Strawberry Sundaes made with Fresh Strawberry Sauce

For dessert Saturday night, I decided to make a dessert that was a bit lighter and one that would use the fresh strawberries I bought at Costco...and since youngest son has a big sweet tooth, I decided to make Strawberry Sundaes.  So, I made a quick and easy homemade strawberry sauce using some of the fresh strawberries.  It was so easy.  I cut the berries into halves or quarters (depending on the size of the berry) until I had about 4 cups.  I then put them in a saucepan and added 1/3 cup sugar and heated them at medium-high heat and began crushing them a bit with a potato masher until they began releasing their juice.  I cooked them for 5-10 minutes until they came to a light boil and then turned them off and added 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla and stirred in an additional 6 sliced berries into the hot mixture and set aside until cool.  I wanted to have pieces and slices of berries in my sauce, but if you prefer a smoother sauce, you can either toss the mixture into a blender or use an immersion blender to make the sauce the consistency you prefer.  I served the sauce over Kemps lowfat frozen vanilla yogurt, but you could use it to mix into yogurt, put on pancakes, waffles, pound cake, angel food cake or anything you enjoy the taste of fresh strawberries with.  You can adjust the amount of sweetness to suit your own tastes by increasing or decreasing the sugar.  You could also use a sugar substitute in place of the sugar too if you prefer. The ratio I used provided a not too sweet and not too tart sauce.  It was good and tasted like fresh berries.

Here are the strawberries I picked up at Costco this weekend

Here's a peek inside the package

Here is a closer look at the "strawberry field of dreams"

Strawberry Sundae with fresh strawberry sauce (made with the berries) on top of Kemps lowfat frozen vanilla yogurt...deelish!

BOOM!

BOOM! BOOM!