Now that I’ve lured you in, I want to share an amazing simple recipe I came up with today. Being that I’m in the works on our Louisiana Strawberry Vinaigrette, I have a lot of fresh strawberries laying around the house and I have to be a little creative. So, I took on the strawberry shortcake, using ingredients from our vinaigrette: Fresh strawberries, cane syrup, and poppy seeds — I have more of that than I know what to do with, our batch consists of over 40,000 local, fresh strawberries.

So here we go, have fun:

What you’ll need:

• Fresh strawberries, 1 lb, sliced
• Belgian waffles (I used Van’s), 3
• Whipped cream
• Strawberry Puree (blend all in blender)
  • Strawberries, about a pound, washed & cleaned
  • Cane syrup, 1/4 cup
  • Almond milk, 1/4 cup
  • Poppy seeds, 1 tablespoon
• Awesome Sauce
  • Dark chocolate morsels, 1/3 cup
  • Cane syrup,  1/4 cup
• Raw sugar (optional)

How to do it:

1. With the Belgian waffles frozen, cut them in half and put them in the toaster.
2. While it’s toasting, let’s make the Strawberry Puree. In a blender, add the Strawberries, Cane syrup, Almond milk (or regular), and Poppy seeds — blend it up.
3. Lay the halved Belgian waffle on a plate and add a dollop of Whipped cream, fan Strawberry slices in a circle, and pour the Strawberry Puree over.
4. Top that with another halved Belgian waffle and add another dollop of Whipped cream, fan Strawberries slices in a circle, and stick one at the top point up.
5. Awesome Sauce time. Melt the Dark chocolate and Cane syrup in a glass measuring cup in the microwave in 15 sec increments until nice and running. This will harden fast so get ready to drizzle.
6. Then make a waffle design over the shortcake with the Awesome Sauce. And top by sprinkling raw sugar.

I made three and experimented on different toppings like: Granola, Strawberry Puree, and Awesome Sauce. Comment below if you come up with any other ideas for toppings.

It’s not totally gluten-free, sugar free, vegan, but it is delicious and will make you a superstar in the kitchen. Indulge.

Tame your children and enjoy it for lunch.