Happy Day After the 4th of July - Pinterest Wins & Pinterest Fails

Hopefully everyone had a safe and fun Fourth of July holiday. Being on a Tuesday, maybe some of you even had Monday off for an extended holiday weekend. We had traveled over the weekend, but was back by Sunday to get rested for the week. My husband was fortunate enough to take off Monday too. Both of us prepped our dishes we planned to take to the Fourth of July party - Famous Baked Beans and Chocolate Chip Cookie Dip. These were both wins. The fail, and it was a total fail, was dairy and egg free strawberry shortcake.

First of all, I'm not exactly sure where my husband's recipe for his baked beans came from. He basically takes quality canned baked beans (not Pork & Beans) and adds to them. He has a "recipe" that he uses. Whatever it is, it works. They are typically all gone, like last night, and everyone usually wants to know who made them. If you really want the recipe, contact me and I'll make him share it with me.

One of my go-to dessert party recipes is this amazing Chocolate Chip Cookie Dip. I found it on Pinterest I'm guessing about a year ago. It never fails me. The ingredients are easy to keep on hand and aside from waiting on the cream cheese and butter to get soft, it takes no time to make. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing healthy about this dip. (See, this is where my moderation comes in.) It has both brown sugar and powdered sugar - Hello?! Insulin overload! But it tastes amazing!!!! I have a few ideas to try to make it healthier, but I'll keep you updated on that.

My Pinterest fail was the Vegan Strawberry Shortcake. I'm linking it, not so you avoid it, but I'm hoping some of you have tried it and was successful. I feel like it has a really good foundation and the ingredients make sense, but I definitely did something wrong. It was not even edible, in my opinion.

I followed the instructions, although I may not have incorporated the wet ingredients well enough. I also used an unsweetened vanilla coconut milk instead of soymilk and an extra virgin olive oil for the light oil. It's what I already had on hand and we don't use soymilk so I hated to buy it for one recipe. The batter came together well and as it baked, I was hopeful. I baked it probably ten minutes longer than it called for - because of the toothpick test. Then after it cooled, I cut into it and was very disappointed.

It was very dense and heavy. It was not "sponge-cake" like. I wonder if it was a bad oil choice. I do think I will try this recipe again with some changes and see what happens.

In the meantime, my husband and son will have to settle for plain strawberries or a biscuit type of shortcake. That recipe works (and I'm just realizing I need to find it), but the husband prefers the sponge cake shortcake. And since it was his birthday recently, I was hoping it would work out.

​Please comment and let me know if you have had success with this recipe or make suggestions. Or if you have another favorite dairy and egg free strawberry shortcake recipe, I want to know!

Needless to say, I did not take the shortcake to the party, but the other two were a hit. We had a super fun time with great friends. They are amazing hosts! The kids were not a fan of the loud fireworks so we called it a night a little early, but everyone still had a great time. Enjoy the rest of your week!