Strawberry Frozen Yogurt

It's strawberry season! A few weeks ago I went to a strawberry farm in Elkhorn, Wisconsin with my two sisters and my Aunt Lauri.

I had never seen a strawberry plant until that day. I honestly didn't know what to expect. Unfortunately, I tend to think of strawberries as the $2 pint I buy at the grocery store, not the little, ripe strawberries sitting on a farm in Wisconsin. If you've never been strawberry picking it's really fun. You drive up and get a box to fill up and park your car and walk up to the field and start picking. 

We got two 8 quart boxes for under $15 which is a pretty good deal. The strawberries are a lot smaller than the kind you see in the grocery store but so much more delicious. 16 quarts doesn't seem like that much when the box is empty but all the sudden when you have two really heavy boxes of strawberries its a ton. Seriously, look at that box. It's huge! What were we thinking!

But after 20 or so minutes of picking strawberries the boxes were full and we were on our merry way.

The whole ride home we were wondering what we could possibly do with 16 quarts of strawberries.... fear not dear readers, we figured it out! I hereby dub this week Strawberry Week at A Dash of Megnut! This week I'll be bringing you 4 strawberry recipes to get you in the summer mood. Today I'll be sharing with you strawberry frozen yogurt! You all know I love to make ice cream... I even have some interesting flavors to share with you next week (coffee, s'mores, and honeydew sorbet!). However, ice cream is not always the best for you. As someone trying to not add some extra poundage.. and let's be serious, I have a food blog, it's tough... I'm always trying to find ways to make the things I love a little "less bad" for me. Enter strawberry frozen yogurt stage left. I have a recent fascination with greek yogurt and I like to try to use it in place of it's friends... sour cream, cream cheese, heavy cream, etc. When you try this frozen yogurt there's no way you're going to miss ice cream. There's still sugar in this and I won't say it's the best for you, but I'm just going for "less bad" for you. Definitely a less guilty way to have your dessert!

Ingredients:
1 pound strawberries, rinsed, hulled and sliced
2/3 cup sugar
2 tsp vodka (optional, but in my opinion, not really optional)
1 cup plain Greek yogurt
1 tsp lemon juice

Directions:
Toss strawberries into a bowl with the sugar and vodka*. Stir with a spoon until the sugar begins to dissolve. Then, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for two hours, stirring every once in awhile. Transfer strawberry mixture to a blender or food processor (don't forget the juice at the bottom of the bowl). Add the yogurt and lemon juice. Pulse the blender until the mixture is smooth. If you want to strain out any seeds you can, however, I chose to leave them in. Pour mixture in a bowl and chill in the refrigerator for one hour. Freeze in an ice cream machine according to the manufacturer's instructions. After churning place in the freezer to firm up before serving. To serve, top with fresh strawberries.

Makes about 1 quart.

*The vodka is used so that the frozen yogurt doesn't get so hard that it's impossible to scoop out. Without it, you get a rock hard frozen yogurt instead of a creamy dessert. However, if you choose not to use it, just make sure to allow time to thaw your ice cream at room temperature before serving!

Source: Recipe from David Lebovitz