After a lovely Saturday afternoon at the strawberry patch, we carted home with a gazillion sweet-smelling berries. A day later, they unfortunately looked a little over ripe. Trying to be creative, I searched for a list of things to-do with strawberries for my 5-year old and found a variety of ideas that seemed fun to me. But after each suggestion, he just said, “Momma, I want pie.”
So, I scoured through some strawberry pie recipes and adjusted the ingredients to make it a tad bit healthier. I must say, the pie prep was a lot of fun. And, of course, my kid was proud to serve (and eat) his strawberry pie for dessert. Check out the recipe below and enjoy the list of 10 other ideas that we did not do with our strawberries.
- 1½ cups finely ground graham cracker crumbs
- ¼ cup coconut sugar - for crust
- 6 tablespoons Earth Balance Buttery spread (vegan) - substitute for butter
- 1 tsp. cinnamon
- 1½ quarts fresh strawberries
- 1 cup coconut sugar - for pie
- 3 tablespoons cornstarch
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice (fresh)
- Optional: add whipped cream or ice cream to add to each piece of pie once cut
- For graham cracker crust:
- Mix graham cracker crumbs, coconut sugar, melted vegan butter spread and cinnamon until well blended.
- Press mixture into an 8 or 8 inch pie plate
- Bake at 375 degrees F for 12-15 minutes and cool.
- For pie:
- Cap strawberries.
- Take half strawberries and blend.
- Mix together coconut sugar and cornstarch and add to strawberry blend.
- Cook over medium heat for 5 minutes until clean and thick.
- Pour in lemon juice. Cool.
- Poor cooled mixture into the baked pie shell.
- Bake at 375-degrees for 15 minutes or until pie crust is golden brown and inside is bubbling.
- Decorate top of pie with the second half of the strawberries.
- Optional - garnish with ice cream (or whipped cream)
List of 10 Other Things to do with Strawberries
1. Create an edible berry necklace with twine and strawberries
2. Put a few strawberries on a stick and use it in the center of a floral piece
3. Decorate a strawberry with mini chocolate chips for eyes and sprinkles for hair
4. Make homemade strawberry popsicles: blend strawberries and freeze with a stick
5. Add strawberries to every item at your meal: strawberry lemonade, strawberry vinaigrette dressing on salad, strawberry in guacamole for tacos (ground turkey with taco seasoning and soft taco shells) and strawberry shortcake.
6. Dehydrate strawberries and/or make strawberry leather with it.
7. Dip strawberries in yogurt then freeze.
8. Make a strawberry pizza: bake a super large sugar cookie on a circular baking sheet, cool, frost and drop strawberries on top.
9. Mix up strawberry beauty concoctions including face masks and foot scrubs.
10. Create a refreshing infused water drink. Slice strawberries and add herbs (rosemary or mint.)
Do you love strawberries? What is your favorite way to eat them?
