apple crisp

a while back, i made the mistake of buying a big bag of apples. i am not much of an apple-eater. i have a smoothie every day with berries and bananas, but i don't really eat fruit on it's own.

needless to say, the apples sat around, and started to look a little funny. they started to get a little wrinkly and soft. they were clearly past the point of just eating... but what to do with them?

so i made an apple crisp!

it fits well with my feelings about dessert - fruit is good, not too sweet, etc. i called my dad and got his old recipe... although i have changed it somewhat, that's what it's based on.

vegan apple cinnamon bread

this recipe is a made-healthier, veganized version of this recipe. the original recipe is fabulous, but (as i tend to) i like to make things a little better for me, if possible. i also made it (gasp!) without pecans. looking back, i can't recall why. things are clearly always better with pecans, so you should probably add some when you make it. 

apple cinnanon bread - with PECANS!!

this recipe was actually originally a muffin recipe that i have changed a bit, and the pecans weren’t a part of the original recipe, but they are clearly necessary. clearly!!

i really hate the cold weather, but i love making tasty treats like this to warm up. my breakfast plans for tomorrow involve this cake and a pumpkin spice latte. yum. i think the only things that save me from the cold weather are things like apples and squash and lattes - that and snuggles and working from home, anyway.

i have a pumpkin muffin recipe somewhere that i might try to make this bread-style. i find that once i’ve tweaked the recipe to my liking taste-wise, the only difference is baking time. i’m sure pecans will be involved.

low calorie strawberry banana muffins

i work from home, but i have to go into the office a couple of times a month, so when i do i try to bring a little treat for my hardworking office colleagues. last time i was there, it seemed like EVERYONE was on a diet... so i wanted to bring a little treat, but nothing that would ruin their diet or make them feel guilty for indulging in!

i used a strawberry banana muffin recipe (which i'm sure i'll post some day ;) and made some adaptations to make it healthier and lower-calorie. i substituted apple sauce for butter, threw in some whole wheat flour, and used agave syrup instead of suger. (agave is still sweet, and as such fairly high-calorie, but it's much less processed, and because of how sweet it is, i was able to use less than the original recipe called for). if you don't have agave, you can substitute for another natural sweetener like honey or maple syrup.

i made them in my mini-muffin tin, and they came out to only about 50 calories each, which means if you made them normal-muffin size, they'd be 100 calorie muffins! not too bad!

i have not tried making these gluten free, but since they're banana-based, i'm sure it would go well. also, if you throw in some egg replacer or flax seed/water mixture, they are vegan! whoo!

apple cinnamon muffins

do i make too many muffins? i’d like to think there is no such thing!

the other day i made this recipe as muffins instead of bread, and added a nice crunchy topping as well. i am very happy with how they turned out. there really is nothing like a hot, fresh muffin on a cold day!

apple juice

matt drinks a lot of juice. personally, i am happy with water, wine, and iced tea, but not matt. he needs his sugar, i suppose. 

anyway, after reading a terrifying article about how different kinds of juice are produced, i decided that i wasn’t really okay with him putting a lot of that stuff in his body. this led to a discussion about other options. we ended up deciding to make our own apple juice!!

i have a juicer, but the idea of keeping apples on hand and juicing it as he wants it doesn’t really appeal to matt, so it had to be able to be bottled for later consumption. 

so, last time we were in the okanagan valley, we picked up two of these 20 pound bags of apples (spartan) for about $11 each:

and went to work!

banana oatmeal muffins

 this recipe is based on my old faithful banana muffin recipe which is amazing. i was trying to think of creative ways to make it a little healthier, and i am also somewhat in the middle of a love affair with oatmeal (weird, right?)... so this is what was born. 

they are tasty, just as tasty as the original version, but a fair bit healthier. i have removed the butter, replaced sugar with agave syrup, and added some oats in the place of flour. they still come out chewy and rich and just plain fabulous. give them a try!

 

i have not tried making them gluten free, as i don't have any gluten-free oats around, but generally throwing bananas at anything gluten free works well, so feel free to try!

chewy bars

when i was a kid, we always called granola bars chewy bars. now, that makes me think of chewbacca (nerd alert!). 

regardless, these bars certainly live up to the chewy name. i made the recipe up, but based it (VERY) loosely on oatmeal raisin cookies. i made them a ton healthier, but they still have an almost cookie-like texture to them (speaking as someone who only makes chewy cookies).

as such, they won't last quite as long as more traditional granola bar recipes, but that's okay, because you'll eat them all in a day anyway!! 

i made these for matt and i before an 18 hour rally day (that's right, i'm a nerd in every way you can imagine - AND WE TOTALLY WON!!), and they made lovely snacks for a long, asskicking day.

italian bread

happy hallowe'en!

it's the time of year when it starts to get chilly again. it's time for squash soup, oatmeal, apple crisp, and a fabulous new bread recipe!

i really love this recipe - it may be one of my new favourites. this time of year is all about comfort food, and this bread fits the bill. eat it with butter and a big bowl of soup! make a delightful sandwich!