Oven Baked Apple Chips

So I was out in the rain doing a little photoshoot when Fly Guy wandered off and came back eating a large shiny red apple.  "Hey, where did that come from?  I thought you were just peeing in the bushes!"  Apparently several feet from a pecan tree we discovered there is also a tree loaded with delicious apples.  This is the best Fall ever!

Now what to do with all our apples?  And how to incorporate them in brown bag lunches?

Apple chips!  Crunchy, sweet, crinkly chips.  As a bonus they make your house smell like Christmas while baking.

Now there are several recipes for these chips but you just have to play with cooking times.  Different apples have different amounts of moisture.  I discovered this when I baked two kinds at once and one variety burned.  My final chips are almost identical to the Italian Dish's Apple Chips.  Check out how she gifted hers instead of just stuffing her face when she was done.

You don't have to add any flavor.  My apples were not sweet or tart when I baked them plain but still tasty.  The unflavored ones also seem to cook faster (or it could be my imagination).  My kids like the sugar spice variety best. 

Several cooks claim to cut these apples by hand.  Eh, not for me.  I use a mandoline slicer very similiar to this.  Easy peasy.
 

Oven Baked Apple Chips 

A few thinly sliced apples  (5 for me)
A handful of brown or white sugar (1/3 cup brown)
A few teaspoons of spices  (1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp ginger, 1/2 tsp ground cloves)

Line your baking sheets with parchment paper (I baked 3 pans at once).  Mix you sugar and spices in a small bowl then lightly dip one side of each apple slice before laying then on prepared baking sheets.  You can lay them close, but don't overlap.

Bake between 200 and 225 for 2 to 2.5 hours flipping once after the first hour.  The chips will be a little crunchy when done and further harden as they cool.  If they do not seem to be crisping up as desired you can turn off the oven after the initial 2 hours and leave the pans in for the slices to dry out.

Healing Turmeric Yogurt Bowl with Ginger Granola

Ever cook with turmeric?  You should.  You really really should. 

The Huffington Post states that turmeric "has been shown to exhibit antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antiviral, antibacterial, antifungal, and anticancer activities."

So your like "Whaa? How do I get some of THAT"  At least that's what I said.

My favorite current recipes with turmeric are

Cashew Corn Chowder by My New Roots
Spinach and Mung Bean Soup by K. Orahsoi
Chickpea Spinach Turmeric Curry by Fugal Cook
Calming Creamy Turmeric Tea by Dr. Sanjay Gupta

Dr. Gupta's tea is also known as Golden Milk and can be found on various food blogs that extoll it's healing properties and remissness about their mothers giving it to them when they had colds.

I love golden milk in the same way I love hot cocoa.  A late night way to top off the sleepiness and send you into dreamland.  Yet it does have a little grittiness.  The spices never quite meld with the milk.  Not to mention it's hard to pack in a lunch.

So I present Healing Turmeric Yogurt Bowls!  Which include all the other things I seek out when I don't feel good.  Coconut oil, ginger,cinnamon,  honey...  The sweet ingredients balance out the slight bitterness of the turmeric.  This would be good with fruit also.  Berries maybe?

 

Healing Turmeric Yogurt Bowl

Ingredients
(per person)

2/3 cup full fat unsweetened yogurt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground turmeric*
honey for drizzling
ginger granola for sprinkling (recipe below)

* try 1/4 tsp if you are unsure of this new flavor and work your way up.

Stir the spices and honey into the yogurt in a circular pattern and pack the granola separate until time to serve.

Ginger Granola
makes 1 1/4 cups

1 cup regular rolled oats
2 TB ground flax seed
1 TB unsweetened applesauce
1 TB honey
1 TB molasses
1 TB coconut oil, melted
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Granola Directions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Mix all ingredient with a fork or hands.  Bake in the oven, stirring occasionally, for around 20 minutes or until it's starting to brown and crisp. It will continue to crisp as it cools.  Let cool completely then store in an airtight container.

Hotel Friendly Popcorn

 

I recently went to my kid's back to school night where teachers had placed cute little notes along with packages of microwavable popcorn on the desks.  "thanks for popping in" if I remember right.  But my kids knew they couldn't eat them due to being chocked full of lard and artificial flavors.  So I wrote "thanks for popping their bubble" on the backside and put it back on the desk.  Joking.  I graciously accepted.

