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Strawberry Crunch Icebox Cake

I have been seeing these pop up all over Pinterest, so I thought I'd give it a try.

Here is the original post if you'd like to check it out:

Strawberry Crunch Icebox Cake

Here is the link to the recipe (it is not on the original post):

Strawberry Icebox Cake Recipe


Ingredients:
1 box Nature Valley Granola Bars
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 cup flour
2 tablespoons melted butter
2 egg whites
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1  lemon
4 ounces cream cheese
1 1/2 cups freshly chopped strawberries

Directions:

Put the Nature Valley granola bars in a food processor and process until you achieve a course crumb. In a large bowl, add the crumbs, brown sugar, flour and melted butter and mix together. Then spread into an 8x8" pan that has been covered with parchment paper. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Let cool. Then divide in half and set aside.  In a mixing bowl, combine eggs whites and sugar and mix on high. Add the heavy cream and continue mixing for another five minutes.  Continue to add the fresh squeezed lemon juice and softened cream cheese. Mix on low speed until incorporated.  Fold the fresh strawberries into the cream mixture.  In a buttered glass cake pan, press half of the crumb crust mixture on the bottom. Top with strawberry mix and then add the remaining crumbs to the top.  Cover and freeze for three hours or more and enjoy!

Cost for ingredients we did not have on hand:
Nature Valley Granola Bars: $2.98
Heavy Whipping Cream: $1.98
Total: $4.96

Total prep, mixing, and freezing time: 35 minutes + 5 hours to freeze

I did not chop the strawberries, instead I put them in the food processor so they were a little more squishy for me.  I think it worked awesome and took less time than hand chopping them. 

I also did not use parchment paper.  We have wax paper on hand and it does the same thing for this process as the parchment paper would have.  But, considering the crumbs stayed super crumbly I don't know that you'd need a liner at all.  Use one though - just in case!
 
Here are photos documenting the process:

Taste and evaluation:

This is a very light and summery flavored cake.  So refreshing that it is cold!  We ate it out of the freezer the first time, but after that we cut small pieces and put them in the fridge for about an hour to soften them up.  I liked the very subtle flavor the lemon added to the cake.  The amount of available crumb for the crust was almost a perfect fit.   


Overall:
Though this cake was quite tasty I do have to point out that the crumbs did not solidify at all for me.  I'm not sure if more butter should be added to half of the mixture and the bottom layer be baked separate so that it hardens in to a crust or if there is another alternative.  The bottom for me stayed crumbly, which made a mess getting it out of the pan and usually meant that they weren't any left on the filling by the time it got to my mouth.  I would have preferred it to have been solid so when you take a bite with your fork it doesn't fall apart.  The crumbs on the top of the cake were great and seemed to be just the right consistency.  This is the only thing I would change when making it in the future.

I could see adding any kind of berry or fruit to this recipe.  I will try it later on (with a different bottom layer) and let you know how it turns out!

This recipe is so super easy I would let kids help.  It would be fun for them to break up the granola bars, stir in the strawberries and put it all together.   

Good Morning!

Is thoroughly impressed by all of the wonderful people that said "Good Morning" on our walk this morning, which was every single person we passed!!!  What a difference a friendly hello makes :)

Do you say "Hello" or greet people on a regular basis?  Why or why not?

Mom Blog Monday

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Mom Blog Monday

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Half a year already!

My oh my how time does fly!!

Six months ago today we went out looking for a clock.  My husband and I realized how much we really just needed to have one in the living room.  One of those fancy looking, hang on the wall as art types of clock.  We drove around to a few places and cruised the typical big stores in hopes of finding something either of us liked.  By the end of the trip we were tired, hungry and empty handed.  We had lunch at a great place called Red Robin (anyone else a fan??).  Then it was back home to relax and put my swollen feet up!

