Braden and I have been keeping life pretty low key, at least for these first few weeks of marriage. This past Sunday we were invited to join his family at Sky Top Orchard in Asheville, NC. Since we didn't have any plans holding us back, we accepted and made the drive up to NC.
Our basket didn't seem very full, but we ended up leaving with more apples than I know what to do with (in addition to the apples we already had)!
This apples overload lead me to some baking frenzies. So many apples so little time. We had a good friend coming over for dinner on Monday so I decided to go the dessert route, Apple Crisp!
I wanted something simple and I stumbled upon this recipe. The only thing that took a little time was chopping up the apples, but other than that it was super simple and quick.
Apple Crisp
*Preheat oven to 375°
What you need:
6 apples cored, peeled, and sliced
2/3 cup all purpose flour
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup cold butter
2/3 cup oatmeal
Method:
1. Grease 9" pie plate
2. Add sliced apples evenly on pie plate
3. In a mixing bowl, combine flour, brown sugar, spices and salt.
4. Using a mixer, cut butter into the dry mixture
5. Stir in oatmeal
6. Sprinkle mixture on top of apples and bake for 35-40 min!
I've been walking more often, but walking by yourself just isn't that fun. We've become great friends with our pre-marital counseling couple Susan and Kent. They treat us like family, so we feel as if we are add-ons in their family! They have given me permission to take their "other" children for walks during the day, so of course I'm taking them any chance I can.
Meet Charlie and Nana, our adoptive children.
After my walk I contemplated what else I could make with our leftover apples. We love brinner, but try to save it for Sunday nights. However, every Sunday we've been back has been busy. So, I decided to incorporate apples into sweet potato waffles. I didn't know how great the combination would be, but WOW, I think we nailed it!
Paleo* Sweet Potato and Apple Waffles
What you need:
2 apples
2 small sweet potatoes
3 eggs
2 tbsp raw honey
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup almond milk (or other milk)
1.5 cup almond flour
Method:
1. Microwave sweet potatoes for 5 minutes, let cool.
2. While sweet potatoes heat up, core, peel, and slice apples - place in separate microwaveable bowl.
3. Add eggs, honey, almond milk, salt, cinnamon, and baking soda into a blender.
4. Cut sweet potatoes open, scoop out the insides into the blender with other ingredients - blend well.
5. Add in almond flour.
6. Use almond milk to thin out the puree, you may need more or less than 1/4 cup.
7. Sprinkle cinnamon on apples, then microwave for 2 minutes. Stir apples into puree mixture.
In a preheated waffle iron, add about 1/2 cup of mixture. This recipe made about 6 waffles!
We topped them with some Trader Joes Shortstack Syrup - YUM. These were SO good, we will definitely be making them more. Knowing us, we will make them in bulk and eat them throughout the week :) Did I mention that these are paleo?!
So what's the plan for the REST of our leftover apples? Only time will tell. Braden mentioned that he thinks we should juice them. I'm not complaining about fresh apple juice.
I like the idea of using one fruit and making multiple different recipes. Next on the list, pumpkin!