No prob.  I now have my own microwavable popcorn.  It's cheaper, healthier, funner.  Funner when I start writing my own notes to Fly Guy for his overnight trips.  None of which I will be reprinting here...  Ahem.

Back to popcorn.  Oh you won't believe how easy.



 

Are you ready?
Pen and paper handy?
Ok!

Hotel Friendly Popcorn

• Take a paper lunch bag and place 1/4 cup kernels in it.
• Fold over the top twice about a 3/4 inch fold each time creasing it well
• Place the bag on it's side and make sure it's not touching the sides of the microwave
• Microwave for 2-3 minutes or until the popping slows to several second between pops.
• Spend your free time writing witty messages and laughing at your own jokes
• Not that I do that...

Whole Wheat Naan and Hummus

 

If there are two current staples in our lunch bags and picnics right now it has to be naan bread and hummus.  Whether you buy these staples in the store or make them yourself I find the fact they are freezable a huge bonus in taming the lunch making madness.

  

Whole Wheat Naan Bread
Adapted from food.com 
Makes approx. one dozen rounds

Ingredients:

1.5 cups warm water (105-115 F, basically hot tap water)
2 tsp rapid rise yeast
1 tsp sugar or other sweetener
1.5 cups white whole wheat flour
1.3 cups all purpose unbleached flour
1 tsp salt
2 tsp olive or coconut oil
Optional: sesame seeds, ground peppercorn or hot pepper flakes

Directions:

Whisk water, yeast, and sugar together in large bowl and let sit for about 5 minutes.  You will know the yeast was activated if you see small bubbles forming along the edges of the mixture.  If the water was too hot or cold the yeast will not activate.

Stir in the flour, salt any optional spices now or save them to sprinkle on right before cooking.

Knead the dough a dozen turns or so right in the bowl adding more flour if it's too sticky.  The dough should be quite soft and almost sticky yet workable with floured hands.

Pour  2 tsp oil in a clean bowl, form dough into a ball and place over oil.  Turn dough ball around in the bowl a bit to coat in oil then place a damp cloth (or plastic wrap) over the bowl and let set in warm place for 30 minutes to rise.

When dough has risen place on a floured working surface.  Pull golf ball size pieces off and shape with lightly floured hands into 5-6 inch wide rounds.  You may also use a rolling pin at this point if you find it easier.

Cook naan rounds on an electric griddle heated to 400 degrees for 1-2 minutes on each side and parts are starting to brown.  I rarely use oil during grilling but have brushed on ghee afterwards if I am eating them fresh that day.

Store:

As with all homemade bread it goes downhill fast after a few days in the pantry.  One word: mold.  So if I am storing my naan for later I let cool completely on the counter then place in the fridge in a gallon ziploc bag.  If it's going to be longer then several days I place the bag in the freezer.  To reheat just pop in the microwave or oven for a few seconds/minutes. 

  

Basic Hummus

Not having a food processor anymore made me a little intimidated to try hummus in a blender but it worked.  I made five jars of it this week.  All at once and into the freezer they went.  Here is a great basic recipe over at The Kitchn.  If you have a food processor I recommend adding a roasted red pepper to your mix.  Or fresh spinach, garlic and herbs.  And if you know what's good for you will take that herby spinach garlic hummus and put it in the oven with cheese on top.  Drool, slurp.  Where am I?  Back to the boring basic hummus.

Because I store my easy beans with the liquid I use the liquid a tablespoon at a time to thin the hummus up to a desired creaminess in the blender.  Don't worry, my hummus wasn't too boring.  I added cumin to one batch, chipotle powder to the next, and just bought some ground sumac for next time.

If you don't have tahini paste no worries, it works without also.

Eat it, freeze it, put it on sandwiches, in your kids lunches, with veggies, by the spoonful.  Oh you get the point.  We've tried all of the above.

 

Homemade Apple Dippers

Apples in a lunchbox never seemed practical to me.  They turn brown cut up and are no fun to eat whole.  While it sounds really lazy... ok, it is really lazy... I hate to use and wash my apple cutter if I'm only cutting one apple.

