When life gives you (smooshed) strawberries

I’ll cut right to the point here: Life is really stressful right now and I am struggling to see the glass half full (visa stress does that to a person). But I do like to try and find the positives in whatever the world throw at me – even if I’m faking the positives!

So, when life gave me a big pile of smooshed, mushed strawberries, decided to make something happy out of it.

Backing up a bit…

I took my new bike out for a test run the other day and stopped into the village shop along the way. I had planned on buying some grapes, but the strawberries were marked down from £2.00 to 30 pence – bargain! So, I grabbed two punnets along with two punnets of marked-down blueberries (half price at £1 each) and some bargain broccoli (89p down to 34p).

Then I took a little cycle ride along the old rail line before heading home. Along the way, my shopping bounced about in the basket, but I didn’t think much about it other than I was glad I hadn’t bought eggs – especially on the really animated bounces!

But when I arrived home, I found the basket and my shopping bag were wet. The strawberries had jostled about so much that they turned to mush and the juices were everywhere.

I was so frustrated by this, especially because of my current high-anxiety state. But I was also happy that the juices didn’t get on anything else, except for the blueberries which were easily rinsed off.

Of course, my first thought was that I would have to throw the strawberries out, meaning my £3.40 savings was now a 60 pence loss. Oh, how irritating!!

But then I decided to see what I could salvage because I really hate waste. I thought I might be able to make some fruit leather, but it seemed that 3 hours of oven time would negate my savings. And then it dawned on me: Strawberry margaritas!

And so, when life gave me smooshed strawberries, I made myself a nice strawberry margarita!

The strawberries were too beaten and bruised for much, so I simply removed the stems and salvaged everything I could.

Then I set them in ice cube trays to freeze for a couple of days.

And then, come Friday, I decided it was time to break out the frozen strawberries.

And some Tequila, Cointreau, and lime juice (sadly, I didn’t have fresh limes).

I blended it all up and poured it into a dessert cup, then I sat back and relaxed…

This lovely “salvaged” drink reminds me that I still haven’t found margarita glasses, but I rarely have margaritas so I am not overly worried about that. I am hopeful that I will find the perfect glasses one of these days, probably when I least expect it.

Anyhow, I managed to salvage my mood a bit through salvaging these strawberries. And I am hopeful that I will keep this glass half full mindset over the weekend – despite my actual glass now being below the halfway point!