Day 240 - Peanut Butter Chocolate Apple Bowl

I'm into bowls. I'm also NOT into meals right now. This is mostly due to lack of time and energy caused by newest love (Baby). So I'm thinking outside the plate.

I needed to get some fruit in for the day and I was craving protein of some kind. So this is what I created, and it made a great mid-afternoon snack/meal-thing. Check it out...

Peanut Butter Chocolate Apple Bowl

Hmmmm.... just noticed that gigantic chip in my bowl. Time to head to Pier One : )

Here's the recipe and Weight Watcher's Healthy Checks breakdown:

• 1 small/medium apple (I like Granny Smith)
• 2 Tbsp creamy peanut butter
• 1/4 cup Bear Naked Heavenly Chocolate granola
• 1 tsp safflower oil

This provides:

• 9 Points Plus
• 1-2 servings fruit
• 1 serving heart healthy oil
• delicious whole grains and satisfying protein

It may seem like a lot of points, but when you have to squeeze in meals in the form of snacks, feel satisfied, and demand yummy things in your mouth... this works perfectly! The peanut butter adds the heftiest portion of points and I'm thinking of changing it up slightly for tomorrow using fat-free Greek yogurt instead. I'll let you know how it goes : )

How would you compose your snack bowl? I would love to hear your thoughts below!

Day 180 - Weigh In, Apple Sauce and Apple Butter

First, my confessional:  I had a bad week.
I thought I was just self-sabotaging after last weeks amazing milestones.
I ate without tracking on Saturday. First time I've ever done that... and the food I chose to eat and not track? Yeah. Cheetos, meatball parm sub, more Cheetos, tortilla chips, apple butter, apple empanada. Ugh. 
Turns out (sorry gentlemen) I had Aunt Flo visiting. I haven't had a visit from her since last November (no worries, it's normal for me) and I forgot how I get when she's here. I become positively exhausted for the first few days, and have cravings that rule my life at the beginning. Yesterday was much better. I was in control, able to eat the way I have re-taught myself over the last 26 weeks and felt fine about it, with no monstrous cravings. I'm a woman. What can I say? ; )

That said, I did lose 0.4 lbs this week. I may possibly be bloated and I may have a bigger dip in the scale next week, but for how I felt about a few days this week, I simply wanted to stay below 200. So I'm good. Let's get moving again....


And as I promised, my recipes for apple sauce and apple butter. I used this apple butter in the Apple Empanada in yesterday's post.

Home Made Apple Sauce 

I don't use sugar in my apple sauce, I think fresh fall apples
have plenty of natural fructose sugars in them and regular sugar
just corrupts the beautiful  fresh taste. And I feel better
about giving it to my boys without any added sugar.

• 6 cups of peeled, cored and chopped apples
• 1 cup natural apple cider
• 1 whole cinnamon stick
• 2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• water to cover

1. Peel, core and chop your apples into evenly sized pieces, the smaller they are cut, the faster they will cook. But if you're like me and prefer a slightly chunky applesauce, leave 'em bigger. Place the apple chunks into the cooking pot. I use a big Dutch oven, I like the even heat distribution and it's just neat.

2. Add a cinnamon stick, the ground cinnamon and apple cider to the pot. Add enough water to cover the apples.

3. Cover the pot and bring it to a boil over medium high heat. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer. Allow it to simmer covered until the apples have begun to break down and are mushy. Stir periodically.



4. Once the sauce is to the consistency you like, remove the cover and allow to simmer until it has thickened.

5. Remove the cinnamon stick and enjoy a cup full while it's still warm! This is my favorite way to eat home-made apple sauce, still slightly warm from the pot with another dash of ground cinnamon on top : )


But if you want to make apple butter....

Apple Butter

• reserve 2 cups of home made apple sauce
• 1/2 Tbsp. salted butter
• 2 Tbsps. packed light brown sugar

Place all ingredients into a small 1- 1.5 quart sauce pot over medium low heat. Cook to reduce until it is half the volume you started with. Don't stir... It makes a mess, you'll get splattered with molten hot apple sauce and you'll reincorporate the water that you're trying to cook out. Resist the urge! It's important for this reason to keep it at low heat, so you don't scorch the bottom.


Tomorrow: Concord Gin Fizzy. My own creation. And, it's time to find a new mini-goal...

Day 179 - Autumn Apple Empanada

We still have TONS of apples from our apple picking outing last weekend. And since I had today off from school I decided to play with them and some pie dough. I will eventually bake an actual apple pie, how could I not? But I was looking for something a bit smaller and more unique. So this is what I came up with!

