Encouragement, Fitness, Food

Tasty Tuesday and Strawberry Shortcake Light

34 Comments

Hi Friends! It’s another Tasty Tuesday, and I have a delicious dessert that is so light, you can enjoy it guilt free!

Some of you know I’ve been trying to adopt some healthier habits, including exercise, and get this… giving up Diet Coke! Friends, I have been a loyal consumer of Diet Coke pretty much daily for maybe 20 years! But when I decided to add in the exercise in my life, I thought it was a good time to try parting ways with my old friend Diet Coke, at least for 30 days. So I am on Day 11, and guess what I am now drinking? Good ole H2O! So I have adjusted well, (I didn’t know how well it would go!)

So I thought, “hmmm maybe I can try making a little bit healthier recipe for Tasty Tuesday, too! And voila! Here we are!

This week I took the photos and did the cooking, but I had a few helpful testers and reviewers of the recipe, thank you to my brother Kevin, my son Jake, and my husband Troy. All of them said it was delicious! And the cake part of this recipe has just 2 ingredients! How fun is that?

So without further ado, let’s begin!

Ingredients:

  • 1 Angel Food Cake Mix
  • 1 20 oz can of Crushed Pineapple
  • 1 lb Strawberries
  • 1 tub of Cool Whip (I used “Lite”)
  • Juice from 1/3 lemon
  • 2 Tbsp Blue Agave Syrup  (Can also substitute honey)

Preheat the oven to 350° This is very important, as the baking will go much better if the oven is properly and completely preheated to 350°.

Add your Angel Food Cake Mix into a large bowl. The batter expands, so you want a good sized bowl for it. Do not add the ingredients listed on the box.

Add in the entire can including all juice of the crushed pineapple. Gently stir.

You want to be sure all of the cake mix is fully incorporated so take a few minutes to mix it well with a mixing spoon or rubber spatula. This is kind of cool. The batter begins to get frothy and even expand a bit.

Can you see the air bubbles? And it smells so deliciously sweet and fruity!

The consistency is like a super light marshmallow fluff.

Pour it into a 9 x 13. You can lightly spray the pan or just leave it as is. I left mine unsprayed. 

Its time for the oven! Just that fast! Now its really important you don’t under bake it. Do not look at the box. Bake at 350° on a lower rack for about 40-45 minutes. Start watching it around 35 minutes. You want the top to look golden brown and maybe even a little crackled. And if using a glass pan, you want to see the bottom is golden brown as well. Take the cake out of the oven. I took a large knife right away and ran it along the outside edge to ease in the cutting later.  Allow the cake to cool completely (if you can wait that long!).

The trick with this cake is in the cutting and serving of the cake. You want it fully baked and fully cooled, otherwise you will notice the cake has a tendency to pull and even tear as you cut the cake. You just cut gently. But hey, if you don’t mind a cake that is a little rough around the edges, then no big deal!

While the cake is baking, you can work on the strawberries! Wash them and slice them, for larger strawberries, you can cut the slices crosswise to make them a nicer size.

Put the sliced berries in a bowl and squeeze juice from about 1/3 a lemon over the berries. Use a spatula and stir to coat. The lemon will help draw the juice out of the berries.

Add 2 Tbsp of Blue Agave syrup. You could also substitute honey, or about 1/3 cup of white sugar. Stir and refrigerate for a few hours so it can draw the juices out of the strawberries. I learned a term for that this week: Macerating. That is the process of soaking fruit in a sugared or sweetened concoction to pull the juices out.

Here you can see the juice that has formed after a few hours.

And it’s go time! The cake is cooled, so lets cut that cake!

Now this cake is sweet and tasty all on its own, but today the marching orders are Shortcake!

So drizzle on those berries!

Add on some Cool Whip (or your favorite whipped topping… or ice cream) and Bon Apetit!

I like mine with a little more of the juicy juice! How about you?

Maybe you like more berries, lots of berries!

How about some Cool Whip to go on that ridonculous serving of berries?

Perfection!

The cake is just a 2 ingredient cake: The Angel Food Cake Mix and the 20 oz can of crushed pineapple. How easy is that to keep on your shelf? I have heard you can also use a can of cherry pie filling, though I have no experience with it. But with the pineapple, the cake is about 150 calories per serving (before the strawberries and Cool Whip). The cake is delicious on its own. Or you could serve it with the fruit but not with the extra sweetener. Or you could of course add everything but the kitchen sink!

