Apple Crisp

Its definitely feeling like fall these days, so it's time to start baking and cooking like it's fall.  Last night I made beef stew (one of my husband's favorites!) and today I wanted to share this easy fall desert.  Apples are plentiful and often you can find very good sales on them right now.  I am spoiled living in the apple capital of Minnesota, so I have many delicious variety of apples available to me.  You can use any type of apples you wish for this delicious apple crisp.  Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 6 Granny Smith apples (peeled and sliced)
• 1/2 package of Kraft Caramel Bits

For the topping

• 2 tablespoons of butter or margarine
• 2 Tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 Tablespoons flour
• 2 Tablespoons oatmeal

Directions

Place the apples in an greased 8x8 glass baking dish.  Sprinkle the caramel bits over the top.

In a separate bowl, mix the dry ingredients, then cut in the butter until the mixture is crumbly.  

Sprinkle topping over apples.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes or until the apples are tender. 

Serve warm with ice cream ice cream if desired. 

Makes 6 servings

Better eat it quick before someone steals it!

Click on the magic button for nutrition information and a printer friendly version! 
MyRecipeMagic estimates the calories of this apple crisp at only 31!  How cool is that.  For that many calories you could have two pieces!  I hope you enjoy this healthy dessert!

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Candy Corn Sugar Cookies

I'm back to blogging and I have this awesome sweet treat to share with you, just in time for Halloween!  I saw this recipe in several different versions floating around Pinterest and new that I wanted to try it. You all know that I love a good sugar cookie.  And holidays are a great time to bake :)  So enjoy these Candy Corn Sugar Cookies!

Candy Corn Sugar Cookies

Recipe adapted form Six Sisters

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla 
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 4 cups flour
• orange food coloring
• yellow food coloring

Directions: 

Begin by creaming the butter, eggs and sugar.  Mix in the baking powder, vanilla, baking soda, salt, and sour cream.  Mix until well blended.  Slowly add in the flour.  The dough should not be too sticky, if it is sticky, slowly add in a little more flour.  Divide the dough into 3 equal parts.  Leave on part plain.  Dye one part yellow with food coloring. Dye the final part orange.  (Hint, use your stand mixer to color the dough.  If you do the yellow first, then you can do the orange second and use yellow and red to make orange)

Line a bread load pan with waxed paper.  Dust your hands with flour to keep the dough from sticking to them. Layer the bottom of the pan with the plain colored dough.  It should be about an inch thick.  The dough may not reach all the way down the pan and that's ok.  Next, layer in the orange dough and spread evenly over the plain layer.  Smooth the dough as best you can.  Finally add the yellow layer.  Fold the edges of the wax paper across the top and place the loaf pan in the feezer.  Freeze at least two hours (or for better results, freeze overnight)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. 

Remove from the freezer and pull on edges of wax paper to get the dough out.  Slice the dough into quarter inch slices.  

Then cut triangles back and forth.  You should be able to get at least six triangles from each slice.

Keep dough that you are not working with in the freezer to make it easier to handle.  

Place triangles on a cookie sheet and dust with sugar.  Bake for 9-10 minutes. 

For nutrition information and a printer friendly version, click on the Magic Button!

 

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Penguin Hooded Towel

I know I know, I dissapeared for almost 2 weeks again.  Sorry!  Life seems to keep getting the better of me and I haven't had much energy for baking or crafting.  Or writing posts.  Hopefully things will turn around soon!  I have some pretty awesome ideas that I want to share with you this month!
So here we go.  Two weeks ago, the LadyBug hooded towel was so cute, I decided to make another one for my next baby shower (yep, seriously - I have like five friends/coworkers/family members who are all due the last week of November or first week of December).  It's crazy.  And it also means lots of baby showers for me.

So for the next baby shower I went to, I wanted to make a hooded towel, but this couple isn't finding out if they are having a girl or boy, so I needed gender neutral.  Plus they were have a jungle/animal theme and the penguin fit right in in my mind (although, looking back now, I suppose there aren't any penguins in the jungle, oh well - it was still cute!)

My second attempt at a hooded towel went SO much more smoothly than my first.  This one took around 2 hours to complete.  I think the fact that I knew how to assemble it and didn't have to check the directions more than 15 times helped.  The lack of having to appliqué on any ladybug spots was also a huge time saver.
This pattern also comes from CrazyLittleProjects.  It's super simple and I am so happy with how it turned out!
I have one more hooded towel up my sleeve, although I might not be able to share it with you until after Thanksgiving.
Have a great day!

My CareBear model again :)

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September Update

So... I set some lofty goals at the beginning of the year (I still don't really want to call them resolutions... resolutions too often get broken. So... I set goals. I just happened to set them on Jan. 1st)
How am I doing?
Let's take a look.


1. Be active everyday - at least do something! I'm good about being active during the week and hitting the gym - the weekends, not so much. I'd like to change that.
I was SO close!  I'm actually pretty upset with myself.  I only missed one day - ONE DAY! And it was Saturday.  I made it 28 days, and then missed a day due to driving five hours for a baby shower and going to work with Matt - I just couldn't drag myself out of bed any earlier to squeeze the workout in before the baby shower.  Take a look.  But I keep trying!  

2. Run 400 miles. I'm worried this might be too much of a stretch for me, considering I don't go much more than 3 miles ever (three times a week), but I can give it a try! I ran about 250 in 2012, so maybe I can be a little more consistent and up my mileage in 2013.
I got a new iPod since mine decided to stop working randomly over Labor Day weekend :(  It took a bit of time to get it calibrated to track my runs, but I'm up and going now.  This month I ran 30.81 Miles.  This brings my total 2013 mileage to 310.88/400 miles. 3/4 of the way through the year - 10 miles of 3/4 of my goal - excellent!

3. Run my first 5K since high school cross country.
I'm registered for a race in September!  I was registered, but then had to cancel because of a family obligation, so still no 5K.  Better find me one soon!  If you have a suggestion in the LaCrosse area, let me know!

4. Finish my prayer shawl for St. Mary's Hospital
Finished in April during my spring break - it's huge!

5. Knit 5 Chemo caps   
Total is now 3/5.
Soooo close to being done with number 4!  Just have 10 rows left!

6. Finish one of my other UFO knitting projects
Didn't happen.  Another one I need to work on, better get moving as the year is ticking away (and I'm crazy busy now that I'm back to work!) 

7. Take two masters classes - I am very unmotivated about working towards my master's but I know I should be taking advantage of the tuition reimbursement at Connections Academy
This one may not happen. I still haven't taken one class yet. I'm not motivated to take the class and worried about overbooking myself. I value the little free time that I do have!

8. Visit one new city or state
Done in Feb. during my honeymoon. I was in Ft. Lauderdale, San Juan Puerto Rico, St. Thomas USVI, and Half Moon Cay.
Also went to Thunder Bay Ontario this month!  Whoot!  Added another new country :)  But sadly no new passport stamps :(

9. Be a better wife (I know, it's vague), but somedays I don't feel like I do that well in this area. Maybe I'm still getting the hang of it since I've only been married 2 1/2 months.
Work in progress.  I'm trying to be patient and helpful while he's so busy with work right now.   

10. Be kinder to myself. M keeps telling me that I'm too hard on myself and need to relax some and be nicer to myself and everything will be ok. We both know that being kind to yourself can be tough, but I want to try to make some improvements in this area.
This one, not so much.  To many worries and too many times I stressed out over little silly things.  Still working on this one I guess. 

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