 Apple Empanada

• 1 pre-made package of pie dough (or your favorite home made recipe, enough for 2 - 9inch rounds)
• 2-3 large apples
• 1/4 cup Turbinado sugar
• 1/2 cup Apple Butter
• 2 Tbsp. corn starch
• 1 egg (beaten for egg wash)

1. Preheat oven according to package/recipe directions. Prepare a cookie sheet with a non-stick mat or a piece of aluminum foil lightly oiled.
2. Peel, core and dice your apples. Larger chunks are better, and they don't need to be uniform. I like to go with a kind of rustic, rough chop.
3. Place turbinado sugar into a small sauce pot and add water to just cover the sugar. Place over high heat. The sugar will need to cook until it becomes a caramel. It will boil rapidly, letting go of a lot of steam, then it will being to slow. Don not stir. Once it becomes a rich amber color, and the bubbles have slowed, remove from the heat and immediately add your apples and stir to coat. Add your cornstarch and stir well. Stir in the apple butter; set aside to cool.
4. Lay out your pie dough on your prepared cookie tray. With a pastry brush (or a paper towel dipped in the egg wash) apply a ring of egg wash around the outer edge of the dough. Place a small 3 inch circle of egg wash in the center of the dough as well.
5. Spoon the apple mixture in a ring between the two areas of egg wash.
6. Place the other pie dough atop and press along all of the egg wash to seal. Turn the outer edges up and crimp with your fingers or with a fork.
7. Score the center of the pie dough with 4 even marks.
8. Egg wash the entire empanada.
9. Pull the points of dough into the pastry from the center, pressing them to the body of the empanada to secure them. allow the egg wash to dry. Once dry apply a second healthy coat of egg wash and sprinkle the top with sugar.
10. Bake until a rich golden brown color, rotating the tray once during baking.
11. Remove from the oven and try not to dig in right away (you'll burn your mouth).

Slice once it is cool. Makes 12 yummy portions. For Weight Watcher's this is 5 points per slice (at 12 slices per empanada and using my home-made apple buttter).

This is a great morning or afternoon treat : )

Tomorrow: Weigh In day (which may be scary this week... I've had two really bad days this week) and I'll share my apple butter recipe with you! It is what I used in this recipe.

 

Day 174 - What To Do With All of Those Apples

To celebrate hitting the 50 lb. mark at yesterday mornings weigh in I decided to spend the day apple and pumpkin picking at a local orchard with my darling husband and boys.

Now, we have a ton of apples. We do this every fall, and we almost never finish them all. So this year I'm determined to fully utilize and enjoy falls bounty. I'm going to share all of my apple recipes with you all week, maybe not every day, but close to it : )  And today we'll start with apple crisp.

I love apple crisp, it's soooooo easy and quick. And the ingredients are always on hand in my kitchen, and probably yours, too. Give me 15 minutes to prep and 45 minutes to bake and voila! A nice warm, sweet and spiced apple dessert!

Kara's Apple Crisp   

• 4 large Granny Smith Apples
• 3 Tbsp. white sugar
• juice from 1/2 lemon
• 1/8 cup All Purpose flour
• 1/8 cup white sugar
• 1/8 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/8 cup Quaker rolled oats
• 3 Tbsp. cold salted butter
• Pinch of salt
• Pinch of ground nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon

You will also need and small 8 x 8 x 2 inch baking dish or 4 ramekins. I used my Corningware Ramekins that I found at Target recently. 


This recipe was originally written for twice as much topping for the same amount of apples. This amount is more waistline friendly and still packs a lot of flavor.

Serves 4

1. Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Peel, core, and chop your apples into 1 inch cubes and toss with the lemon juice and 3 Tbsp white sugar. You can add cinnamon here if you like. Set aside.
3. Combine the remaining ingredients in a medium bowl and use your fingers or two forks to cut the butter into the other ingredients till crumbly. You can also use a food processor to do this if you have one, use the pulse option till it just comes together.
4. Place you apples in your baking dish or separate evenly between the ramekins including and juices that have settled to the bottom.
5. Spread the crumb topping evenly over the apples.
6. Place onto a baking sheet to catch any apple drippings and bake for 35-45 minutes, until a knife inserted into the center gets no resistance.
7. Allow to cool for about 20 minutes and enjoy warm or room temperature.

5 Points Plus for Weight Watchers as written above. And the portions are big! I count this as two fruit servings (a little more than 1 cup of apples).
(For a special surprise inside, place one square chewy caramel candy at the top of the apples in each ramekin then top with crumb topping. It will melt through the apples as it bakes and add another layer of rich deliciousness to the crisp.)