Apple Nachos!

Want to make an easy, healthy-ish snack for you or your kiddos is less than 20 minutes? I say healthy-ish because there are chocolate chips but those could easily be removed (Harvard claims peanut butter to be healthy, FYI). Apple nachos + healthy-ish + short prep time = great summertime snack! Here's what you'll need:

* 3 apples, sliced (I used Red Delicious which I thought was fine but my husband said they tasted like sponges, so maybe go with something more tart)
* Lemon juice
* Almond slices
* Pecans (though I used walnuts instead)
* 3 Tablespoons of peanut butter
* Chocolate chips (I used mini chocolate chips)
* (optional) Unsweetened coconut

Start by preparing your apples - wash them, slice them thin, and put them on a plate (if you don't have one of these handy apple slicers, go get one right meow!)

Sprinkle lemon juice over the apples to keep them from getting brown.

Melt your peanut butter in the microwave for 15-30 seconds (I did it for 45 seconds and it was bubbling over and almost burnt so anything less than that is your best bet!) and using a spoon, sprinkle half the peanut butter over the apples.

Next, add your almond slices...

And your pecans (or walnuts, in this case)...

And don't forget the chocolate chips! If you choose to add your coconut, now would be the time.

Go back over the apples with the rest of the peanut butter.

And there you have it! Apple nachos for 2, please!

TOTAL COSTS: About $20 (if you don't have any of the ingredients - prices from Vons)

$1.49/lb for apples
$2.29 for lemon juice
$3.99 for almond slices
$5.99 for pecans
$2.79 for peanut butter
$2.50 for chocolate chips

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: 15-20 minutes

Depends on how much time you take slicing your apples

EASY-PEASY SCALE (1 super easy - 5 very difficult): 1 out of 5

This is such an easy snack to make, I don't know why I never made these before! And just as a heads-up, you might need a fork.

Disney's Veggie Mickey Mouse and Fruity Kermit the Frog

It's the new year and many people are turning to healthier eating for themselves and their families. I don't know about you but eating fruits and veggies... not exactly my strong suit. However, if they're shaped like friendly Disney characters, how can you NOT want to eat them?? These posts come to us from Spoonful.com and would be perfect for Disney-themed parties or just a healthy afternoon snack!

#1 - Mickey Mouse Tuna Tomatoes

Here's what you'll need:

* Tomatoes
I bought really big ones, but I recommend getting smaller tomatoes on the vine because
1. they'll be easier to eat and
2. the recipe filled up both tomatoes!

* Tuna

* Celery

* Mayonnaise

* Dill (that one spice on your spice rack you've probably never used... or maybe that's just me!)

* Black Olives

* Scallions (otherwise known as green onions)


Step 1: Combine all the ingredients into a bowl and mix them up

Step 2: Cut off the top of the tomato and scoop out the insides. I found it easiest to cut around and then cut the insides into quarters before scooping out the rest.

Step 3: Scoop the tuna mixture into the tomatoes and add sliced olives onto the sides to act as Mickey's "ears". And voila! Eat and enjoy!

TOTAL COSTS: About $12
$2.44 for the tomatoes
$  .99 for green onions/scallions
$1.49 for celery
$  .99 for 1 can of tuna
$1.99 for black olives
$3.99 for mayonnaise
Dill already on hand in my spice rack

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: About 25 minutes

EASY-PEASY SCALE (1 super easy - 5 very difficult): 1 out of 5
This is really easy but I wouldn't recommend kids help, as there's a lot of cutting/slicing involved!


#2 - Kermit's Green Apples

Here's another that requires a lot of slicing and dicing but it's very easy to put together (and even easier to devour!). All you need is:

*A red apple

*A green apple

*A marshmallow

*An edible marker (or, if you don't have one like me, you can use a regular marker and then remove the marshmallows when it comes time to eating it, since they're not very healthy anyway!)

Step 1: Cut your apple in half and put one half away until the end

Step 2: Cut into the apple on either side at an angle, so as to form the face of Kermit

Step 3: Next, you can either eyeball it or draw a smile on the apple and cut around it. Then scoop out some of apple to make the mouth.

Step 4: Take the red apple, cut a slice out, and then use the green smile as a template to cut down the size of the red smile. Make sure most of the white of the apple is cut off the smile, so it's easier to put inside the green apple.

  

Step 5: Cut a marshmallow in half and draw on the pupils. The original post says to cut into 4 quarters but that makes the eyes very small in relation to the size of the apple. By cutting them in half, the sticky part of the marshmallow will act like a glue when you stick them on. I found the older the marshmallows, the flatter the "eyeballs" were, which wasn't a good thing.

Step 6: Take the other apple half and cut small triangular pieces. I found it was best to cut off half of the white apple piece, otherwise they were too big (see photo below - the two slices on the left were cut in half and the two on the right were not).

Step 7: Put on a plate, grab some peanut butter, and you're all set!

TOTAL COSTS: About $5
$2.33 for apples
$2.98 for marshmallows

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: About 25 minutes

EASY-PEASY SCALE (1 super easy - 5 very difficult): 1 out of 5
There's nothin' to it - just cut, cut again, cut some more, and you're done!

