Food, family, friends and fun (recipe for Pineapple Squares)

I'll be home with my kids and partner for this holiday season.  My parents are flying here tomorrow and will be with us for a whole week!  They'll get a pretty good "feel" for what life is like for us.  It's pretty chaotic at times, magical at others.  I'm so fortunate to have people around me that I love, that love me, we all have good health and are, for the most part, very happy people.

We'll be eating a turkey that led a happy life, organic vegetables and pineapple squares (my father's favourite recipe, but I'll be switching out the heavenly shortbread base for a graham crust as my father gets heartburn from the shortbread).  I had a difficult time finding a recipe similar to the one my Mum uses that is from a United Church cookbook from Newfoundland.  The name of the squares is a hard one to nail down and get the right list of ingredients.  Here's my Mum's version:

Low fat (tee-hee) Pineapple Squares

 

1st layer: Mix 2 cups flour, 1 c. butter and 4 T sugar.  Save 1/2 c. for crumbs if you want them for top of squares.  Press on bottom of 8 or 9" pan.  Bake 20 minutes at 350F and then cool.

2nd layer: Cream 1/2 soft butter, 1.5 C icing sugar and 2 eggs. Add to cooled base layer.

3rd layer: Whip 1c. of whipping cream and add a drained small can of pineapple.

4th layer: Reserved crumbs from base or cherries or nothing.

 

Note: if you are ever making them for your Dad (his fav recipe) use graham cracker crumb base as he get heartburn from shortbread base.

 

Here is a link to a blog that has an image like mine will look like in a couple of days when I make them.

 

How are you spending the holiday season?  Do you get any extra days off?  Are you traveling?  Do you wish you were with someone you cannot be with or somewhere?  What are you most looking forward to?  Anything you'd like to share?

Banana coconut pineapple (tofu) smoothie

Made one of my best smoothies for snack this afternoon, as rated by the Big Kid.  He loves smoothies and knows when one stands above the rest.

I made Healthy Lemon Squares (post to follow) this afternoon and instead of just making more of the filling, I ended up with some silken tofu left over.  I also had a can of coconut milk open in the fridge to use up.

Here's what I did.

Banana Coconut Pineapple smoothie (with tofu - but you don't have to tell your kids)
1 yellow banana
1 can (14oz) pineapple in chunks with juice
1/2 box Mori Nu silken tofu (red box, 240g) (approx)
1/3 can Thai Kitchen coconut milk (red label, 400ml) (approx)
3 Tbsp sugar
- dump all ingredients into blender and blend away
- serve as is or chilled.  If you are smart, you can use a frozen banana and it will be colder (you may cut up said banana and freeze it ready for smoothies or 1 ingredient ice cream, which I have not tried yet)

Photos to follow this evening, just had to tell you now while it's still hot out and you want a snack.