Recently I've started soaking the slices in a mixture of water and lemon juice and it's changed my whole outlook.  I buy a 2 pound bag of apples.  I spray them with a mixture of 1/2 white vinegar and half water kept in a spray bottle at my sink, rub them around a bit and then rinse.  Then I cut the whole batch with an apple cutter.  Next I soak them for about 10 minutes in a bowl filled with 1 TB lemon juice per one cup ice cold water.  After a quick drain I place them in a gallon ziploc bag, press all the air out, and leave them in the fridge up to 5 days!


  

If I also make a dip the apples don't last near five days in the fridge before disappearing. 

Peanut Butter Yogurt Dip

1/2 cup whole milk unsweetened yogurt
1/4 cup natural peanut butter
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp honey

Mix all the ingredients and serve cold with apples, celery or pretzels.  My kids dip carrots in it too, but I think that's taking it one step too far.  Eww.

 

Food Prep– Frozen Muffin Batter

If you give a moose a muffin... You know the story . Some mornings I feel like I have a herd of moose in my house. I couldn't keep up on the muffin front. I wanted leftover muffins for snacks and lunches without having to bake 100 muffins and then gag on the leftover banana smell in the pantry.

And then I came across a golden tidbit while reading Money Saving Mom.  You can freeze muffin batter raw!  It works, we've tried it.  

Just whip up your favorite muffin recipe and fill your greased or lined muffin tins as usual.  Place the whole pan in the freezer until the muffins are frozen solid.  Then pop them out and place in a freezer bag up to three months.  When you are ready to bake just add another 5 minutes or so.  Alternately you could place them in the pan to defrost in the fridge overnight and bake as usual in the morning.

We made a double batch of Whole Wheat Blueberry Muffins (minus some sugar) this morning. Baked one pan and froze the other for later.

Fly Guy has 1.5 hours to get to the airport when he's called on reserve.  As soon as that phone rings one of us can pop in some muffins which will be waiting fresh when he heads out the door.  Oh my meese are going to love me! 

Two Ingredient Carry On Cookies

I've been hooked on different variations of these two ingredient cookies ever since they made their debut on The Burlap Bag. 

It's just ripe bananas, oats, and if you want a handful of a mix-ins.  When I say ripe I mean there should be a few brown spots on the skins of those nanners.

Ingredients

2 bananas
1 cup regular oats
Optional: 1/2 cup add-ins such as nuts or dried fruit

Directions

Heat the oven to 350 and spray a cookie sheet with oil.

Mash the bannans and oats together however you please but I choose to use a pastry cutter .  Add a few tablespoons applesauce if it's too dry or more oats if it's too wet.

Stir in your optional mix ins.  Not much more than 1/2 cup or things start to fall apart.I used chopped walnuts and 1/2 tsp of cinnamon.

Drop by small spoonfuls on your greased cookie sheet and slightly flatten.  They come out of the oven in the same shape they went in.

Bake for 12-18 minutes.

I'm packing for Fly Guy's four day trip that starts tomorrow and his cooler is going to be tight.  Not to worry, I've found space in his flight bag.  If you see an unusually good looking pilot carrying a bag with a 'fly' sticker in an airport near you.  He has cookies.  I bet he'd share.

Fruit in the Bottom Yogurt Cup

In the fight against sugar I have outlawed pre-sweetened yogurt in our house.  Nothing against sweet, I just want more control over it.  So this week I made up some fruity yogurt cups that are so good they just became my new dessert.

For the Fruit

It's summer and fruit is dirt cheap in the stores right now.  Make up this sauce and put the extra in the freezer for later.

2 cups berries
Juice and zest from one half lemon
A few squirts of honey

Puree half your berries in a blender and roughly chop the other half with a knife (if using large berries).  Toss all the ingredients in a saucepan.  Bring to a boil over medium high heat then simmer for 5 minutes.  If the sauce is to runny just keep simmering until it thickens.  Add a few spoonfuls of water or juice if it's too thick.  The honey and lemon are really adjustable to taste.  Just depends on the ripeness of berry.  This sauce is also divine over pancakes...

Yogurt

I'm picky.  Currently Trader Joe's Organic Full Fat PlainYogurt is my obsession of choice.  Worth all 299 pennies it costs me.

Topping

One more karate chop to sugar!  I'm trading out granola for toasted oats.  Just pack them separately and sprinkle on right before eating.  How to Toast Oats.