My First Blog Requests - Keep 'Em Comin'!

If there is ever something you're curious how long it took to do or how much it might be, shoot them on over and I'll break it down for you Mythbuster-style! Today's spoooooky recommendations came from my former neighbor, Mrs. Martin -

#1 - Glow in the dark eyes

Perhaps you've seen the pictures going around Pinterest or Facebook. Glow lights + paper towel/toilet paper rolls = creepy eyes in the bushes. Does it work?

Well, yes and no. A few things to keep in mind:


     a.) You need to cut the eyes fairly large so you can see the light but not so big that you can see the glow stick
   b.) Depending on how long the glow sticks are, you might have to curl them inside the rolls. For these that were 8" long, I had to fold them so they were 4" long so that the stick wouldn't go outside of the roll. If you hide them in bushes, perhaps the bushes can hide the sticks if they go outside of the rolls, but it might be better to get 4" glow sticks.
     c.) Certain colors work better than others. As you see below, the green shows up the best, then pink, then blue
     d.) Remember to draw your design before cutting. Having a template for the eyes will make it so much easier!

TOTAL COSTS: $3.50 (glow sticks from Vons)
TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: About 15 minutes (to make 3)
EASY-PEASY SCALE: 1 out of 5. A great activity for kids, super easy, and an excuse to be creative!


#2 - "Spooky Teeth"
Here's another that has been making the rounds on Facebook and Pinterest but was also on Cosmopolitan's website. Pretty straight forward - apples, marshmallows, peanut butter. Are they any good?

Yes. Yes yes yes. I don't know why I've never seen marshmallows and peanut butter together but man is it addicting. A recipe I saw called for "1 medium apple, 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter, 25 mini marshmallows" but I did 2 small apples and chunky peanut butter and they tasted ah-may-zing. If you want to make them more like teeth, you can clean them up a bit but I promise you, they won't be on the plate long enough for anyone to care. Great Halloween snack!

TOTAL COSTS: About $9
$2.00 for mini marshmallows, $3.00 for peanut butter, and $4 for 3 lbs. of apples
TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: About 15 minutes
...though some of that time may have been spent eating ingredients...ahem...
EASY-PEASY SCALE: 1 out of 5
If you don't already have an apple slicer/corer like this, I highly recommend you get one. Saves you a lot of time and energy! 

Kat's California Apple Butter - Slow Cooker Style

One sunny Saturday afternoon, my husband and I decided to pick apples... too bad the closest apple orchard was an hour and a half away. By the time we arrived, most of the trees had been picked and all that remained were the worm-holed and the rotten. Still determined to have a good time, we grabbed our 3lb. bag (does anyone else think 3lbs for $15 is WAY to much?!) and scoured the quarter acre for good apples.

We heard a couple next to us say, "Why did we pay $15 to pick rotten apples?" and after 15 minutes of finding nothing, I was starting to feel the same way. One of the workers at the orchard could tell we were getting frustrated and pointed out that the apples that fall onto the ground aren't always bad. Even if you see a hole, if it's not squishy when you press into it, it's fine. After scouring under the trees, we did end up finding a lot of apples that were pretty good. We went home and the apple butter makin' was underway (ok, technically we waited two weeks but we were busy... with... stuff... ahem...).

First thing's first: if you're using a brand new slow cooker straight out of the box, remember to remove the cardboard around the base of the pot. If you don't, you might smell burning. I gotta learn things the hard way, I guess!

Second: Whenever you're dealing with apples, either for cakes, pies, or apple butter, always use an apple peeler (I bought this one for $13.29 but it looks like Amazon has raised the price since then). It. Works. Wonders. You'll save yourself a lot of time, energy, and maybe a finger or two since it peels, cores, and slices at the same time. My husband didn't believe me until I showed him and he was astonished by the engineering of the little machine. If you don't believe me, here's a little video showing how it works (and you don't have to hold it down, there's a suction cup on the bottom, I just wanted to be extra careful):




I followed this recipe by Jamie at My Baking Addiction but since I only had half the amount of apples the recipe called for, I cut the recipe in half (1/2C of sugar instead of 1C, 1/8t ground cloves, etc.).

Here's what it looked like when I first turned on the slow cooker (the 0 hour mark):

Here's what it looked like after 6 hours in the slow cooker:

Here's what it looked like after 10 hours, after I added the vanilla (note: at this point, your house will smell ah-may-zing!)

So after 12 hours, the instructions call for using an immersion blender, but I don't have one of those, so I improvised by pouring the apple mixture into a bowl and used my hand mixer (thought using it in the slow cooker might be a bad idea). Once pureed, into the mason jars they went! I guess 3lbs. of apples equals 8 4oz mason jars -

TOTAL COSTS: $25
Apples = $15 for 3lbs. at Riley's Apple Farm

Mason Jars = $10 for 12 4 oz. Ball mason jars

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: 12 hours, 50 minutes
25 minutes to peel, core, and slice 3 lbs. of apples
10 minutes to add ingredients
12 hours to cook
15 minutes to puree, pour mixture into jars, and write labels

EASY-PEASY SCALE: 2 out of 5
Another easy recipe - the only hard-ish part is preparing the apples and having the patience to wait 12 hours!