I was sitting on the couch (playing Bejeweled, which is so not normal for us) when I had some tightening across my belly - the time was 4:45 pm.  I didn't think anything of it because I had Braxton Hicks contractions in the past.  Well, the longer I sat there the more I had.  I still didn't think much of it, but told the Hubby just so he knew what was going on.  My good friend Jen called to have a friendly chat during which I realized I couldn't talk through the contractions.  I knew this was an indicator that things were progressing so I did what any smart woman would do.  I called my Mom.  She, of course, told me to call the doctor, but I was hesitant because the contractions were not regular (6-12 minutes apart) and lasted less than a minute.  I didn't want to end up in the hospital just to be sent home, so I figured we'd wait.  Not too long after I was really feeling some pressure during the contractions.  I called the doctor.  The nurse I spoke with was concerned because I had gone in to early labor at 24 weeks and insisted I get to the hospital as soon as possible.

Well, we had other ideas.  The bag was not packed (I was only 36 weeks).  The swing was not put together.  We had no clothes ready for the baby when she came home.  My husband set to work putting the swing together while I packed the bag and did some laundry between contractions.  We had literally only been busy about 30 minutes when we put our shoes on to walk out of the door.  I had to stop twice walking to the truck.  The Bradley Birthing classes we attended had taught us that about the time you NEED to be going to the vehicle is when you least want to be going to the vehicle.  This was very true in my case.  The thought of sitting in that confined space was not at all appealing to me.  We realized that the contractions had sped up to every 3 minutes and were lasting about a minute each.  They were intense, but nothing I couldn't handle.  My Husband started making the necessary phone calls to our parents letting them know we were headed in to the hospital.  The ride was 20 minutes though it felt like an hour and a half.  I kept yelling at him to drive faster because I did not want to have the baby in the truck!

We got to the hospital, signed in and were shown to our room.  The nurse was great and asked questions about our preferences.  We were easy:

-No drugs.
-No pacifier.
-No formula.
-I didn't want to know numbers (like centimeters dilated or length of time between contractions) because I tend to focus on numbers and did not want to do that here since those numbers can slow down or speed up without notice or reason.
-Dad would be with baby if she needed to leave Mom
-We wanted to wait to cut the cord.

Other than that, nothing major.  We just basically wanted to know what was going on. The nurse checked, said that the baby was coming and went to call the doctor.  We had only been there about 15 minutes!  I couldn't believe they were already calling.  The nurse came back to check on us and ended up staying in our room.  We joked that it was so she could catch the baby if need be.  She didn't see it as a joke, more like a possibility.  Soon our doctor walked in the room.  Checked things out herself then told the second nurse to go ahead and set things up.  She put on the awesome Doctor Cape, a smile and asked if we were ready to do this :)

Four sets of pushes later we were holding our daughter!  The time was 10:38 pm.  We were fortunate our birth plan was able to be carried out according to our wishes.  I can say first hand that it wasn't too bad going through labor and delivery without any medications.  I had the amazing support of my Husband, a wonderful staff of nurses and our awesome doctor!!  Plus, I have a lot of faith in the idea that our bodies are made to have babies no medications necessary.  ***TMI ALERT***There was some serious pain for me afterwards though while the doctor was stitching my woman parts back together.

Holding that little 5 pound 7 ounce baby girl I was in awe!  I couldn't believe after 9 months I was finally able to see her, touch her and snuggle her.  I couldn't believe our daughter was in our arms and lives from that moment forward.

It has now been six months since that amazing experience.  I am sitting her now, with my feet up, remembering all of the sweet - and tiring - moments we have had up to this point.  We have both learned so much about our baby as well as what it takes to take care of a little one.  It is life changing and not for the faint of heart!  You learn very quickly what priorities actually are and how to properly go about getting them done.  You also learn that the love you feel for that teeny bundle of joy is more different than any love you've ever felt before.

Please, share your story with me!  What were your thoughts and feelings during labor and delivery?

Positive Mom Talk