The thing is that there are some delicious recipes out there, and you can tweak and make them just a little bit healthier!  That is another way to say “I love you!”

It feels good to care for yourself that way, and to care for others that way too. For me, it is a newer thing to rethink the healthy factor. I don’t intend to give up all the goodies, but if I can learn some new ways to make things a little better for all of us, well I can totally get on board with that! I like the idea of you and me and all of us getting a little healthier and stronger and feeling better and better! Remember that old song “Take Good Care of Yourself” So full of sweet heartfelt affection! And I know how the singer feels! We love all the precious souls in our lives! And an expression of it is in wanting to tend to their needs! It is so good to show love to others, isn’t it? And when we take care of ourselves, it enables us to be even better at caring for others!

I hope you have a fantastic week!

I’ll be back Friday for another Fashion Friday!

Love Always,

Amy

Taking care of yourself is the most powerful way to begin to take care of others. 

~Bryant McGill

 

 

 

Amy Lynne Kennedy

Amy Lynne Kennedy

Amy is married to her high school sweetheart, Troy. They have raised two sons and live in Michigan. She graduated with a degree in education, and loves fashion, fitness, food, fun and most of all she truly loves all people.

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34 comments

  1. I’m so proud of you for giving up the soda Amy!! I know it’s not easy, but your body is thanking you profusely!!
    I have to tell you that strawberry shortcake is my hubby’s favorite from his childhood. I usually make it for him on his birthday!!
    XOXO
    Jodie
    http://www.jtouchofstyle.com

  5. Looks super yummy! I would never think of adding only pineapple to a cake mix but it’s a great idea. I’ll have to give it a try. Especially when all those summer berries start to ripen!

  6. This looks delicious, Amy, as your recipes always do! And your pictures are always so lovely! I envy you that! My pictures are a real weakness on my blog, I know.
    I applaud your decision to give up the Diet Coke. I, too, was a Diet Coke addict for at least 20 years, if not longer. I gave it up almost 3 years ago now. It was hard at first, but I believe one of the best decisions I’ve made! Be strong! I’m cheering for you!

    1. Awe Rhona what a very kind note! Thank you! That means a lot to me! For the pictures, one thing that kind of helps is I use a goose neck desk lamp and I hold it up at different angles to try and brighten up the shadows where I can 🙂 Its probably a $5 lamp. But I think it helps 🙂 Have a great week!

  9. This looks so yummy! Strawberries are a favorite, and cool whip. Who doesn’t love cool whip!?Thanks for sharing!

  10. This looks SO tasty!! How perfect with spring upon us, I am going to have to make this! Thanks for sharing 🙂

  12. That looks absolutely delicious — I think it would taste the same with vegan subs in there. I’m highly lactose intolerant so I wouldn’t be able to do the dairy, but it just looks so delicious!

    Thanks for sharing! x

    Michelle
    dressingwithstyle-s.com

  13. I have been craving a strawberry shortcake for the longest time now. I wanted to do some baking this weekend, perhaps I will add this to my list of things to make.

  14. I love how you write. It makes me want to read more! I giggled out loud when you put that ridonculous amount of berries on top. Lol! That’s my style. Thanks so much for this healthy sweet treat idea! I can’t wait to put crushed pineapple in my angel food cake. Yummmmmmy!

  15. Give me anything with strawberries and you got my heart!! Lovely post Amy! I’ll definitely try out this recipe, looks easy to do and quite yummy. Thanks for sharing x

  16. Strawberry shortcake is one of my favs. I love that you use the agave… such amazing flavour. I will definitely give this a try!

    1. Hi Jen! I only discovered Agave within the last year, my sister Stacey told me about it. Its really fantastic on berries 🙂
      Have a great weekend! Thanks for stopping by!

  17. Yum, this looks so delish! I had strawberry shortcake for the first time not too long ago. And it seemed so hard to make but you make it look so easy. Gonna give it a try for the family.

    1. I hope it works out great for you! You can always just make the berry part and put over yogurt or ice cream too if you don’t have the time to make the cake, and any cake will work if you don’t have those ingredients on hand! I’ve even bought pound cake or angel food cake already made at the store and just made the strawberry part 🙂 Have a great weekend!