  I could tell she was ready for snow last year!

These are really easy to make! Here is what you will need:

• Diapers
• Baby Socks
• Washcloths
• Sticky Googly Eyes (make sure to get the sticky ones)
• Ribbon

Here are the steps:

• Take a wash cloth and fold it from corner to corner to make a triangle.  You will be using the washcloth to swaddle the diaper.
• Roll a diaper up.  I found that it worked best to start at the folded end and roll it from there!
• Place the sock on one end of the diaper so that part of the sock is hanging off of the diaper but so that there is still a good lip to make part of the hat.  Then use your finger to tuck the top of the sock down to make it look like the top of a hat.  Some of mine I almost had to push the middle of them into the diaper so they would stay nice!
• Now you will swaddle the diaper into the washcloth.  I really wish I had taken some pictures of this because I am sure some of you are like me and do not have kids of your own so swaddling is a foreign idea to you.  It is kind of like wrapping up a burrito.  I put the diaper on the top flat half of the folded washcloth.  Leaving the triangle tip below the diaper.  Then I pulled the tip of the triangle below the diaper up onto it and then folded one side around the diaper and the same with the last side but made sure to tuck it into the washcloth to hold it.
• Now you will need to take a small piece of ribbon and tie the washcloth around the diaper.  This will help keep it in place and make it look even cuter!
• Last and final step peel and place your sticky googly eyes!

Now wasn't that easy?  I though it was and it was fast and fun!  It made for an awesome addition to my gifts too!

Please visit the Norther Cottage website to see the original post that inspired me!  In her blog entry there are more pictures that help to show how to roll up the diapers, put the socks on as hats!

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